An Evening Dedicated
To Childhood on WDACL in India
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The World Day Against Child Labor (June 12, 2005)
was celebrated in India with a Pankaj Udhas musical
show, An Evening Dedicated to Childhood (Ek Shaam
Bachpan Ke Naam), organized by Bachpan Bachao Andolan
(BBA), Global March core partner in India. Pankaj
Udhas, a noted ghazal (musical) maestro, is also the
Goodwill Ambassador for BBA.
An audience of more than three thousand had gathered
for the show. The guest list included former Information
and Broadcasting Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, religious
guru Sri Sudhanshu, among many other notable Parliamentarians,
Academicians, Human Rights Activists and Industrialists.
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In his opening note, Global March and BBA Chairperson
Kailash Satyarthi’s relating his experience
with Pao, a Cambodian Child Core Marcher, a former
child prostitute during the physical Global March
said, “Pao asked me, ‘Am I still a child?’
When I said yes, she broke down on my shoulders and
cried. There are 250 million children like Pao across
the world who have lost a sense of their childhood.
We need to act now to restore their childhood”.
Further, Mr Satyarthi narrated how the world for the
first time took notice of the power of child participation,
when on June 12, 1998, a strong group of 250 child
and adult core marchers stormed the well of ILO Headquarters
in Geneva. It was a first for children to be present
at the ILO, and this heralded the drafting of the
ILO Convention 182 on Worst Forms of Child Labor.
June 12, since 2002, is being celebrated across the
world as the World Day Against Child Labor.
The show went much beyond the traditional purview
of a fundraiser, into the realms of resource mobilization.
It was a platform to take the issue of child labor,
into the corporate working class, that had not been
targeted at such a large scale. Reaching out to this
untapped segment of society as well as the corporate
sector is among one of the first of its kind on the
issue of child rights in India.
ALL IN
A DAY'S WORK: Mandela's grandson praises students
for caring
QUINCY - Local students involved in a world service
program that builds schools in poor countries were
rewarded with a visit and words of encouragement yesterday
from Prince Cedza Dlamini, the grandson of Nelson
Mandela and a member of the royal family of Swaziland.
Dressed in traditional Swahili attire, Dlamini was
in Quincy to talk to students from Broad Meadows Middle
School, North Quincy High School, Quincy High School
and Archbishop Williams High School in Braintree who
are involved in Operation Day's Work. The national
student-run program includes 23 schools, four of them
on the South Shore, that raise money each year to
build a school in a developing country.
This year, students raised money for a new school
in Vietnam. Broad Meadows Middle School was one of
the eight schools that began the program in 1997.
Dlamini, a student at Tufts University in Medford,
congratulated students and their teachers yesterday
at Thomas Crane Public Library in Quincy.
‘‘One does not have to be born into a
certain family to be a leader,'' he said. ‘‘What
matters is what you do with what you have. Whether
you're a prince or pauper, you can make a difference.''
Dlamini is promoting the Millennium Development Goals,
established in 2000 by the United Nations. The goals
are to eradicate poverty, disease and infant mortality
by 2015, and to raise literacy rates, gender equality,
maternal health and environmental sustainability in
developing nations.
Dlamini said education is the key to achieving the
goals, but that not enough young people are aware
of worldwide problems. But that isn't the case among
local students involved in Operation Day's Work.
‘‘It takes a little bit of time and a
big heart to make a difference,'' Kristen Bloomer,
a Broad Meadows eighth-grader, said.
‘‘ Rita Wang, a recent graduate of North
Quincy High School, said, ‘‘If we all
do a little, it will add up to a lot.''
The students made Dlamini an honorable member of their
service organization. Dlamini said he was grateful
for the honor and very humbled.
Ron Adams, a seventh-grade language arts teacher at
Broad Meadows and the faculty supervisor of the program,
described the afternoon ceremony as ‘‘simply
an A-plus.''
James Furbush may be reached at jfurbush@ledger.com.
Copyright 2005 The Patriot Ledger
Transmitted Thursday, June 09, 2005
Child
Soldiers in Sierra Leone
22 June 2005
With over a decade of conflict in Sierra Leone, many
children have been touched by the violations of war.
They have lost their homes, their family and suffered
physical and psychological abuse. Among those who
suffered the most are thousands of child soldiers.
Children who have spent time in combat in Sierra Leone
are usually brutalized and severely traumatized. Through
its Youth Empowerment Programme, Trócaire and
its local partner Caritas Makeni are providing former
child soldiers with healthcare, education and counseling.
Training workshops are organized to help the youths
develop new skills in areas of their choice, such
as agriculture, carpentry and tailoring. Thousands
of former child soldiers have been given the chance
of a new life thanks to Trócaire and Caritas
Makeni.
Hassan's Story
Hassan Samura (14) was a child soldier in Sierra Leone
for six years. Up to 10,000 children were involved
in the decade long conflict in Sierra Leone which
finally ended in February 2002.During his first mission,
he was ordered to kill six Guinean prisoners of war.
He knew one of them and refused to kill him. He was
told that if he failed to obey this command, he too
would be killed. Hassan tried to escape three times
but each time the young boy was caught and severely
beaten. He explained, “I decided later to stay
with them and save my life”. Hassan was given
cocaine before battle and was forced to carry out
horrific killings and mutilations on civilians and
military personnel. Thankfully, he is now free and
has been reunited with his family through the work
of Trócaire’s partner, Caritas Makeni.
Source: Trocaire
June 15
2005: Forced Labor by Ted Koppel
ABC News
WASHINGTON, June 15, 2005 -- Two hundred and forty-six
million kids working under conditions of forced labor?
I don't know where they come up with those numbers;
but, for the sake of argument, let's say they're off
by half.
Assume that there are merely 123 million children
making bricks, toting heavy baskets of stone, diving
for shrimp, picking coffee beans or onions for pennies
a day. You'd think we could summon the same level
of outrage that we generate over whales, dolphins
and baby seals. The children, after all, are no more
capable of speaking up on their own behalves as any
of those other creatures.
It wouldn't require a military invasion or even intervention
in the internal affairs of another country. Just a
little research. Anything produced by child labor,
slave labor or a combination of the two is unfit for
the American market. (And, incidentally, that means
cleaning up our own mess at home first. Those migrant
children working on our ranches and farms belong in
school.)
I understand the equation. All of us consumers love
a bargain. Some cheap labor, though, is just too expensive
to tolerate.
Northern Region celebrates World Day Against
Child Labor
Sagnerigu (NR), June 21, GNA - Mr Nelson Sulemana
Nyadia, Livelihoods and Advocacy Manager of Regional
Advisory Information and Network Systems (RAINS)/Campaign
for Female Education, a non-governmental organisation
dedicated to providing humanitarian services to communities
has called local communities, district assemblies
and development agencies to curb the menace of child
labour. He said despite education to eliminate child
labour and trafficking, policy makers continue to
grapple with the problem because some community leaders
and other stakeholders had not committed themselves
to fight the menace.
Mr Nyadia was addressing the chief and people of
Sagnerigu, a farming community near Tamale, at the
Northern Regional launch of the World Day Against
Child Labor (WDACL) at the weekend. The occasion was
meant to sensitise the public on the dangers involved
in engaging children in hazardous work and how chiefs
and other community leaders in the area could assist
to eliminate child labor from the region.
RAINS/CAMFED organized the forum with sponsorship
from International Labor Organization (ILO)/International
Programme on the Elimination of Child Labor (IPEC)
as a means of fighting child labor issues particularly
from the quarries. Mr Nyadia said more than 2,000
children were engaged in child labor in the three
northern regions with large numbers in the quarries
and surface mining communities of the Upper East Region
and called on district assemblies to commit themselves
to the fight against it.
Mr Iddrisu Dajia, the Northern Regional Commissioner
of the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative
Justice (CHRAJ), said it was important for child rights
advocates to use enough forums to educate the public
about the rights of children especially to education
and the need to avoid engaging children in exploitative
labor. He said child molestation issues in the Northern
Region was as a result of the negligence of some parents
to educate their children and the love for material
gain and called for a change in the trend.
Mr Dajia said it was sad that Ghana was the first
in the sub-Saharan region to ratify the UN Convention
on the Rights of the Child but could not fight child
rights issues in the country. He appealed to the public
to continue to regard children as the greatest resource
of the nation and take good care of them to grow into
good adults to develop the country.
The Sagnarigu Naa, Dr. Andani Andam in a speech read
on his behalf, expressed worry that some people in
the Northern Region always use poverty as a basis
for not enrolling their children in school and advised
the communities to send their children to school.
He expressed concern about shepherd boys and stressed
the need to withdraw them from the bush and enrol
them in schools to ensure that no one was left out
of the educational race. Dr Andam said child rights
abuse cases were rampant in Sagnerigu and that the
launch would change the people's attitude towards
child molestation particularly child trafficking,
shepherding and the Kayayee (porters) phenomenon.
Source: GNA
Lightening the load of child miners
By Clare Matheson
BBC News business reporter
Sudha in Nepal helps boost her family's small earnings
from farming by working as a stone crusher, providing
material to build roads near her home - a job she
began when she was 12. Her job helps lift her family's
income to a combined 1,400 rupees, or $20 a week.
She'd prefer to be at school, but now believes it
is too late to start her education. When asked why
she continues to do the dangerous work, she says simply:
"There is no alternative."
Young and vulnerable
Sudha is one of an estimated one million
children who work in small-scale mining and quarrying
across the globe, the International Labor Organization
(ILO) says in a report released to mark World Day
Against Child Labor on 12 June.
The million children bring the total number of workers
in small mines to 13 million, so the proportion made
up by the young and vulnerable is relatively small.
That, insists the ILO, makes it a realistic target
to eliminate such practices. Doing so is urgent.
The children work in unregulated conditions, are forced
into tiny tunnels to lug loads heavier than themselves.
Dangerous surroundings mean they also risk serious
illness and injury from explosives and toxic chemicals.
Those involved in such small mines endure a subsistence
lifestyle.
Small mine, big risks
ILO mining expert Norman Jennings says that although
there has been some improvement in the industry, consumers,
governments and employers cannot afford to become
complacent.
| CHILD
LABOUR
-
246 million children are child labourers
-
73
million child workers are less than
10 years of age
-
2.5
million children work in developed
economies
-
2.5
million work in transitional economies
-
127
million - the largest number of working
children under 14 years of age - work
in the Asia Pacific region
-
1
million children work in mines or
quarries
-
22,000
children die in work-related accidents
each year
|
|
"We want people to be aware that a significant
part of the mining industry is not well-run, formal
mines," he says.
"More people work in small-scale, artisanal mines
than larger ones, even though small ones produce less
profit."
However, some big mining companies have already helped
curb the practice of hiring child workers in many
areas.
"Bigger companies reach out to small scale miners,
telling them how to deal with waste rather than polluting
the local surroundings, and give them advice on analyzing
ore.
"Very basic things like that can make a big difference
to whether people make a profit or not."
Wider effects
Yet, some companies, particularly in the gold and
precious gemstones sector, still condone child labor,
if only through the "back door", Mr Jennings
observes.
"Companies are really keen to let people know
that children are not involved in cutting and polishing
stones, but if you take one step back the stone is
being dug out of the ground by children."
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Heavy tools
and dangerous work leaves many scarred or handicapped |
Meanwhile, gold is mined in tiny amounts and sold
to intermediaries for $5 to $10 a time - offering
little profit or benefit to the miners themselves.
The buyers then sell the gold to bigger firms to refine,
or they smuggle it out of the country.
There is no way to check whether that wedding ring
or bracelet in the jewelers has been produced with
the help of child labor, Mr Jennings adds.
The ILO has long been calling for action from governments,
employers, donors and trade unions, as well as local
communities and other organizations, to eliminate
the practice of using children, some as young as five,
as workers in mines.
Improving working conditions - providing money for
machinery, checking health and safety laws are adhered
to - can remove the need for child miners.
"Big industry also helps in other ways, it builds
schools, hospitals, provides infrastructure and makes
sure children are not involved," Mr Jennings
adds.
Many governments are also stepping in. On Friday,
14 countries, including Brazil, Colombia, Ghana, Togo,
Pakistan and Senegal, signed an accord committing
themselves to eliminating child labor in all small-scale
mining and quarrying.
But the ILO also warns that young workers cannot simply
be removed from the equation; their families need
to replace the money they would bring in, hence ongoing
assistance is needed.
Who
Eliminates Child Labour in Ghana?
A GNA feature by Caesar Abagali
Tamale, June 7, GNA - On the June 12 the whole world
would focus attention on child labor. This is because
children have been abused, maltreated and misused
by subjecting them to various inhuman treatments.
But it is the use of children for various labors,
which is the most pervasive and cruel even though
it appears to be innocuous at times.
Statistics released by the Department of Communication
and Public Information of the International Labor
Organization (ILO) in Geneva indicated that some one
million children worldwide between the ages of five
17 years are laboring in mining and quarrying alone.
Recent figures also compiled by the ILO, and made
available to Ghana News Agency, put the overall children
working under worst forms of labor worldwide at more
than 246 million. More than 100 million of these children
have no access to education of any kind. It is a fact
that their rights are abused more often and they have
no access to the Media to complain. Those who have
the privilege and the opportunity to complain are
punished. They are sometimes given out to serve to
pay for the debts of their parents and relatives.
The theme for this year's celebration of World Day
Against Child Labor (WDACL):"Digging for Survival"
is, therefore, most appropriate since the children
are working under harsh conditions for survival but
not to plan for their future.
The use of children for menial jobs at times verging
on slavery has stricken world conscience and must
be considered as one of the leading human tragedies
of our times, which dehumanizes mankind. It raises
basic human questions as to why mankind would reduce
its weakest members to such degrading status without
any qualms.
Who eliminates child labor from the world? It is
refreshing that the world is focusing attention on
mines and quarries to educate citizens on the dangers
involved in mining activities. This way the rest of
the world would be made to know that badly maintained
mines are death traps that could collapse and kill
child miners.
The rest of the world would also know and appreciate
the fact that children work for long hours in mines
without adequate protective equipment, with lower
or no wages. They are constantly exposed to high humidity
levels and extreme temperatures, thus putting their
lives down as sacrificial lambs that see the knife
but cannot escape its cruelty.
On June 12 the world would again see the need to
at least reorient the mentality of man and do something
concrete about the plight of innocent children worldwide.
That would be a testimony of the wakening up of the
sensitivity of mankind to issues such as the worst
forms of child labour.
Here in Ghana, the focus is in the same direction
and it should take the commitment of policy makers
to tackle child rights issues diligently. From Akwatia
to Obuasi, children are digging for diamond and gold,
from Juaboso-Bia in Western Region to Tongo in the
Upper East Region children are into surface mining
(galamsy) for gold, while others are cracking stones
at Ablekuma and Gbawe in Accra for the flourishing
building industry for survival.
Beyond this, however, the existence of child laborers
on the major streets as hawkers; on the rivers, lakes
and sea for fishing, in the markets as porters (Kayayee)
and on the farms as farm laborers cannot be denied.
However, there is the need to distinguish between
child laborers and those who assist their parents
or guardians in their vocation to eke out a living.
For example, children accompanying their fathers to
the farm to weed cannot be said to constitute child
abuse.
Mr Emanuel Otoo, ILO/IPEC Official during his three-day
tour to parts of the Northern Region of Ghana told
the Ghana News Agency that ILO/IPEC was currently
working hard with its primary constituents (governments,
employers and workers) as well as other key stakeholders
especially the District Assemblies and nongovernmental
organization (NGOs) to have meaningful observation
of the day.
Mr Otoo said the marking of this year's WDACL would
be used to create awareness of the worst forms of
child labor and also to sensitize civil society to
work towards a progressive elimination of child labor.
The increasing recognition of the problem in Ghana
has also received a greater manifestation with its
inclusion in the page two of the Ghana Poverty Reduction
Strategy (1996-99) Document. This document, which
represents the planning vision of the nation for the
next phase of its development agenda, makes provision
for the tackling of this major problem of children.
Policy makers are, therefore, beginning to grapple
with the issue of child labor. Another issue that
has to be looked at is the problem of shepherd boys
in the Northern, Upper East and Upper West Regions.
Male children are made to herd cattle. This writer
had to herd the cattle of his father. They eat and
drink with animals on daily basis. They walk through
thorny bushes barefooted and are exposed to snake
bites. They are sometimes denied the right to education.
It is pathetic for one to see children as young as
six years of age strapping shepherd bags and following
cattle and sheep and no one seems to speak for them.
Elsewhere in the West Africa Sub-Region grown up men
- Fulani Herdsmen - perform the task.
Another pathetic aspect of child labor is where parents
and close relatives sell children into slavery.
Here in Ghana, the magnitude of child laborers on
the mines, quarries and farms cannot easily be estimated
but it is indeed a painful fact and common knowledge
that some children are abused.
It is indeed, sad to note that some of them die before
reaching adulthood while others are left with severe
physical handicaps. Because of the harrowing experiences
these children go through they become emotionally
traumatized and live the rest of their lives hurting.
Mr Otoo pointed out that Ghana's effort at sustainable
elimination of child labor would, however, have to
be taken beyond mere occasional celebration.
Important as these celebrations may be it is very
necessary to begin to enact legislation to punish
offenders.
Again, it is important for Ghana and the rest of
the world to embark on a sustained educational campaign
against the menace. Policy makers owe it to their
citizens and to the children, who are the victims
of this enterprise, to come out with policies that
would address this problem. Adequate budgetary provision
should be made for the programme to eliminate child
labor.
The industrialized world and other benefactors should
target extreme poverty-stricken areas of the country,
which constitute the main source of child labor, and
sponsor projects to improve the living conditions
of the people. As there is a close relationship between
poverty and child labor and child trafficking.
Master Nii Nortey, a pupil at Ange's Angels School
at Dzorwulu in Accra in an interview with the GNA
about the celebration of WDACL said Ghanaians and
for that matter parents should recognize that children
had the right to be protected from exploitation and
performing hazardous work so that children could grow
to inherit a better world.
Source:GNA
Ivory
Coast's Child Workers Suffer Despite US Legislation
By Joe Bavier
Agboville, Ivory Coast
04 July 2005
In 2001, two American congressmen set up legislation
pushing for a cocoa certification program designed
to protect the thousands of children working in the
sector. Four-years later, little has changed for the
working children of Ivory Coast. Joe Bavier visited
a plantation near Agboville in southeast Ivory Coast,
the world's top cocoa exporter and has this report
for VOA.
At the end of a trail head leading through dense forest
to a 30-hectare cocoa plantation, a half-dozen shirtless
young men and adolescents take a break from work.
During the July lull in the cocoa-growing season,
they had been 'cleaning', hacking away at weeds and
vines around the trees with razor sharp machetes.
Among them is 15-year-old Alassane.
French is hard, he says timidly, explaining why he
prefers to speak, with an older brother as translator,
in Koulango, the language of his native region near
the border with Ghana. But it quickly becomes apparent
he is not comfortable speaking in any language. His
voice barely raises above a whisper.
Alassane quit school, he says, when he was 10 years
old, two-years after he first began working. He says,
it was not that he did not like it there. The decision
was not his own. His father grew old and could not
work, he says, so he had to.
Since then, Alassane has gone where the work is, sending
half of everything he earns back home to his family.
A 2002 survey conducted by the International Institute
for Tropical Agriculture found that more than 280,000
children were working in dangerous conditions on cocoa
plantations across West Africa. Most of those were
in Ivory Coast, the world's top cocoa exporter with
more than a 40 percent international-market share.
A spokeswoman for the Abidjan bureau of the U.N. International
Labor Organization, Nadine Assemien, explains why
cocoa plantation work is on the group's list of the
worst forms of child labor.
They spray pesticides, she says. They carry heavy
loads. They do dangerous work with machetes, she says.
And there is the possibility of being bitten by venomous
snakes and insects.
All of this, Ms. Assemien says, constitutes a danger
for these children.
A small corner of the plantation where Alassane works
has been left unattended and overgrown. The local
caretaker explains a boa constrictor lives in the
dense undergrowth.
Four-years ago two American congressmen, Senator Tom
Harkin and Representative Elliot Engel, reacting to
media coverage of abusive labor practices and child
slavery on Ivory Coast's cocoa plantations, created
the Harkin-Engel Protocol.
It created a certification program that would allow
buyers in the United States, the world's biggest cocoa
consuming country, to know whether the chocolate they
bought in the supermarket was the product of child
labor. The world's major cocoa producing countries
agreed to the protocol.
Alassane was 11 years old then.
July 1 marked the deadline for the program to be in
place. But for Alassane and other working kids on
Ivory Coast's cocoa plantations, little has changed.
Sociologist and development consultant, Michel Seka
says he does not understand it.
The Ivorian government has done nothing, he says.
For something so vital to the national economy, he
says, the government has shown nothing but indifference.
It was not until mid-June, nearly four-years after
it signed the Harkin-Engel Protocol, that Ivory Coast
created a national plan of action on child labor.
On June 16, the government called on the German development
agency GTZ to help it set up community education committees
in the cocoa belt. In more than three months, the
Ivorian authorities had succeeded in setting them
up in a total of six villages. In nine days, GTZ set
up 67.
A member of Ivory Coast's parliament, a plantation
owner and vice president of the national cocoa marketing
body, Daniel Abo Akpinde, denies complacency. He blames
much of the bad press his country has received in
recent years on cultural differences. He says it is
not fair to judge African countries using American
and European norms.
Over there, they say a child should not touch a machete,
he says. In the West, they do not use that kind of
equipment. Here they do, but we teach them in school
gardens, he says.
Americans need to understand, he says. He does not
think America wants to make Ivory Coast suffer more
than it already does.
The West African nation has been divided for nearly
three years by a civil war that is funded on both
sides by cocoa revenues. It is another reason, Mr.
Abo Akpinde says, Ivory Coast should not be penalized.
To make the point, an Ivorian cocoa industry delegation
arrived in Washington, D.C. in mid June. A visit by
Ivorian President Laurent Gbagbo soon followed.
Last week, given the lack of progress, it was decided
to give a three-year extension for implementing the
Harkin-Engel Protocol. A yet to be created supervising
committee will more actively oversee the programs.
By late afternoon on the plantation where Alassane
works, threateningly dark clouds have rolled in signaling
a likely deluge, and there is still work to do. The
plantation owner is carving a new field out of the
dense forest, and brush must be cut away. Saplings
must be planted and staked.
Getting up to head back up the path, Alassane picks
up on an earlier conversation and asks after Ivory
Coast's latest national hero, a soccer star currently
with England's league champions. "And Didier
Drogba?" he asks, then smiles, picks up his machete,
and heads back to work.
In 2008, the year the new deadline extension is set
to expire, Alassane will turn 18.
Did
Child Slaves Harvest Your Latest Chocolate Treat?
June 30, 2005
by Kyle Scheihagen
Slavery has a long history in Africa, but tragically,
it also has a present. Five years ago, the BBC documented
child slavery on Cote d'Ivoire cocoa farms, causing
a public relations nightmare for the chocolate industry.
Cote d'Ivoire farms produce nearly half the world's
cocoa, most of which is used by major corporations
like Hershey, M&M/Mars, and Nestle.
By 2001, continued media scrutiny led Congress to
get involved. The House of Representatives passed
a measure by Representative Eliot Engel and Senator
Tom Harkin that would have mandated a federal system
to stop the sale of slave-produced chocolate in the
US. As Engel said, "if we can have our tuna fish
dolphin-free, we can have our chocolate slave-free."
Fearing the effects of such a system on its bottom
line, however, the industry hired former senators
George Mitchell and Bob Dole to lobby against the
bill. They succeeded in stopping it, but had to accept
a compromise.
Under the Harkin-Engel Protocol, the chocolate industry
committed to ending child slavery in its supply chain
by July 1st, 2005 -- last Friday. But instead of being
an occasion for celebration, the day marked an abominable
failure that will mean continued suffering for thousands
of children.
In a joint statement with Harkin and Engel, the industry
admitted that the "deadline will not be fully
met ... [but] assured Sen. Harkin and Rep. Engel that
it is fully committed to achieving a certification
system, which ... will cover 50% of the cocoa growing
areas of Cote d'Ivoire and Ghana within three years."
For their part, the congressmen claimed to be "disappointed
that the original deadline was not fully met,"
but, "comfortable that the industry is committed
to moving forward."
Well, frankly, I am disappointed in Harkin and Engel.
Their Protocol gave consumers the impression that
the problem was being solved, and now they want to
extend that illusion. After four years -- four years
-- the industry has broken its promise to stop using
child slavery entirely, and has instead "committed"
to ending it in half of two countries within three
more years. And yet Harkin and Engel tell us they
are "assured that progress will be made and deadlines
will be met." Either they are fools, or think
we are.
As for the industry itself, there is little I can
say in polite company. They are profiting from slavery.
They have lied about stopping. In this latest statement,
they pledged a mere $5 million annually to end the
slavery they exploit, while in the US alone, they
sell $13 *billion* dollars of chocolate a year. Clearly,
they would rather protect profits than children.
And so, the ball is back in our court -- the court
of consumer opinion. Most of us love chocolate, but
few would knowingly support slavery. Yet that is exactly
what we do if we eat slave-farmed cocoa. As Salia
Kante, director of the Save the Children Fund in Mali,
put it: "People who are drinking cocoa and eating
chocolate are drinking and eating the blood of children."
As Americans celebrated freedom last weekend, American
companies and consumers were keeping African children
in bondage.
But there is an alternative: Fair Trade chocolate.
Under the Fair Trade system, yearly inspections certify
farms as slavery free and guarantee them a fair price
for their beans. The chocolate costs a bit more, but
poverty is at the root of chocolate slavery, and fairer
prices are the key to ending both. Buy Fair Trade,
and you send a message to slave-supporting chocolate
makers that you'd rather pay more than hurt children.
At the same time, send other messages -- letters,
emails, and phone calls -- to the companies, your
congressmen, and friends, telling them how you feel
about slavery in chocolate.
Changing the status quo isn't easy -- action is necessary.
The forces arrayed against change are powerful and
patient. They can wait out efforts like Live 8 just
like they waited out the Harkin-Engel Protocol. They
will not be stopped by a day's worth of good intentions.
They can be defeated, yes, but it will take constant
and careful effort. That is the true price of ending
poverty and slavery, and it must be a price we are
willing to pay.
Source: Global Exchange
5.5
Million Children Work in Brazil. 1/3 for More than
40 Hours a Week
Written by Irene Lôbo, Tuesday,
07 June 2005
The World Day Against Child Labor 2005, celebrated
next June 12th, will focus on child labor in mines.
The International Labor Organization (ILO) chose this
theme because it is considered one of the worst types
of children exploitation. In Brazil, however, the
mobilization's focal point will be the fight against
all types of child labor.
According to a 2001 study of the Brazilian Institute
of Geography and Statistics (IBGE), approximately
5.5 million children and teenagers, ages 5 through
17, are victims of child labor. Of this total, 33.5%
work over 40 hours per week.
Activities are diverse, ranging from domestic work
to drug trafficking. The IBGE's research indicates
that 43.4% of the victims work on agricultural activities,
and 80% are in the economy's informal sector.
ILO's data demonstrate that the number of work-related
accidents and diseases involving children and teenagers
is high. In 1997, a total of 4,314 compensations were
granted for people younger than 18, because of work-related
accidents.
Agência Brasil, Brazzil Magazine
More
than 1 Million Children Between 5 and 9 Years Old
Work in Brazil
Written by Irene Lôbo, Thursday,
09 June 2005
Brazil's National Residential Sample Survey (Pnad
2003/IBGE) found that the biggest decrease in the
number of working children and adolescents occurred
between 1995 and 2003.
This was the period during which the National Program
for the Eradication of Child Labor (Peti) began to
function. The Peti was formulated in 1995 and officially
inaugurated in 1996.
Between 1995 and 2001, the number of working children
in the 5-9 age bracket declined from 3.2% of the economically
active population to 1.3%. In the 10-14 age bracket,
the share fell from 18.7% to 11.6%, and in the 15-17
age bracket, the decrease was from 44% to 31.5%.
In the most recent study, done in 2003, the number
of working children in the 5-9 age bracket continued
to represent 1.3% of the economically active population
(over 1.1 million kids); in the 10-14 group, 10.4%;
and in the 15-17 group, 30.3%.
In a more detailed analysis, the study found that
the largest number of working children came from the
14-15 bracket (19.6%).
The economically active population is composed of
individuals between the ages of 10 and 64 who are
working or seeking work. This category currently corresponds
to around 88 million people .
Brazilian law prohibits boys and girls under the age
of 14 from working. Between 14 and 15, they can only
work as apprentices, provided the jobs are not dangerous,
unhealthy, strenuous, or at night.
Between 16 and 17, they can work as apprentices or
regularly listed employees assured of all labor and
social security rights.
Agência Brasil
Philippines
observes World Day Against Child Labor on June 12
June 10, 2005
Labor and Employment Acting Secretary Manuel G. Imson
today said the Philippines is commemorating the World
Day Against Child Labor today, June 12, 2005, at the
same time that the country celebrates its 107th Independence
Day.
He said the observance of the World Day Against Child
Labor led by the International Labor Organization
(ILO) underscored the country's solidarity with the
world community in condemning, and pushing efforts
to eliminate child labor, specially its worst, and
most hazardous forms.
The event, he said, sets into a stronger focus the
partnership of the Department of Labor and Employment
(DOLE) and labor, employers, and other stakeholders
in anti-child labor efforts including the rescue and
rehabilitation of child labor victims.
Imson also remarked that that the sustained National
Program Against Child Labor led by the DOLE's Bureau
of Women and Young Workers (BWYW) resulted in the
rescue of another 195 minors and children from child
labor last year, on top of the 1,440 child labor victims
the DOLE-led inter-agency Sagip Batang Manggagawa
team rescued from 2001 to 2003.
The BWYW's Working Youth Center (WYC) program, which
complements the efforts to stave off and eliminate
the menace of child labor, also assisted some 57,172
youth belonging to a total of 2,043 organizations
last year. The program likewise assisted 776 livelihood
projects with a total of 5,283 beneficiaries.
Imson said the ILO-led World Day Against Child Labor
in 2005, the fourth since 2002, is being celebrated
locally and globally on the theme, "A Load Too
Heavy."
He said that in the Philippines, the DOLE is participating
in various programs and activities nationwide with
its social partners to commemorate the global anti-child
labor initiatives, as follows:
(June 12): The launching in Cebu City, courtesy of
the Visayan Forum Foundation, of the one million signature
campaign for Batas Kasambahay, a proposed legislation
that aims to institutionalize protection for both
child and adult domestic workers; a "Celebration
with Child Miners in Mt. Diwata" under the auspices
of the Federation of Free Workers (FFW) in Mt. Diwata,
Davao; a three-day radio program sponsored by the
Archbishop Mabutas Media Center in Davao, and; the
celebration of the World Day Against Child Labor in
Region 3 (Central Luzon) centered at Marilao, Bulacan
in cooperation with various local government units
(LGUs).
The DOLE will also participate in the endorsement
by the various sectors, including the Trade Union
Congress of the Philippines (TUCP), FFW, and the management
sector, of the "Call to Action" manifesto
that jibes with the global call inspired by ILO to
eliminate child labor in the mining and quarrying
industries by the year 2015.
Earlier, the ILO held the National Forum on Child
Labor and Mining in the Philippines. The Employers
Confederation of the Philippines (ECOP) also conducted
a round table discussion on child labor in the mining
and quarrying Sector, which reiterated the employers'
commitment to the elimination of the worst forms of
child labor.
The DOLE's Institute for Labor Studies (ILS) has also
scheduled the Sub-Group Forum on Child Labor Studies
tentatively within the month.
Source: DOLE - Information and Publication Service,
Philippines
AFGHANISTAN:
Focus on rehabilitation of child soldiers
| - |
 |
| |
© IRIN
Mohammad Sarwar, a former child soldier from
Imam Sahib district, now makes a living keeping
livestock and writing letters for illiterate
neighbors
|
KUNDUZ, 27 Jun 2005 (IRIN) - Sitting
around a tailor’s table in a tiny shop, Najeebullah
and his friends say they are proud to have once been
child soldiers because now they are the only literate
young people with jobs in Amirbai village, 35 km north
of Kunduz, provincial town of the province with the
same name in the north of the country. The group has
been demobilized as part of a UN-backed programme
after several years of life under arms.
The village was on the front line between the Taliban
and northern alliance forces from 1998 to late 2001
when the hardline regime was toppled by US-led Coalition
forces.
Many children like Najeebullah were forced to join
armed factions when their communities became battlegrounds.
Some had to take up arms to earn food or to protect
their families. Others like Najeebullah, had to bear
a weapon as the only male member of the family.
CHILDRED COERCED INTO MILITIA GROUPS
“I had no option but to take a gun when I was
twelve because every household had to contribute a
man or give the cash equivalent of a fighter’s
salary for a year to the local commander,” the
17-year-old recalled.
He’s one of an estimated 8,000 child soldiers
identified by the United Nations Children’s
Fund (UNICEF) in post-war Afghanistan. Nearly 4,000
of these children have been demobilized and are actively
involved in some form of rehabilitation under a UNICEF
programme. The programme also addresses the needs
of street children who have missed school through
poverty or years of displacement.
Najeebullah never went to school but managed to learn
how to read and write in less than a year after joining
an intensive literacy course which is obligatory for
all demobilized child soldiers. He chose tailoring
as a skill he wanted to master and now, six months
later, he earns his living making clothes. He feels
he has a future for the first time in his life.
“I will soon join school as I can read and
write now and will also open my own tailoring shop
now that I have acquired a profession,” he beamed
while putting the finishing stitches in a pair of
trousers he had made for a young relative.
EXTENT OF DEMOBILISATION
According to UNICEF, up to 4,000 boys, the majority
between 14 and 17 years old, have been demobilized
and reintegrated in north, northeast, east and central
Afghanistan since the programme was launched in February
2004.
UNICEF, for the purposes of the rehabilitation programme,
define a child soldier as a young person under 17
who has been, or still is, active in a military unit
with a formal command structure. Each of the demobilised
children then receives a package of support. This
starts with registration in the programme’s
database, the issuing of a photo identity card, medical
and psychosocial assessments and briefing sessions
on mine risk and reintegration options.
UNICEF said all demobilized children are also offered
voluntary testing for HIV/AIDS and sexually transmitted
diseases (STDs).
Each demobilized child has the opportunity to participate
in a number of reintegration options, including returning
to education or enrolling in vocational training programmes
to learn a practical skill. Some opt for income generation
schemes like farming sheep or poultry.
A NEW START IN A NEW COUNTRY
Mohammad Sarwar, a former child soldier from Imam
Sahib district, a border town 60 km south of Kunduz,
said the reintegration experience had changed his
life and enhanced his status in the community. The
18-year-old is the only breadwinner in his six-member
family and lost his father in a land mine explosion
next to their home.
After his father died he had to serve in a military
unit, this included everything from combat to entertaining
militia forces in front positions.
“I had to dance for them to keep morale high
– even when bullets and rockets were whistling
past me.” In 1999 Sarwar lost his right hand
in a rocket explosion when he was involved in fierce
fighting around Kunduz.
“In the past people hated me and I hated my
life. It was not the war which was terrifying but
the inhumane behavior of commanders with child soldiers
like me,” Sarwar added. The programme has made
him literate and he makes a living writing and reading
letters and invitation cards when there is a wedding
party or mourning ceremony.
Sarwar attended a literacy course run by the Child
Fund for Afghanistan (CFA) - an implementing partner
used by UNICEF in the northeast of the country. The
disabled former soldier has also been given three
sheep and some seeds to begin farming. With these
he earns his living and supplements it by selling
tomatoes grown on a tiny plot of land behind his house.
According to CFA social workers, some of the young
former soldiers continue to suffer abuse.
“In some villages there are still children
who are misused by commanders. Often they are forced
to dance, which is a tradition among warlords in most
parts of the country. Often they re sexually abused,”
Hamiddullah, one CFA social worker said.
DEMOBILISATION PROGRAMME TO EXPAND
With the expansion of the UN-backed demobilization
campaign, he said the risk of exploitation was lessening.
“People are very happy and they support the
programme, they even contribute by making their homes
available for literacy and other training,”
the social worker said.
“The problem is the existing commanders who
are still powerful in the region, even though they
have been decommissioned by DDR,” he noted.
According to UNICEF, of the 40,000 demobilized child
soldiers 1,500 children completed the course and 1,100
have already found employment. More than 1,000 also
received competency certificates in literacy.
“The main challenges have been finding reintegration
programmes to match the needs of the young people,”
Edward Carwardine a UNICEF spokesman said.
Currently the programme is operating in 17 provinces,
but is set to expand.
“The next phase, due to start in the summer,
will focus on the south and western regions,”
Carwardine added.
PAKISTAN:
Focus on rehabilitation of child camel jockeys
LAHORE, 23 Jun 2005 (IRIN) - Life
took a dramatic turn for the better for 21 children
on Tuesday when they were sent home to the Pakistani
city of Lahore from the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
There were no relatives or friends at the airport
to greet the boys, perhaps out of fear of being implicated
in their trafficking. They had previously been used
to sheltering under makeshift tents or in comfortless
rooms close to sheds where racing camels were kept.
Their days as child camel 'jockeys' were over and
they had spent the last two days filling in coloring
books, completing simple puzzles and looking at picture
books in a hostel of the Child Welfare Protection
Bureau (CWPB). Sadly, almost all the children, aged
between three and 12 years old, were illiterate and
could not read the stories that accompanied the pictures.
All of the boys had worked as camel jockeys in the
Gulf with many of them being sold to agents who smuggled
them out to Dubai and Abu Dhabi in the UAE, or other
Gulf states by middle men. Others seem to have been
runaway children who had been kidnapped and whisked
away.
ESTABLISHING IDENTITY
"I barely remember my parents. I think my mother
has long, black hair though," said five-year-old
Hasnain, who was just three when he was taken to the
Gulf by a couple who pretended to be his parents.
"Many of these children suffer physical conditions
that need treatment, such as infections and fractured
bones but they also need emotional and psychological
help," said Dr Faiza Asghar, a leading pediatrician
in charge of the CWPB, set up by the Punjab government
in 2003. "Top experts have been called in to
help treat the children," explained Asghar.
Under its current framework, the plan is to rehabilitate
the children, locate their parents where possible
and to establish their identity through DNA tests
to avoid the children once more falling into the wrong
hands. Until then, the children will stay at the CWPB,
which can house up to 250 residents at a time.
The children now enjoy relative safety and were greeted
by the Punjab chief minister in person on their return.
But they have left thousands of others like them behind
in the Gulf.
NEW BAN IN THE GULF ON CHILD JOCKEYS
One hundred and seventy Pakistani children handed
over by camel-owners after the UAE imposed a new ban
on camel riding by children on 31 May, now reside
at a rehabilitation camp set up by the Prince of Abu
Dhabi. It is run by the Karachi-based rights activist,
Ansar Burney, who for years has been spearheading
efforts to bring the camel children home from the
Gulf.
Burney and the Punjab government, estimate that apart
from the 170 at the centre, who will be brought home
in batches, another 2,000 Pakistani children being
used as camel jockeys remain in the Gulf. Some have
horrifying tales to tell.
Shehzad, now back in Rahim Yar Khan in the southern
Punjab with his parents, served as a camel jockey
in Abu Dhabi from 1998 to 2000 and returned home after
his father heard about his fate from a relative and
insisted he be brought home. He had been taken to
the Gulf by a maternal uncle, who promised his parents
he would be "put to work at a restaurant."
Instead, he was sold to work as a camel jockey with
his uncle collecting around US $1,700 in payment.
"I was seven at the time. I was put on the camel
and kicked viciously when I tried to resist as I was
terror-stricken," Shahzad explained at his Rahimyar
Khan home. He and five other child jockeys, two from
Bangladesh and two from the Multan area in Pakistan
who were kept with him, were often given only one
meal a day. Lighter riders enable camels to run faster.
They were beaten if they protested, forced to ride
the animals and one boy, according to Shehzad "suffered
several broken ribs after being kicked by one of the
most brutal Arab camel minders."
But Shehzad is one of the luckier ones. Many children
remain in the Gulf for years, virtually forgotten
by families. Others end up with severe fractures or
other injuries. Deaths have been reported at camel
races in the past.
REHABILITATION EFFORTS
Omar Abidi, the representative of the United Nation's
Children's Fund (UNICEF) in Pakistan, was among those
present to meet the latest batch of 21 children on
their arrival in Lahore.
Silvia Pasti, a UNICEF child protection officer,
explained the plan is for the children to arrive in
batches, enabling the CWPB to accommodate them.
"We will have to work efficiently. The paperwork
and identification of the children will need to be
completed before the next batch arrives, so they can
be sent to their homes," Pasti said.
Country representative Abidi has also remained closely
involved with the plan to rehabilitate the camel kids,
including the process of placing them in schools,
taking care of health needs and helping them adjust
to homes from which many have been absent for many
years.
"My parents are old. They have seven other children.
They cannot care for me," Hamid said, soon after
arriving in Lahore.
Dr Faiza Asghar, however, concedes that the task
is a "challenging one," noting that the
250 places currently existing at the centre are insufficient.
The CWPB was set up to provide destitute and runaway
children a safe place to stay.
"The Punjab chief minister has already agreed
to set up another hostel in Lahore and also one in
Rahim Yar Khan," Dr Asghar explained. Many of
the children sent to the Gulf come from the poverty-stricken
southern Punjab and having rehabilitation facilities
in place there is seen as particularly urgent.
"Yes, it is a terrible situation. I would never
sell my children but one cannot entirely blame the
parents. They are often desperate and have literally
nothing to eat. In most cases, they are not even informed
of what will happen to their kids but merely told
they will be taught a trade and will build a future
in the Gulf," Shamshad Muhammad, a donkey-cart
driver in Rahim Yar Khan said.
CHILDREN REMAIN VULNERABLE TO TRAFFICKERS
But while several hundred children have been rescued,
others still remain vulnerable to trafficking, for
use either as camel jockeys or other work, either
in the country or abroad. The Federal Investigation
Agency (FIA) has been advised not to relax its guard
at airports, especially for small boys who may be
travelling with adults other than their parents.
"In the past year, dozens were stopped at airports
or ports before they left the country. These efforts
will go on," an FIA spokesman said.
UNICEF also hopes to establish a system, that Pasti
says, "can point out children at risk of being
sold." It is hoped members of communities in
Rahim Yar Khan, Dera Ghazi Khan, Bahawlnagar and other
areas of 'high incidence' where trafficking is common
can be involved in this.
"There is a need to create awareness among parents
and also to ensure the children are kept safe on their
return home. But it is worth remembering that the
root causes too have to be addressed, especially the
growing socio-economic misery of people. Otherwise
exploitation of children in various forms will continue,"
Nida Ali, a programme coordinator at the Human Rights
Commission of Pakistan (HRCP), said.
The returns continue and more children are expected
back from the Gulf within weeks. The task of rehabilitating
them continues. The perhaps greater challenge of resolving
issues that compel parents to sell them in order to
enable other offspring to survive, remains one that
is yet to be met, especially as poverty levels continue
to rise across the South Asian nation
Joint
Statement From U.S. Senator Tom Harkin, Representative
Eliot Engel And The Chocolate/Cocoa Industry On Efforts
To Address The Worst Forms Of Child Labor In Cocoa
Growing Protocol Work Continues
FRIDAY, JULY 1, 2005
WASHINGTON, DC, USA (July, 1, 2005) - U.S. Senator
Tom Harkin (D-IA), U.S. Representative Eliot Engel
(D-NY) and the global chocolate/cocoa industry today
issued a joint statement on efforts to address the
worst forms of child labor and forced labor in the
West African cocoa sector.
Protocol Establishes Framework for Progress
In September 2001, chocolate and cocoa industry representatives
signed an agreement, developed in partnership with
Senator Harkin and Representative Engel, to eliminate
the worst forms of child labor in the growing of cocoa
beans and their derivative products from West Africa.
The agreement, known as the "Harkin-Engel Protocol,"
laid out a series of date-specific actions, including
the development of credible, mutually acceptable,
voluntary, industry-wide standards of public certification
by July 1, 2005 -- to give a public accounting of
labor practices in cocoa farming.
The Harkin-Engel Protocol marked an important first
- an entire industry, including companies from the
United States, Europe and the United Kingdom, taking
responsibility for addressing the worst forms of child
labor and forced labor in its supply chain. Today,
the Protocol stands as a framework for progress, bringing
together industry, West African governments, organized
labor, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), farmer
groups and experts in a concerted effort to eliminate
the worst forms of child labor and forced labor from
the growing, processing and supply chain of cocoa
in West Africa.
Since the Harkin-Engel Protocol was signed, some positive
steps have been taken to address th |
