Response to Youth
from The Honorable Joe Fontana, Minister of Labor
and Housing, Canadian Government
Letter
from Kailash Satyarthi to the Children of the World
Subject: Worldwide Movement,
Children for Peace and Peace for Children
April 5, 2005
My Dear Friends,
I want to share a thought, which has been going on
in my mind for quite some time now, I have already
briefly shared it with some of my young colleagues
who have been liberated through our efforts from servitude
and child labor and are now receiving education. I
am writing this letter in personal capacity, and not
as Chair of Global March Against Child labor or President
of Global Campaign for Education.
During last couple of years, I have personally come
across some incidents, which have inspired me to build
this idea. An Indian girl from a displaced family
during the recent Indo-Pak conflict from a border
village was not only compelled to leave her schooling,
as schools were turned into military camps, but also
lost her younger brother to war. Since then, she has
been acutely traumatised and whenever she hears the
noise of artillery shells she looses consciousness.
She asked innocently, “Is there any way we can
save our childhood and get rid of the war?”
I, also, met a 15-year-old young Sudanese boy, who
was forcibly kidnapped by the extremist army, and
forced to kill some of his friends and relatives as
his first training lesson on way to become a child
soldier. The boy still has one hope that a day will
come when no one will be forced to kill their dear
ones. And, he asked me how it would be possible.
A 7-year-old daughter of one of my American friends
living in Washington, DC, shared a frightening recurrent
nightmare she had. She would get up in the middle
of the night in shock fearing that terrorists entered
her house and tried to kill her family.
Two years back at the Children’s Parliament
on Education in New Delhi, an 11-year-old girl, innocently
questioned the audience, “Why so many guns and
bombs are manufactured when we don’t have enough
toys and books?”
All these incidents pose a serious question in our
efforts towards the eradication of child labor and
to ensure free and quality education for all children.
Children are not responsible for war, yet it robs
them of their childhood. Wars and conflicts leave
a trail of destruction behind them, especially for
the innocent children caught in the line of fire.
About 300,000 children are engaged in active combat
at any time in the world, while hundreds of thousands
of children and families are displaced. Similarly,
hundreds of thousands are compelled to leave schooling,
as schools are either functioning as relief shelters
or have been converted into military camps. Nearly
2 million of your brothers and sisters have been killed
in the last decade due to armed conflict, while nearly
6 million have been injured! Explosive remnants of
war, including abandoned weapons and landmines, kill
and maim thousands of children every year. Sexual
violence, including rape, mutilation, exploitation
and abuse, is a consciously deployed weapon of war
often escalating child prostitution, largely victimising
girls. War and HIV/AIDS too have a relation. When
war erupts in an area already affected with HIV/AIDS
the effect is catastrophic. With scant regards for
the lives of children, child trafficking too gets
a boost during war; children are abducted and trafficked
within the state and across states to serve in the
armies or for money. The global military spending
forms the largest spending in the world at $956 billion
in annual expenditure. Three day of this military
spending can provide education for all children. Ironically,
this expenditure is increasing with increase in the
number of weapons and arms.
I strongly feel that we cannot sit idle and wait
for more destruction of childhood. I have always counted
on children and young friends. Your synergy, moral
strength and conviction, which we have witnessed in
our entire struggle in the last two and half decades,
are our greatest strengths. The success of Global
March lies in the active participation and leadership
of many of you and your brothers and sisters. Similarly,
in the Global Campaign for Education, children’s
participation generated enormous moral force to influence
the governments to act.
It is time for us to act. The mass movement where
the children and youth are in the forefront is the
only answer in my opinion to demand for a peaceful
world for children. Peace must not remain a passive
issue for discussion or occasional manifestation;
it must be made an on-going movement where children
and youth take the lead.
When we marched across the streets in 103 countries
for six months, the world was astounded to see the
courage, commitment and dynamism of young people,
victims of slavery, drudgery, child labor, prostitution,
etc. And, the result was that child labor emerged
as a universal issue in the global agenda, and the
international community had to unanimously agree to
the international laws to stop the worst forms of
child labor.
I stoutly believe that if the national governments
spend so much money on defence, how the eradication
of child labor and free quality education for all,
would become their priority. How can we achieve the
goals of combating worst forms of child labor, gender
equality, poverty reduction and education for all
by 2015, which have been promised to us, unless we
guarantee peace as the birth/basic right for all children?
I call upon you to suggest, whether we should organize
another Global March to demand peace for children;
demand an end to all kinds of violence, conflict,
insurgencies, terrorism and wars. We can plan such
a march in the beginning of 2007 to build a worldwide
movement of youth and children for peace or peace
for children that will help not only in putting an
end to child labor and illiteracy but, also, to build
a better and beautiful tomorrow. You can share this
letter with your friends, colleagues and organizations,
and take their opinion and reply to me at the earliest.
Best wishes,
Kailash Satyarthi
'Send
my friend to school 'campaign’
April 25, 2005
Young people in South Africa and millions of children
in more than 100 countries will join together this
week to protest world leaders’ failure to meet
a major UN target on girls’ education this year
– a failure they say will lead to greater poverty
and unnecessary child deaths.
Five years ago, governments of the world promised
to get equal numbers of girls as boys into school
by 2005. The target – the first of all the UN’s
Millennium Development Goals to fall due - will be
missed, and experts believe that a second Millennium
target for giving every child a quality primary education
is also at risk.
Describing lack of progress on the education goals
as ‘scandalous’, Global Campaign for Education
– South Africa a coalitions of mainly education
/ development NGO’s and Unions joining with
the Global Campaign for Education to mobilize children,
teachers and activists to demand faster action by
the government and its international partners.
As part of the GCE’s ‘Send my Friend
to School’ campaign from April 24-30, children
will be presenting politicians, cabinet ministers
and even heads of state with colourful cardboard cut-outs,
or “friends”, each of which represents
one of the more than 100 million children out of school.
A million cut-out ‘friends’, collected
from around the world, will be delivered to G8 leaders
at the G8 Summit in Scotland in July. From April 24,
members of the public can also make an online ‘friend’
at www.sendmyfriend.info.
Girls education is the key to ending world poverty.
2005 marks the year that world leaders have broken
their promise to get equal numbers of girls and boys
into school. I support the Global Campaign for Education’s
call to educate girls to end poverty and call on world
leaders to respond to calls from children around the
world to 'send my friend to school” said Graca
Machel, human rights activist and wife of Nelson Mandela,
while making her own ‘friend’ as part
of the campaign.
Mr. Mandela delivered his own rallying cry to young
people around the world when he met children involved
in the Send my Friend to School campaign: "Sometimes
it falls upon a generation to be great. You can be
that great generation." Children from all corners
of South Africa will be rising to the challenge set
by Mr. Mandela and showing their solidarity with the
more than 100 million children around the world and
860 million illiterate adults who have been denied
their fundamental right to learning, most of whom
are girls and women. Rose Nzikula from Mozambique
(age 15) and now living in South Africa’s experience
resonates with hundreds of thousands of children in
South Africa and adults who are denied a quality education.
Some like Jerry Molefe who was a child laborer from
age 8 and until age 11 was
luckier as Campaign member Sithabile Child and Youth
Care Centre assisted to get him into school. He graduates
from college this year.
Kailash Satyarthi, GCE chairperson, said: "Enabling
girls to attend school is literally a matter of life
and death. Education, especially for girls and women,
is the best way to break the cycle of ill health,
hunger and poverty. Without it we can’t achieve
the Millennium Development Goals. World Bank research
shows that this year alone, one million additional
children will die unnecessarily, because governments
failed to meet the 2005 target for girls’ education.”
WHAT IS THE GCE:
• The Global Campaign for Education (GCE) is
a broad coalition of development and education research
agencies and unions, representing organizations active
in over 100 countries. Members include Oxfam, Action
Aid, Save the Children, PLAN, World Vision, as well
as Education International, which represents all Teachers’
Unions around the world. The GCE’s aim is for
every child in the world to get a quality education.
For more information see: www.campaignforeducation.org
EVENTS DURING THE GLOBAL ACTION WEEK:
• During the Week of Action, 24-30 April, various
events will be held including visits by children to
their national parliaments to present their cut-out
‘friends’, and “Politicians going
back to school”, when Members of Parliament
will visit classrooms and to meet children and their
‘friends’. As well as marches and rallies
to Parliament Buildings with ‘friends’.
An estimated 1 million children in 100 countries around
the world will take part in the Week of Action in
2005.
‘Friends’ collected from across Niger
will be presented by children to the Prime Minister
Hama Amadou.
In Peru, out-of-school children will present their
‘friends’ to the President of the Republic,
Pres Alejandro Toledo.
In Ghana, both the President and Vice President are
set to meet with ‘friends’. The Action
Week will be kick-started with a national launch by
the Vice President of the Republic of Ghana, attended
by Ministers and children and culminate on 29 April
when a delegation of children and their ‘friends’
will meet the President.
In Spain, three female politicians, from the three
main political parties in Spain will be going ‘back
to school’ together One of these ‘pupils’
will be the Education Minister, María Jesús
Sansegundo.
Delhi students
remind MPs of their duty
April 30, 2005
New Delhi: Scores of students knocked on the doors
of several members of parliament on Friday morning
to remind them of their duty towards the 36 million
children still reportedly out of school.
Under the guidance of Bachpan Bachao Andolan, a Non
Governmental Organization working for child rights,
the students visited the residents of the MPs at South
Avenue in the capital and requested them to raise
the issues at the ongoing budget session of the parliament.
"We want the government take steps to ensure
that our fellow children who are working in brick-clins
or in hotels are taken to schools. For us it's time
of getting education, not work.
The government must take care of this," said
one of the students in the group.
Bahcpan Bachao Andolan has mobilized these students
as a part of the Global Action Week for Education,
an annual mobilization event organized by the Global
Campaign for Education (GCE) across the world, from
24th to 30th April.
The GCE is a trans-national alliance of NGOs, trade
unions, teachers' unions, churches and faith based
organizations, which have come together with the objective
of advocating changes in policy and practice in education.
"The children are knocking at the doors of MPs,
just reminding them that whatever you have promised
for the time and again, what has been clearly spelled
out in Indian Constitution, what ever have been committed
in the amendment, making education a fundamental right
of the students, should be enforced. Children can
not wait any more," said Kailash Satyarthi, President,
Bachpan Bachao Andolan.
There were mixed response form the legislators to
the campaign. While most of them promised to raise
the demands of the students at the parliament, there
were a few who did not comment or refused to promise
anything. Rubab Sayeeda, an MP from Uttar Pradesh
opined that actions have been taken to ensure that
there's no one left out of school, but because of
the enormity, the process will take time.
"Most children nowadays are getting educated.
But most of the facilities required are not available
to all. So the first priority of the government should
be to ensure this. We are working in this direction.
But since the problem is so vast, it will take some
time," said Rubab Sayeeda. Right to free and
compulsory education was declared a fundamental right
for children in the age group of six to 14 years by
the 93rd amendment of the constitution in 2001. The
amendment direct the State to ensure free and compulsory
Education to children in 14-18 age group within a
specified time
period, instead of including children in 0-6 age group
in this clause. In spite of that, as Bachpan Bachao
Andolan claimed, every day about five core girl children
below the age of 16 are forced one of school, to work
in inhuman conditions. About two third of the children
out of school are girls. (ANI)
Source: http://news.webindia123.com/news/showdetails.asp?id=80161&cat=India
Clear View of Paradise
By Tilly Philbrick, student, Connecticut, USA
April 7, 2005
Countless faces of small children swirl around our
car,
Innocent,
Unaware,
Floating around us like trails of smoke from the village
fire.
Wealth is to them my disease,
My white skin, a symptom,
But they are willing to cure me.
One girl takes my hand in hers,
A rich dusk enriching a pale cloudy day.
“Tus ojos están nublados,” she
tells me,
Your eyes are clouded.
At first I pity them,
Her bleak clothes worn to the point stains no longer
show,
She leads me quickly over the rocky shore, barefoot,
Eyeing my shoes and giggling,
I am too dressed up she says.
Bleakness sabotages her rich interior,
Black hair cascades from her scalp, reflecting the
light naturally, beautifully,
She turns quickly to me and unveils a smile,
A smile of pleasant company.
Her eyes,
Pure, translucent, yet black,
Not plagued with money or flattery,
Or clouded with argument and desire,
Endless and free.
And catching the sun,
I realize now she is not poor as I assumed,
No she is rich.
Rich with anticipation for the tamarindo juice her
mother makes from the native fruits of the surrounding
rain forest,
With the responsibility of grinding the corn for her
grandmother,
And acting as mama for her baby brother,
Delighted with his smiles.
But there is more,
She is full with the love and trust from her community,
her family at large,
With the reeds her first doll was birthed with,
And the bright flowers picked every fall to bring
back pleasant memories of the deceased,
Rich with the smiles and thankfulness her community
shows each and everyday for the riches they have.
Rich with culture.
She stops at the edge of the river,
Motioning me to sit down beside her,
I’m ashamed my clothes fit and are in one piece,
She cups her hands, expecting me to follow,
Drinking the murky river water, rinsing her face,
sitting back and smiling,
The same way I would after a 4-course meal,
She is disappointed when I do not follow,
But smiles anyway,
As her bare feet,
And faded dress with 4 buttons missing, and 3 holes
are blessings.
I try to do the same but I cannot,
Me in my Capri-pants and orange T-shirt,
With all the buttons and zippers brand new.
Qatar to Use Robots As Camel Riders
By Tarek Al-Issawi, Associated Press Writer
April 20, 2005
With the reins in one hand and a whip in the other,
the purple-jerseyed rider prodded a camel around the
track. But this jockey wasn't the usual underfed boy.
The jockey was a robot.
Under the watchful eyes of his Swiss developer and
Qatari owners, the robot — dubbed Kamel —
rode a racing camel for 1.5 miles, reaching speeds
of 25 miles per hour in a non-competitive trial run.
By 2007, rulers of this energy-rich emirate say all
camel racers will be mechanical.
The developer, Alexandre Colot of the Swiss robotics
firm K-Team, wasn't as impressed as the rest of the
crowd.
"I wasn't surprised," Colot said, as he
walked toward the camel to unstrap Kamel and put him
in a box for the night. "I've seen him do that
before, so to me, it's not something strange."
Camel racing has deep roots in the traditions of
Gulf Arabs and their survival in this barren and once
poor and isolated land. Races are grueling contests
of endurance and take place on oval courses as long
as 10 kilometers. Betting is banned but lucrative
purses are put forward by corporate or tribal sponsors.
Spurring the robots' development has been vehement
condemnation from human rights groups of the sport's
regular jockeys. Activists say there are about 40,000
boy jockeys, some as young as 4, who are either bought
from their parents or kidnapped from their home countries
and taken to the Gulf to ride. The boys live in bleak
conditions and are underfed before races to keep their
weight down.
In Qatar, ruling sheiks have responded to calls for
banning the use of boy jockeys by embracing robots
as the best solution.
Sheik Abdullah bin Saud, the Qatari official in charge
of the project, said the plan is to keep developing
the robot until it is ready to take over.
"Improve the speed, the weight, the aerodynamics,
to reach the ultimate goal of completely phasing out
children used as jockeys," Sheik Abdullah said.
The project began in January last year, when K-Team
sent a group to study camel races in Doha.
"We came to Doha with only a digital camera,"
Colot said. "We took detailed shots of the jockeys
riding the camels, to capture every possible movement
and reaction by the jockeys that occurs during the
race."
The result was a robot that receives commands from
a remote control up to a half-mile away.
A camel handler follows the rider in a vehicle and
uses a joystick on the laptop-sized remote to issue
four instructions: forward, backward, sideways and
whip action. The robot, in turn, uses those commands
to drive the camel.
The 60-pound robot is also equipped with a global
positioning system satellite beacon and shock absorbers
for the rough ride.
To prevent camels from rejecting the robots, handlers
spray their jerseys with traditional perfume used
by trainers.
"It was important for us that the camel recognizes
and accepts the robot, so we had to make him as human
as possible," said Colot.
"We can't stop these races. They are part of
our history and tradition, so we have tried to find
an alternative," Sheik Abdullah said.
Race organizers plan to have 20 riding robots ready
when racing season starts in October. Sheik Abdullah
said plans are underway to set up an assembly plant,
a maintenance center and a training institute for
robot users.
Sheik Abdullah and Colot said camel racing enthusiasts
were skeptical that robots could ride as well as boys,
worrying that the machines would ruin the lucrative
sport, where winners claim purses of hundreds of thousands
of dollars.
"We've proved that it works," said Colot.
"It will take time, and we'll train some of them
to use the robot by June."
The Swiss engineer said that initial results show
that robots may soon become the preferred jockeys,
not just a second-best alternative.
"We're 10 seconds slower than the fastest time
recorded for a 5-kilometer race," he said.
Source: http://story.news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050420/ap_on_hi_te/qatar_robot_jockeys&printer=1
Embroidery units trap childhood
in dark rooms for hours: 82 rescued from embroidery
unit on Saturday, 43 last week
By Aditya Kaul
April 11, 2005
New Delhi: ANIL Kumar came down to Delhi from his
native Sitamarhi in Bihar three months back. Penury
had forced this eight-year-old to come to the city
in search of work. ‘‘I have an elder sister.
How will I get her married?’’ he says.
Five-year-old Chandan, also from Sitamarhi, lost
his mother a couple of years back. His father went
to Nepal and never returned. The responsibility of
his ailing, bed-ridden grandmother and younger brother
fell on his young shoulders.
Brought to Delhi on the promise of providing education
and employment, the two young boys were made to work
in inhuman conditions. They are among the 82 children
who were rescued on Sunday from an embroidery unit
in Badarpur.
Last week Delhi Police’s Special Cell had rescued
43 children from Sarita Vihar. The team found that
20-25 children were cramped in a small room and made
to work for 10-15 hours. And the money promised never
came their way.
Instead, the children were harassed and threatened
by the employers.
‘‘My family was under a debt of Rs 9,000
and the person who brought me here promised that he
would pay me Rs 2,000 per month and give medicines
too,’’ said eight-year-old Mahesh, also
a native of Bihar.
Under constant threat by their employers, the children
are scared to speak the truth. Police officials said
the children were allegedly threatened and abused
by the employers during their stay at the unit. ‘‘In
the name of meals, they were given rice and potatoes.
Sometimes the food was not even enough for all of
them,’’ said a senior police officer.
Six-year-old Mukesh wanted to go back to his family
in Bihar. ‘‘Whenever I expressed my desire
to go home, they abused me and said that ‘police
will catch you if you tried to run’.’’
At the unit, the children did mirror work on garments
which were later supplied in the markets.
There are around 5,000 such embroidery units across
the Capital where young children are employed. In
many units raided by police recently, it was found
that the children were not allowed out of the rooms
and were asked to relieve themselves, cook, eat and
work all in the same room.
‘Every fifth kid in Capital is a child laborer’.
According to a census, there are almost 50,000 child
laborers in Delhi. ‘‘Every fifth child
in the Capital is a child laborer. There are almost
two lakh child laborers in the Capital. More than
half of them are employed with the embroidery units,’’
said Kailash Satyarthi, chairman, Bachpan Bachao Andolan.
Most of these units are spread in areas like Kalkaji,
Govindpuri, Okhla Industrial Area, Badarpur, Kotla
Mubarakpur, Sarai Kale Khan, Seelampur and Tughlakabad.
According to figures provided by the Labor Welfare
Department, 121 children were rescued last year. This
year, already 159 have been rescued.
Source: http://cities.expressindia.com/fullstory.php?newsid=124637
UNICEF, Government and NGOs
unite for the children of Brazil’s most impoverished
region: A National Accord will help improve living
conditions for nearly 11 million boys and girls
April 6, 2005
BRASILIA– Cabinet ministers, state governors,
mayors, NGO and business leaders today launched an
unprecedented National Accord to improve the lives
of some of the country’s most impoverished and
excluded children.
Entitled “A World for Children and Adolescents”,
the initiative will focus on providing support to
poor children and families in Brazil’s Northeast
or “semi-arid” region, launching a “Seal
of Approval” that will be awarded to municipalities
meeting a series of child-friendly criteria.
At the launch in Petrolina and Juazeiro, participants
reviewed the dramatic situation prevailing in the
vast northeast of Brazil – an area the size
of Colombia -- as well as concrete measures needed
to improve the lives of some 11 million children and
enable them to enjoy their rights. Education, nutrition,
culture, social and political participation, diversity
and human rights were the major topics of the panels
and debates.
Tomorrow, 7 April, a concert will be held to celebrate
the National Accord, with UNICEF Goodwill Ambassadors
Renato Aragao and Daniela Mercury. Daniela will perform
a special song selection with tunes related to the
semi-arid. The concert will highlight the cultural
heritage of the region and will be accompanied by
popular and local artists and will talk about the
responsibility of the rest of Brazil to help the region
develop.
The “World for Children and Adolescents”
initiative is supported by Brazil’s Federal
Government, the governments of nine departments of
the northeast, Minas Gerais and Espiritu Santo, a
range of national and local organizations, as well
as UNICEF.
The UNICEF Municipal Seal of Approval will encourage
mayors to give top priority to children and youth
and to adopt policies to reduce child mortality, child
labor and illiteracy among adolescents. Local authorities
will also be recognized for promoting vaccination
campaigns, prenatal care, increased school attendance,
among other measures. The municipalities achieving
the greatest improvements for children will be recognized
by UNICEF at the end of 2006.
Around 26 million people – 11 million of them
children -- live in the Brazilian “semi-arid”
region, distributed in 1,500 municipalities in the
departments of Alagoas, Bahia, Ceará, Espírito
Santo, Maranhão, Minas Gerais, Paraíba,
Pernambuco, Piauí, Rio Grande del Norte and
Sergipe. Seventy-five per cent of the children –
more than 8 million – are living in poverty
(the national average is 45 per cent), and the mortality
rate in 95 per cent of the municipalities is higher
than the national average.
Source: http://www.noticias.info/asp/aspComunicados.asp?nid=56881&src=0
President Bush Seeks $12.4
Million in FY06 for International Labor Efforts would
cover advocating for world standards, U.S. official
says
April 5, 2005, American Patriot News
The Bush administration is requesting from Congress
$12.4 million in funding for the fiscal year beginning
October 1 (FY06) for the Department of Labor to conduct
research, develop international labor policy and advocate
for improved adherence to international labor standards,
a top department official says.
Testifying April 5 before a House of Representatives
Appropriations subcommittee, Arnold Levine, of the
department's International Labor Affairs Bureau (ILAB),
said the funding would allow Labor to advance the
administration's foreign policy priorities in international
labor, including efforts to promote free trade.
With that money, he said, the department could carry
out research to fulfill reporting requirements of
the Trade and Development Act of 2000 and Trade Act
of 2002 and manage on-going projects aimed at promoting
core labor standards and eliminating exploitive child
labor. Levine is the ILAB deputy under secretary.
ILAB continues to work closely with other U.S. agencies
such as the Department of State, the U.S. Agency for
International Development, and the Office of the U.S.
Trade Representative to develop assistance programs
to help ensure compliance with the labor provisions
of U.S. free trade agreements (FTAs), Levine said.
The bureau also will continue to participate in negotiations
of FTAs with the Andean countries, Oman, Panama, the
South African Customs Union (South Africa, Botswana,
Lesotho, Namibia and Swaziland), Thailand and the
United Arab Emirates, he said.
Such testimony is the first step in the long process
of passing a spending bill in Congress. To become
law a final version of a bill must be passed by both
the House and Senate and then signed by the president.
Source: http://www.allamericanpatriots.com/m-news+article+storyid-8844-PHPSESSID-89f6191b2122873134d2635fffcb3cfa.html
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