As the pollination time for Bt cotton has arrived, small tribal children from across the border from Banswara, Dungarpur and Udaipur districts in Rajasthan have been brought by contractors to the Bt cotton farms in Idar Taluka in Sabarkantha district.  
 
This is the scenario year after year. Thousands of children have been extensively employed for pollinating plants manually, so that Bt cotton seeds are ready for the market.  
 
This year, the first lot of child labourers has arrived in the villages of Sherpur, Laloda, Ganeshpura, Hassanpura in Idar taluka. These small kids are fated to inhumane tortures by the farm owners. They start their day at around four in the morning and work till late afternoon. For this laborious job they get the minimal wage of Rs40 per day.  
 
It is estimated that every year more than one lakh tribal children below 14 years from poverty stricken Rajasthan, arrive to work for three months in the BT cotton seed farms of Sabarkantha and Banaskantha districts of Gujarat. Children are being employed primarily because they can be paid very low wages and made to work long hours. 
 
Even though there are strict laws for employing children, Bt cotton farms in these areas never care to follow any rules. For farmers here, these children are merely means to mint money.

Continental Clothing Co. (asi/46410) has announced its latest stand on the state of Uzbekistan's child labor cotton-picking industry: As of this fall, the company is going 100% organic. The initiative makes Continental Clothing the first major clothing company to boycott cotton sales from Uzbekistan, the world's second largest exporter of cotton. To implement the large-scale switchover in inventory, Continental Clothing is purchasing 750 tons of organic cotton as part of its initial conversion. The company will now also label these garments with the "country of origin," not the "country of manufacture," as is usually the case.

"We're simply trying to do the right thing," Philip Charles, head of the company's United States division, says of the boycott. "We've educated ourselves about cotton agriculture and we don't like what we've learned."

Located in central Asia, Uzbekistan – a former Soviet Union republic – has been scalding in the international limelight for its treatment of child cotton laborers. With its approximately 800,000 tons of cotton exports each year, this industry reaps $1 billion (U.S. dollars) in annual revenue. According to a report on the Environmental Justice Foundation's Web site, hundreds of thousands of youths are forced to labor in Uzbekistan's cotton fields and forgo classroom education, with earnings reportedly ranging from 15 cents to $5 for a five-day period. "The responsibility is to our customers," Charles says. "If a customer had a choice between a T-shirt that was made using child labor in Uzbekistan and a garment that wasn't, I know which one they'd choose."

LAHORE: Speakers at the workshop of Ministry of Information and Broadcasting and International Labour Organisation said on Wednesday that the media should help in making society realise that child labour should be eliminated.

The workshop was held to build the capacity of journalists from print media and was titled ‘Activating Media in Combating Worst Forms of Child Labour in Pakistan’. MediaMark arranged the workshop.

National project manager of ILO Saba Mohsin Raza, chief guest and director general of Public Relations Punjab Farrukh Mahmood Shah, columnist Javed Chaudhry, columnist Munno Bhai and an official Iftikhar Mahmood Randhawa spoke at the occasion.

Saba Mohsin Raza said that little awareness on child labour had forced ILO to start the media awareness plan in Pakistan as media could connect with people effectively. She said according to Federal Bureau of Statistics’ 1996 study, there were 3.3 million child labourers in the country, and the number was had grown alarmingly by 2007.

Javed Chaudhry said that when the printing press started in the 18th century, concept of spreading awareness changed. He said educated people started imparting information rather than the elite and royal classes. He said that in 1950, GPRS contributed to making electronic media more popular.

Farrukh Shah said the Punjab Government had started delivering free education to children and had also established the Child Protection and Welfare Bureau institution for homeless children.

People marching to support child rights in Sihanoukville on August 24

Although Cambodia has seen rapid economic growth in recent years, it is still one of the poorest countries in the world with most of its citizens living in poverty. The reality of poverty is that it is indiscriminate and affects not only adults but also children. This sadly forces many young children to engage in domestic and manual labor to support their families, with a large proportion working under severe conditions. According to the NGO Committee on the Rights of the Child (2006 NGO Statement to the Consultative Group), Cambodia has more than 1.5 million child laborers, of whom 250,000 are working in the most severe forms of child labor such as in brick factories, brothels, drug factories and mines. Research by the National Institute of Statistics in 2003 indicated that in Phnom Penh alone there were 27,950 children working as domestic workers. These children do not have an opportunity to receive an education and most of them face exploitation and physical and verbal abuse, every day.

Cambodia has more than 1.5 million child laborersOn August 18, 2007, LICADHO's Child Rights Office (CRO) in cooperation with World Vision Cambodia (WVC) launched their campaign to combat the worst forms of child labor under the theme 'I protect children, do you?' The campaign launch was held at Phnom Penh's Old Market (Phsa Chas) and was attended by approximately 2,000 people including child protection group (CPG) members, representatives of brick factory owners, parents and guardians of working children, NGOs representatives, local authorities and the public.

The LICADHO/WVC campaign is a part of a two-year project that aims to raise public awareness on the worst forms of child labor and the impact that it has on children's morale, safety, education, health, and physical and mental development. One of its major focuses is to understand the vital role children play in Cambodia's social and economical development. It also highlights the abuse and hardship of children working as domestic workers, in brick factories and in night clubs and restaurants.

In another campaign titled "To Secure Children's Rights in Cambodia", LICADHO's CRO (with the European Union and DanChurchAid), organized a public march in Sihanoukville on August 24. Members of CPGs, government officials, police officers and local NGO workers from M'Lop Tapang, LAC, CCBO and APLE, all participated in the march. The march aimed to raise public awareness on the need to protect children from trafficking and sexual exploitation.

Two cases reported to LICADHO in early 2007 reveal the brutal extent of child labor in Cambodia's brick factories. One incident involved a 14-year old girl who lost her arm while she was operating a clay machine. The girl had been indebted to the brick factory owner for one million Riel (USD$250), a debt which was owed by her father. She had left school in order to pay off the debt. In another incident a 13-year old boy lost four of his fingers while he was working with heavy machinery. The boy was trying to earn money to buy a bicycle so he could ride to school which was very far from his house. It was his first day of work at the brick factory.

LICADHO also receives cases which exposes the abuse and exploitation of children as domestic workers. In one case a 15-year old girl was indebted to a well-off businessman after her mother purchased land from the businessman in exchange for her daughter's domestic services for 3 years. Every day, the girl had to work for 16 hours straight, from 4am to 8pm. She looked after the businessman's children, cleaned the house, cooked the food, washed the clothes, tended the garden and planted trees. She could not to go to school at all. Finally, the businessman demanded the mother repay the debt even though her daughter had completed 3 full years of service.

Under the International Labor Organization (ILO) Convention No. 182 and Recommendation No. 190 on Worst Forms of Child Labor (which was ratified by Cambodia in October 2005) the term "the worst forms of child labor" comprises:
(a) All forms of slavery or practices similar to slavery, such as the sale and trafficking of children, debt bondage and serfdom and forced or compulsory labor, including forced or compulsory recruitment of children for use in armed conflict.

(b) The use, procuring or offering of a child for prostitution, for the production of pornography or for pornographic performances;

(c) The use, procuring or offering of a child for illicit activities, in particular for the production and trafficking of drugs as defined in the relevant international treaties.

(d) Work which, by its nature or the circumstances in which it is carried out, is likely to harm the health, safety or morals of children.

Article 177 of Cambodian Labor Law states that the minimum age for wage employment is 15 years. Children from 12 to 15 years of age can be hired to do light work provided that: (a) the work is not hazardous to their health or mental and physical development and (b) the work will not affect their regular school attendance.

LICADHO strongly appeals to employers of child laborers to comply with the International Child Labor Convention and Cambodian Labor Law. Employers need to ensure that working conditions are safe and that health care is provided for child laborers, furthermore these children must have access to an education. Governmental authorities, civil society and the private sector must work together to rescue child laborers and provide them with physical and mental rehabilitation services and to ultimately stop the abuse and exploitation of Cambodia's children.

Assembly fights child trafficking

THE Make Poverty History campaign of 2005 harnessed the power of popular culture to transform a G8 conference in Scotland into a summit about starvation.

The long-term effects of the activism will be judged by historians. But the energy which flowed down the streets of Edinburgh when 250,000 people marched flowed into a campaign which shines a light on one of the darkest secrets of the West.

Stop the Traffik has united more than 800 groups in 50 countries to campaign against the ongoing trade in humans, responsible for the enslavement of at least 12.3 million people worldwide.

Successes include lobbying the UK Government to sign the European Convention on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings.

The Welsh Assembly Government yesterday launched a new drive to combat child trafficking.

Welsh ministers have issued guidance for professionals on how to tackle child trafficking.

Official figures suggest more than 300 children have been trafficked in the UK since 2004, usually for financial gain from slavery, forced labour, prostitution, illegal adoption, to act as drug mules or for the removal of organs.

The advice published by deputy health minister Gwenda Thomas on Tuesday aims to increase awareness among those responsible for protecting children.

It sets out the methods used by traffickers and highlights signs that a child has been trafficked. It also points to the roles of various agencies and how professionals can help protect children who may have been trafficked.

"Child trafficking is an appalling crime and nothing less than modern day slavery where victims are coerced, deceived or forced into the control of others who seek to profit from their exploitation and suffering," Thomas said.

"As more cases of child trafficking come to light, it is essential that all professionals who come into contact with children who may have been trafficked are fully aware of the background to this activity and know what procedures to follow to safeguard trafficked children."

She added that social services should work with professionals across education, immigration, health and law enforcement to "develop an awareness and ability to identify trafficked children".

Children's minister Jane Hutt said: "The Welsh assembly government is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children. 

"Child trafficking is a horrific crime and the guidance published today will play a key role in raising awareness of trafficking, its impact and the procedures practitioners need to follow to protect the welfare of suspected trafficked children."

NSPCC Wales welcomed the consultation, with director Greta Thomas saying: "We look forward to working with the Welsh assembly government around this issue and hope that the final guidance will address the wider measures needed to support and assist the special needs of child victims of trafficking."

Pakistan is experiencing the worst form of child labour, but with a total of 3.3 million child labourers, a point of concern for all stakeholders, efforts are being made to control this menace by implementation of laws and more public awareness, speakers at a one-day capacity-building workshop titled “Activating media in combating worst forms of child labour in Pakistan” remarked. The workshop, arranged by MediaMark, was organized by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting and the International Labour Organisation (ILO).

ILO National project manager Saba Mohsin Raza said, “There are 3.3 million child labourers in Pakistan between the ages of 5 and 14 years. These workers, which include 73 percent boys and 23 percent girls, are being exploited by their employers mainly as domestic help”.

She said “The Punjab has the highest percentage of child workers with a staggering 60 percent followed by 20 percent in the NWFP, 14 percent in Sindh and 6 percent in Balochistan. More alarmingly, 70 percent of the all working children were found to be illiterate”.

She said that the situation needed to be highlighted through the media. She added that the ILO project was aimed at strengthening the capacity of media personnel and contributing towards national efforts to eliminate child labor.

Government of the Punjab spokesman Saeed Awan said that the Government of Pakistan was working extremely hard under the ILO conventions 182 and 136, ratified by Pakistan in 2001 and 2006 respectively. He also said that his government was committed to end child labor and strongly urged a “coherent social action to provide our future generations with a bright future”.

Pakistan Workers Federation (PWF) president Chaudhry Talib Nawaz said “The child labor ratio is high particularly in areas such as the carpet industry, the bangles-making industry, surgical instruments manufacturing, tanneries, coal mines, and deep sea fishing”. Columnist Javed Chaudhry said “Controlling child labor is the need of the hour, as living with this curse would be a far cry from stability in the national economy”.

“Major responsibility lies with the national media, as it can effectively highlight the negative impact of child labor”, he added.

LUCKNOW: The state government has constituted a committee under the chairmanship of Principal Secretary, Labour to monitor the status of identification and abolition of child labour in Uttar Pradesh.

While providing this information here on Thursday, the Principal Secretary, Labour, Kapil Dev added that notification for the committee's constitution has been issued.

The committee will meet at least once in three months.

Dev further said that as per the government's committment for abolition of child labour, during the past three months, 407 child labours engaged in hazardous works and 218 child labours engaged in non-hazardous works were identified.

Dev said that with the co-operation of UNICEF, transit shelters at Kanpur and Lucknow have been established for providing lodging and food facilities to the identified child labourers.

Negros Occidental (23 August) -- ABK Initiative spearhead a three-day advocacy training and campaign in Negros Occidental to combat child labor through education.

ABK is the first three letters of the Alibata, an old form of the Filipino alphabet which stands for pag-Aaral ng Bata para sa Kinabukasan (Education for the Children's Future) is in this province to conduct an advocacy training for teachers, parents, and other stakeholders from Himamaylan City and the Municipality of Isabela for the sustainability of the programs in the said areas.

Together with other implementing agencies – Christian Children's Fund (CCF), Education Research and Development Assistance Foundation, Inc. (ERDA), Plan Philippines, and the World Vision Development Foundation Inc. (WVDF), ABK initiated advocacy programs in Negros Occidental since 2004.

The training aims to equip the stakeholders of the programs with the necessary skills and knowledge for its sustainability as ABK's assistance will terminate by March 2008. This 5-year program is funded by the United States Department of Labor (USDOL).

Negros Occidental is one of the eight priority provinces of ABK Initiative in the country. Other areas include Bulacan, Camarines Norte, Cebu, Davao, Iloilo, Negros Oriental, and Metro Manila.

Based on the report from ABK, the Philippines has over 2 million children living desperate, unprotected lives as "invisible" workers engaged in six worst forms of child labor. Topping the list is child labor in sugarcane plantation which has high incidence in Negros Occidental. International Labor Organization has identified Himamaylan City and the Municipality of Isabela with high child labor incidence in sugarcane plantations.

Other worst form of child labor or priority sectors are children working in pyrotechnics factories, children in mining and quarrying, children in deep-sea fishing and children in domestic work and children in commercial sexual exploitation. ABK Initiative targets to rescue 30,000 of these Filipino children trapped in worst forms of child labor with interventions focused on education.

The training will capped with a press conference at the Grand Regal Hotel at 10:00 am with panelists Kay Maatubang, Communication Specialist, Lolita Lachica, Media Consultant and Josie Laña, Project Assistant, all of ABK Initiative

Pune, August 23: OVER 2,000 girls rescued in trafficking cases in Maharashtra during the last three years hail from other states and other countries like South Africa, Uzbekistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Nepal. This fact was highlighted by Aslam Khan, social worker at the Police Commissionerate’s Women and Child Vigilance Department. He was speaking at a regional consultation on anti-trafficking organised by Holistic Child Development India (HCDI) on Thursday.

With Maharashtra emerging as a major destination for trafficking, Khan said that Pune, Nagpur and Jalgaon were among the primary hubs. “Approximately 3,755 girls, including minors, were rescued in the previous three years. Of these, barely 600 girls come from Maharashtra, whereas 500 were brought in from other countries, and the remaining from other states in the country,” said Khan.

Khan also said that trafficking and prostitution were no longer restricted to just brothels. “Recently, this trade has also been mushrooming in newer places like massage parlours, ‘friendship’ clubs and even web portals like Orkut,” said Khan.

Emphasising the need for prevention as a means to tackle trafficking, Khan said that the Maharashtra Government was drawing up a State Action Plan for prevention of child trafficking. “The draft for this plan has already been approved by the committee headed by the additional secretary of the State Home Department, and is likely to be approved by the Legislative Assembly within the next few months,” he said.

The Action Plan would involve interventions at every stage, beginning with the reasons for trafficking. “In most cases the parents send their children into prostitution to generate additional income. In such cases, the government would offer financial aid schemes like scholarships for the child’s education,” said Khan.

The regional consultation was attended by representatives of various organisations in Pune and Mumbai working in the field of child trafficking, prostitution and HIV prevention. These included representatives of the Good Shepherd Sisters, Mumbai, Indian Network for People living with HIV/AIDS (INPH), Pune Diocese, and Kaya Kalp, Pune. “HCDI along with the Good Shepherd Sisters, Mumbai, will be preparing a programme of action based on the discussions and suggestions made during the consultation,” said HCDI consultant Naina Athalye.

Father Jeetendra David of Pune Diocese spoke about the difficulties encountered while preventing children from entering into prostitution, because of objections by employers and even parents who lived off the additional income. “Such women should be provided with basic facilities like ration cards and education, and security for them and their children,” said David.

Network to track missing

A national network to track missing children is being set up through collaboration with NGOs and various government committees at the national, state and district level, said Khan. “This network would involve setting up a software to track and match details of missing children, which could be uploaded on websites at the city and village level,” said Khan, adding that the project was currently being designed by various NGOs like Prerna and Save the Children. “The project implementation can be done by district level committees comprising special police officers, who could keep a close watch on activities in brothels, and report details of any missing children found in these areas,” he said.

Child labour is an internationally recognised phenomenon but still there is a lot to be done regarding this dilemma of the under-developed countries. Unfortunately the state of child labour is grave in Pakistan. Although rapid progress, awareness and globalisation have reduced the practice it remains a curse which must be eliminated.

Even in the presence of national and international laws no relevant actions have been taken so far and like many other fields the statutes regarding child labour are not enforced in their spirit and the consequences are hazardous. Child labour is basically the output of the exploitation of the poor; the absence of relevant education; and restrictions of tradition. The traditional restrictions are especially imposed regarding females, which is not only immoral but also unreligious.

Major steps should be taken regarding the elimination of child labour. First of all, such economic policies should be made that are public-friendly. Steps should be taken to educate the elders not to send their children to work, but to send them to schools and technical institutes, so that they have a better future.

Of course this is only possible if families are not poverty-stricken to the extent that they have to make their children work and they are able to afford schooling. People involved in smuggling children for camel races in Gulf States should be given exemplary punishments. These people exploit the poor by giving them a nominal amount of money and take their children to the Gulf States where they ultimately die during camel races.

Lucknow, August 22: Is there a connection between the number of missing children in Uttar Pradesh and the child labourers working in various industries across the state? Based on reports from discussions in the Parliament and Supreme Court orders in the last six months, a Delhi- based NGO Shakti Vahini is all set to ask this question from the state government. The NGO will be be filing an application under the Right to Information (RTI) Act soon.

According to the NGO, the state fares third in the entire country in the number of missing children and also, identified child labourers. Rishikant of Shakti Vahini said, “Some two months ago, the Supreme Court had asked all the states about the number of missing children in their state and also the number of child labourers rescued. Just three days ago, the question whether the number of missing children can be interlinked with the number of child labourers was raised in Parliament.”

The NGO states that, so far, whatever reports UP has given are only about missing children. The action taken to find them, how many child labourers have been identified and what has been done to rescue them has still not be stated by the government, said the NGO. “We had recently rescued children of Barabanki district from Karnal in Haryana where they were working as child labourers. But the state government has done nothing to rehabilitate them. In fact, they have not even been sent back to their homes,” said Rishikant.

Labour department officials said they were all set to launch a drive to identify the number of child labourers in the state. “The numbers keep changing as we conduct rescues quite regularly. But we will launch a drive to confirm the numbers,” said Labour Secretary Dharam Singh.

In over 20 countries around the world, children are direct participants in war. Denied a childhood and often subjected to horrific violence, an estimated 200,000 to 300,000 children are serving as soldiers for both rebel groups and government forces in current armed conflicts. These young combatants participate in all aspects of contemporary warfare. They wield AK-47s and M-16s on the front lines of combat, serve as human mine detectors, participate in suicide missions, carry supplies, and act as spies, messengers or lookouts.

Physically vulnerable and easily intimidated, children make obedient soldiers. Many are abducted or recruited by force; often compelled to follow orders under threat of death. Others join armed groups out of desperation. As society breaks down during conflict, leaving children no access to school, driving them from their homes, or separating them from family members, many children perceive armed groups as their best chance for survival. Others seek escape from poverty or join military forces to avenge family members who have been killed.

Throughout history and in many cultures, children have been extensively involved in military campaigns even when such practices were supposedly against cultural morals. The earliest mentions that minors were involved in war come from antiquity. It was customary for youths in the Mediterranean basin to serve as aides, charioteers and armour bearers to adult warriors. Examples of this practice can be found in the Bible (such as David’s service to King Saul), in Hittite and Egyptian art, and in Greek mythology (such as the story of Hercules and Hylas), philosophy and literature.

In World War II, children frequently participated in popular insurrections like the Warsaw Uprising of 1944 and other anti-fascist resistance movements across Nazi-occupied Europe. On the opposite side, Hitler Youth (Hitlerjugend or HJ) was an official organisation in Nazi Germany that trained youth physically and indoctrinated them with Nazi ideology. By the end of World War II members of the HJ were taken into the army at increasingly younger ages. During the Battle of Berlin in 1945 they were a major part of the German defenses.

In some cases, youth organisations were, and still are, militarised in order to instill discipline in their ranks, sometimes to indoctrinate them with propaganda and prepare for subsequent military service.

International Human Rights Law: The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, Art. 38, (1989) proclaimed: “State parties shall take all feasible measures to ensure that persons who have not attained the age of 15 years do not take a direct part in hostilities.” The optional protocol on the involvement of children in armed conflict to the Convention that came into force in 2002 stipulates that its State Parties shall take all feasible measures to ensure that persons below the age of 18 do not take a direct part in hostilities and that they are not compulsorily recruited into their armed forces.
The UN Security Council Resolution 1261 “strongly condemns... recruitment and use of children in armed conflict in violation of international law.” (UN Sec. Council Res. 1261 (1999), art. 3, 8, 13.)

The Fourth Geneva Convention forbids the use of any civilian as a shield. (Geneva Convention Relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, 12 Aug, 1949, 6 U.S.T. 3516, 75 U.N.T.S. 287, art. 28)

International Labour Law: Forced or compulsory recruitment of children for use in armed conflict, is one of the predefined worst forms of child labour in terms of the International Labour Organisation’s Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention, 1999, adopted in 1999.

In terms of the Worst Forms of Child Labour Recommendation, ratifying countries should ensure that forced or compulsory recruitment of children for use in armed conflict is a criminal offence, and also provide for other criminal, civil or administrative remedies to ensure the effective enforcement of such national legislation (Article III (12) to (14)).
Child soldiers today: According to Amnesty International, “An estimated 300,000 children under the age of 18 are currently participating in armed conflicts in more than 30 different countries on nearly every continent. While most child soldiers are in their teens, some are as young as seven years old.”

Children have been used as spotters, observers, message-carriers, and even as human shields. The last case is particularly disturbing: if the hostage value of the child is respected, children will be increasingly used as human shields, and the soldier is placed at a tactical disadvantage. If not, soldiers must suffer the morale effects of wounding and killing children in self-defence. Usually, girls are made to perform as slaves and aides, while boys are used for combat. To counter their reluctance, the children’s senses are dulled by forcing them to commit brutalities, and to take drugs like marijuana and amphetamines that inhibit guilt and fear. Propaganda, revenge and fear of being left alone influence children to “voluntarily” stay in the army. Reports on child soldiers.

Nepal: Thousands of children were recruited by the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoists) during Nepal’s 10-year civil war. Children served on the front lines, received weapons training, and carried out crucial military and logistical support duties for the Maoists. Even after signing a comprehensive peace agreement with the government in November 2006, the Maoists continued to recruit children and refused to release children from their forces.

Sri Lanka: Thousands of children are believed to be in the ranks of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), a rebel group banned as a terrorist organisation by a number of countries including the United States, Canada, India and the European Union.

Since signing a ceasefire agreement in 2001, the latest available Unicef figures show that the LTTE has abducted 5,666 children until July 2006, although the organisation speculates that only about a third of such cases are reported to them. Sri Lankan soldiers nicknamed one unit the Baby Battalion, due to the number of children in it.

Burundi: During the 13 years of civil war in Burundi, children were recruited and used as combatants and general help by all sides in the conflict. More than 3,000 children have been demobilised, but the one rebel group the National Liberation Forces (Forces Nationales pour la Libération, FNL), continues to use children as combatants and for various logistical duties.

West Africa: Since 1989, young soldiers have fought in armed conflicts in Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea and Cote d’Ivoire, often crossing borders to fight for personal economic gain in neighbouring countries.

Colombia: More than 11,000 children fight in Colombia’s armed conflict, one of the highest totals in the world. Both guerrilla and paramilitary forces rely on child combatants, who have committed atrocities and are even made to execute other children who try to desert.

Uganda: Children are abducted in record numbers by the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) in northern Uganda and subjected to brutal treatment as soldiers, labourers, and sexual slaves. In 2002, an estimated 5,000 children have been abducted from their homes and communities -a larger number than any previous year of the 16-year-old conflict and a dramatic increase from the less than 100 children abducted in 2001. Lebanon: In southern Lebanon, boys as young as 12 years were subject to forced conscription by the South Lebanon Army (SLA), an Israeli auxiliary militia. When men and boys refuse to serve, flee the region to avoid conscription, or desert the SLA forces, their entire family was subject to expulsion from the occupied zone.

Vietnam: During the Vietnam War, American soldiers reported (and US military sources documented) a number of incidents where Vietnamese children were given hand grenades and/or explosives and used as weapons against American troops.

The present international laws are not enough unless implemented by the nations.

In India the situation may not look serious but reports have come that children are recruited for armed conflicts in the north-eastern states.

Our work doesn’t stop only by taking action against those recruiting children. But we need to address the root cause of the problem i.e. poverty. Poverty forces children to take up guns. Moreover, there should be rehabilitation plans for these children who are so used to violence and hatred that they fail to adjust in normal life.

The International Organization for Migration (IOM) says child trafficking is rampant in fishing communities along Ghana’s Lake Volta. The organization has been trying to rescue, rehabilitate, and reintegrate trafficked children.  But are the children really being enslaved or the chores they do are part of a cultural tradition?

Eric Peasah is a Ghanaian and counter-Trafficking Field Manager for the IOM. He is in the United States to sensitize human rights activists about the trafficking of fishing children in Ghana.  Peasah tells VOA English to Africa reporter James Butty the International Organization for Migration has been working to free the children because they face dangers and brutality.

“We are trying to rescue some children because they don’t go to school, and these children are given out to these fishermen to work in the fishing area, and they are being exploited. They eat once a day and they do jobs beyond their strength. Some of the children scoop water from the canoe as it goes. Other children also dive in the water on the lake because there are some stumps on the lake to entangle nets in the lake. So we think it is good to rescue these children, give them back to their parents and help the parents take care of these children,” he said.

Peasah said even though the children are not being held against their will, they are still children who are being made to do dangerous adult jobs.

“They are not being held against their will, but as a child they have no consent. What happens is that some of these children have uncles or relatives who come to these poor parents in fishing area, in the village to take them to go and stay with. When they go there, they in turn give the children to fishermen and collect some money from the fisherman, and the children go and work for the fisherman instead of going to school,” Peasah said.

He said the practice, though rooted in the traditional cultural belief whereby poor parents send their children to informal schools rather than conventional schools, has been abused.

“You know all around Africa children can stay with uncles, relatives and help them learn the trade. But this decision is being abused by some parents and some fishermen,” he said.

Peasah said while some people consider the practice as a way of life, some have frowned upon it.

“Some of the chiefs and some of the people in the communities frown against this issue because people give out the children because they are poor, and some parents do not know what the children go through when they give them out. And so once they realized what happen, they want to do something about it,” Peasah said.

He said the International Organization for Migration has been working with the Ghanaian government to help obtain the freedom of the children.

“We are working with the government’s Ministry of Women and Children, Social Welfare, UNICF, ILO, all of us are on board trying to first of all educate these fishermen and the parents about the dangers involved in using children in fishing. Secondly, the government has passed a law in 2005 to combat human trafficking. So IOM, together with the government, through ministry of women and children, we are helping those children who are there that they will bring them back home to attend school, and those who haven’t been recruited we educate them that this is not the right thing to do,” Peasah said.

Peasah said IOM is providing micro-assistance to some of the parents to enable them come out of poverty so that they can support their children in school.

Bangalore, August 20: The Karnataka Lokayukta has launched proceedings against two couples here on charges of employing minors as domestic helps and "ill-treating" them.

Charges under various sections of The Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act, 1986 have been filed against Mahesh Reddy and Roopa Reddy who had employed 10-year-old Poojita and allegedly tortured her.

A similar case has also been filed against Farook and Banu Farook, who had employed Fatima (13) and Romana (8) as domestic help and had reportedly ill-treated them.

The Upalokayukta G Patri Basvana Gouda initiated proceedings suo moto after learning about the plight of the children from media reports in May.

The Lokayukta also has initiated proceedings for recovery of Rs 20,000 penalty from Poojita's employers and Rs 40,000 from Farooks, in pursuance of the Supreme Court judgement.

Arrears of wages payable to the domestic helps would also be recovered under separately, a Lokayukta release said on Monday.

A couple whose names The Post simply got as Mr. and Mrs. Afanyi of Ets. AFCAM in Yaounde, have been charged with child trafficking and exploitation.

The international police organisation, INTERPOL, asked the couple to pay FCFA 500,000 for exploiting one Helen Shey Yuonti, a minor, whose services they have been exploiting since July 2004.

The issue was reported to INTERPOL by Serve the Orphans Foundation, SOF, which has been working to discourage child trafficking and exploitation in Cameroon since 2003.

According to the complaint submitted to INTERPOL by the Executive Director of SOF, Dr. Njingti Nfor, Helen Yuonti, who is now 17 years old, hails from Konchep village in Donga Mantung Division.

The complaint states that Yuonti was brought by an intermediary, one Julius working in Edea, Littoral Province, and who happens to be a paternal uncle to the minor.It notes that Yuonti was handed to the Afanyis on a verbal promise that she would learn sewing as a trade after working with the family for sometime.

"For her length of stay with the Afanyi, Helen has never received any remuneration for her work," the SOF complaint states.Meanwhile, in her testimony, Yuonti told INTERPOL how she was taken from her native village passing through Bamenda and then to Yaounde where she was handed to the Afanyis.
She said her duty, as explained by her paternal uncle who negotiated the deal, had to do with baby sitting a new born and that when the said baby attains school going age, the Afanyis would pay for her training as a seamstress.

She outlined other household chores assigned to her to include: doing laundry, cooking and washing utensils, feeding the children as well as doing other assignments as instructed.

Yuonti says the kid she was looking after will start school in the next academic year. She said her troubles started on July 2 when she inquired from Mrs. Afanyi when she [Yuonti] would start the tailoring training promised her three years ago.

According to Yuonti's testimony, "this provoked her (Mrs. Afanyi's) anger to the point that she scolded me and told me the contract was that I should live with her for 10 years before ever dreaming of learning any trade."

The SOF complaint corroborates that on July 3, 2007, the Afanyis took Yuonti to the Amour Mezam bus agency where a ticket of FCFA 5000 was procured for her to travel back to Bamenda.

An additional FCFA 6000 was handed to her to serve as food money and transport fare from Bamenda to Konchep. The complaint states that Yuonti hesitated to go because of the insufficient funds and idled around the park until one Amadou, who reported the matter to SOF, rescued her.

Stating that Yuonti's situation is a classical case of child trafficking and exploitation, Dr. Ngingti urged the Director of INTERPOL to prosecute Mr. and Mrs. Afanyi in a court of law for damages to be paid to Yuonti.

Dr. Njingti told The Post that the couple would still be legally pursued to respond to charges as stipulated by the law while the FCFA 500,000 would be used to pay for Yuonti's tailoring training.
He said a new sewing machine has already been acquired for Yuonti.

DESPITE stepping up efforts to ensure that all school going children in Karamoja region are forcefully enrolled in Universal Primary Education schools, the UPDF has only managed to get 54 children.

According to the 3rd Division spokesman, Lt Henry Obbo, the 54 children are all enrolled in the army boarding school in Kotido District.
Lt. Obbo said even the threats of arrest and prosecution of parents who are rooted in traditionalism and want to frustrate the government programme have not yielded results.

He said the progamme, which targets to reduce on the high illiteracy rates in the region and re-direct the region on the road to development is bound to fail basically because the local leadership is not involved.

“Ever since we introduced forceful education for all school going children in Karamoja after registering success with the forceful disarmament exercise, it is disappointing that we have only managed to get 54 children in school despite the big number of children that are not in school in Karamoja,” Lt Obbo said.

This is because local leaders have not come out to support UPDF in this programme,” he said. The 3rd Division commander, Lt Col. Patrick Kankiriho, launched the forceful Education for All school going children project.

According to Lt. Kankiriho, under the programme all children aged between five and 10 were to be forced to enroll into Universal Primary Schools in the region to help the region develop better. Many families have resorted to holding the children to catttle keeping in Karamoja than going to school.

Guntur, August 20: Broad-mindedness and wider interaction between the media and the non governmental organizations working for protection of the child rights will bring greater awareness on violations.

Speakers at an ‘open session’ in the workshop on Child Rights and Media organised by the Guntur District Forum For Child Rights on Sunday emphasized on the need for better cooperation between NGOs and media for better implementation of child rights.

The NGOs and the various Governmental departments working on these issues should disseminate information about the violations of children’s rights and on the other hand the media too could give adequate coverage to such information.

The workshop also addressed issues relating to rehabilitation of rescued children.Highlighting some of the actions taken against child labour, Assistant Commissioner of Labour S. Bala Ravi said that the department has booked 340 cases of violation of child rights under various sections in 2006 and collected fines to the tune of Rs 23.56 lakh.

It also booked against owners of bars and restaurants in the district, employing children in their shops and levied fines to the tune of Rs.9.96 lakh.More than 20,000 cases were booked, he added.

British shoppers are sceptical about claims made by fashion retailers regarding working conditions in factories that produce the garments they sell, new research has found.

Almost half (45 per cent) of people questioned in a survey on the issue said they did not believe that abuse of workers overseas did not take place in bringing clothes to UK high street stores.

The study, published by TNS Worldpanel Fashion, follows criticisms that retailers who provide low-cost clothes are buying stock from overseas factories who subject their workers to poor conditions.

Earlier this week a report claimed that foreign workers in Mauritius were being paid less than £4 a day to make clothes for Topshop's range designed by supermodel Kate Moss. Critics told the Sunday Times that working practices such as these amounted to "slave labour".

The biggest ethical concern consumers have about the manufacture of fashion garments is whether or not child labour was used in their production, the survey released today found.

A total of seven in ten respondents said they thought it was "very important" that no child labour or sweatshops were used to make the clothes.

The over-55s were most likely to be concerned about the ethics of clothes production. The survey of 7,000 people revealed that 34 per cent of those within the age group consider the country garments are made in before making a purchase.

Younger people were the least concerned about conditions for foreign workers who make clothes for the UK high street. Among the under-25s, six in ten respondents said they bought the clothes they wanted without caring how they were made.

Nonetheless, researchers said the study still indicated that British consumers were becoming more ethically aware.

"Over the past few years we have watched consumers flock to the cheapest outlets on the high street, but increasing awareness of the potential cost to humanity for these bargains is hitting home," said TNS Worldpanel Fashion executive Elaine Giles.

They are expected to journey into Eldorado where they will not lack. But if the trip into this fantasy island does not consume them, they end up enduring harsher lifestyles, away from the promises of milk and honey. Authorities on the trafficking of persons maintain that head or tail, the victims are losers. Godwin Haruna, who encountered them recently, writes

The scenario usually painted before unsuspecting victims are tantalising enough. Good employment where they would earn hard currency with which they would turn around the fortunes of their families back home. Good living standards where power is constant and taps run. Limitless opportunities to further their education, should they decide to go to school and such other fanciful tales that bears no relationship with reality. Welcome to the unpleasant world of trafficked persons in Nigeria.

Trafficking has many manifestations in the country, but the most practiced variants are in the form of prostitution, forced labour, marriage, for begging, for rituals and for organ transplantation or laundering. By the time the victims realise the futility of the promises made to them at recruitment, it would have been too late for them to rediscover themselves. They would have lost everything including, but not limited to their self-esteem, possessions and even their lives. The evils of this obnoxious trade are manifold and it has the potential of distorting a country’s culture if left unchecked.

Perhaps, that explains why the Nigerian government established an agency a few years ago – The National Agency for Prohibition of Traffic in Persons (NAPTIP) – solely dedicated to checkmating trafficking in human persons. The agency has not rested on its oars in its efforts to reduce the incidence of human trafficking both within and outside the country. As part of this strategy, NAPTIP collaborated with the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) recently to organise a sensitization seminar for media practitioners in Benin, Edo State.

Speaking on the occasion through Alhaji Mohammed Babandede, director of investigation of the agency, Mrs. Carol Ndaguba, executive secretary, noted that Nigeria has been dubbed as a source, transit and destination country. She said before NAPTIP, the country was placed at Tier 2 watch list in the annual world trafficking in persons report by the United States Department of State. She added that the situation has considerably improved

According to Ndaguba: “Traffickers prey on the ignorance, self worth and vulnerability of victims. A typical and natural counterweight to this is information and education resource, a special endowment of the Fourth Estate of the Realm. The special role of the media in education, information, and mobilization of the citizenry for development, strategically places them as a strong ally of the Agency”.

She said trafficking is a global problem, which ranks third to drugs and arms trafficking. “In the West African Sub-region and Nigeria, trafficking in persons has already become a pervasive crime. The crime preys primarily on the woman and children who are believed to be the most vulnerable group. It is equally established that men are trafficked particularly into forced labour and for body organ laundering but the emphasis placed on women and children is informed by the awareness that the group constitute the predominant target for traffickers”, she said.

She stated that the phenomenon of human trafficking in Nigeria has become multi dimensional, multi sectional and multi faceted to the extent that anybody could fall a victim and no one is safe.
She said the singular and most important excuse and contributory feature that encourage trafficking is poverty and desperation. However, she quickly added that poverty alone does not explain the prevalence of child trafficking in Nigeria since most people involved in human trafficking do not necessarily have the most social indicator for poverty nor possess the worst cases of poverty.

The executive secretary stated that research carried out by NAPTIP in conjunction with UNICEF in 2004, showed that child trafficking was found to be very endemic in several states especially Akwa Ibom, Ebonyi, Imo, Kaduna and Cross River States. Since then, many more states are becoming endemic in the phenomenon of child trafficking.

She said the issue had been addressed by government by domesticating the protocol to prevent, suppress and punish trafficking in persons especially women and children, which culminated in The Trafficking in Persons (Prohibition) Law Enforcement and Administration Act of 2003.

According to her, in December 2003, NAPTIP in conjunction with the Nigerian Immigration Service and UNICEF Nigeria repatriated a total number of 169 children who were engaged in exploitative activities in Nigeria back to the Republic of Benin.

Also in 2005, police in Lagos stopped a refrigerated truck containing 64 children. The children were from Edati Local Government in Niger, Ebonyi, Edo States and Edu Local Govt. in Kwara State. They were apparently being taken to Lagos to work as house helps.

According to her, from inception up till March 31 this year, 962 victims have passed through the Agency. 118 of them have been rehabilitated, while 539 victims are awaiting rehabilitation. 710 of them are female victims while 252 are males.

“The Agency has a documentary programme on the story of victims of human trafficking. It is a real life experience of trafficked victims, their trauma, and psychological depression and how they were eventually rescued by NAPTIP and given a new lease of life. We have radio jungles in English and local languages, newspaper adverts, bill boards in strategic locations, posters, fliers, newsletters, car stickers, etc to inform people about the menace of child trafficking and we have been recording remarkable success in this regard”, Ndaguba stated.

She said against the background of a cumbersome criminal trial, the drive to bring traffickers to justice has been very steadfast and unrelenting. She stated that to be able to secure a conviction, the Agency must prove its cases beyond reasonable doubts. “One of the major problems we face is getting the trafficked children to testify against their traffickers who are sometimes close relatives and their benefactors. Despite the tedious and long legal process we face in court, the Agency has succeeded in securing the conviction of 12 traffickers who are currently serving different jail terms in various prisons across the country. We also have over 50 cases undergoing trial in different High Courts”, she stated.
She commended the various tiers of government, which created the enabling legal frameworks and environment in their respective states that would enable children in their states to enjoy a higher quality of life through the passing of the Child Rights Act (CRA).

According to her, the objective of the CRA is to restore the dignity and rights of the Nigerian Child. She said any state government that does not accept to pass the CRA may be inadvertently encouraging conditions and factors that promote child abuse, child labour and child trafficking in Nigeria.

“The tragedy of child trafficking is compounded by the fact that they are powerless, voiceless, and ignorant of the rights incapable of selling effective assistance from law enforcement institution”, she added.

The preventive measures she suggested include, making education compulsory and accessible to all juveniles, government poverty alleviation schemes must be accessible to women and youths in the villages and operators of the scheme should design products that address and meet the peculiar demands of women in the hinterland.

She said in the amended Act, a specific provision was also enacted against owners of brothels who keep in their brothels young girls of fewer than 18 years. The penalty for offenders is severe sentences of 14 years.

She said NAPTIP would begin to pursue a programme of action to review the laws setting up Motherless Babies homes in a short while and other homes, in order to reduce the gory and horrendous tales of baby trafficking, sales, abductions and ritual killings that go on in the name of adoption in Nigeria.
Also speaking in a presentation, Babandede described various crime models as those organised within the country, international and trans-national organised crimes. He said the mission of fighting crime is to prevent and control it, rescue the victim, arrest and prosecute suspect, dismantle/disrupt organised criminal groups and seize their assets.

Babandede disclosed that the approach of the Agency is using the ‘Golden Rule’ in its investigation and prosecution. It states: “Within the limits of the law, to seize everything that may constitute evidence – if in doubt, seize it, it can always be given back later but if left behind first time, it may not still be there by the time its evidential significance has been realised”.

He said detectives are continually being trained in financial investigations, criminal prosecution and confiscation.

He revealed that one of their greatest challenges is the challenge posed by the victim of trafficking, who would not testify against his principal for fear of the secret oaths usually administered to them.
“When you disrupt traffickers’ activities before exploitation – you are an enemy, when you rescue at the ‘verge of freedom’ – you are a spoiler, when victim is in danger – you have to change style or even discontinue. The victim is your priority – especially a child”, he added.

He said they follow strictly the doctrine of the child since he is the first priority. “Not the needs of the family. Not the child’s “story”. Not the evidence. Not the needs of the courts. Not the needs of the police, child protection, attorney’s, etc. The child is our first priority”, Babandede stated.

He said victims, especially for labour purposes have parental consent and in such situations, they counsel the parents. Although this, he said becomes difficult if victims had signed contracts or swore to oaths of secrecy. He said they had raided a shrine at some point in order to demystify the pressures and fears they put on victims.

The director of investigation stated that if the case being investigated is external trafficking help should come from there. He said criminals cross borders with ease but law enforcement cannot do that to investigate. He said globalization has brought more opportunity to crime than policing! He added that national sovereignty was a challenge to effective use of Interpol, MLA, Multilateral & Bilateral opportunities. However, he advised the sharing of intelligence, conduct of joint and simultaneous investigation.

According to him: “The logic is simple: so long as trans-national criminal organisations capitalise on global processes to structure their operations in ways that limit the effectiveness of initiatives by any single nation, the response needs to be extensive in scope, multinational in form and, to the extent possible, global in reach.

“To relinquish some of the formalities of sovereignty means to restore the rule of law, taking into account existing realities, in order to ‘nullify the advantages that criminals derive from operating across borders and to reduce, circumvent or transcend the frictions that hamper international law enforcement”.

Babandede’s panacea to effective policing and investigation is going ‘glocal” which he said is interactive globalisation, acting in ways that are “indigenous-yet-globally-aware”. He concluded that commitment and honesty is the key to an investigator’s success – a challenge we must all address. He added that since trafficking in persons is a major human right violation, they try to integrate human rights in their investigation and that partnering with the West has challenged them to be modern and proactive.
Also speaking, Mr. Obi Agusiobo of the legal department of the agency noted that Nigerian statutes have always contained provisions dealing with trafficking in persons offences though those provisions were lamely enforced and prosecuted.

“Trafficking in persons globally has assumed a new dimension which is radically different from the brute approach of slave dealers. It has changed to a subtle but equally dangerous method of organised recruitment that is less visible. It is against this background, that the United Nations adopted an International Convention against Transnational Organised Crime and its protocol to prevent, suppress and punish trafficking in persons especially women and children to deal with the sophistication of the traffickers”, he stated.

Agusiobo explained the Act extensively and the penalties outlined for persons engaged in human trafficking. He said the Act established for NAPTIP a Victims of Trafficking Trust Fund, where all proceeds of the sale of assets and properties of traffickers are paid into.

Also speaking in an interview, Mrs. Funke Abiodun, head of the Benin zonal office of NAPTIP said the incidence of trafficking has reduced considerably since the Agency came on board. “Before people used to go abroad blatantly, but now you hard find one until you see a deportee or when stopped at the border post. This means that they are aware of the existence of the agency and the criminality of their action”, she said.

Abiodun said the scenario before the potential victims is that they want to go and better their lot because of the poverty in the country, so that is what has constantly driven them. He said the next phase would be to sensitise the pastors who appear to encourage some of them through their preaching.

She said 290 have passed through the centre and 72 have been reintegrated, euphemism for sending to schools or learning a vocation. He advised parents to cut their coat according to their cloth in order to get their priorities right.

In an interview, Ms. Jane Osagie, Edo State coordinator of an NGO said trafficking in girls debases womanhood and must be discouraged. She praised the government for enacting the laws on trafficking and added that there should be enforced. Osagie also contended that the government should put together better infrastructures and providing the enabling environment for businesses to thrive. She stated that the same attention that was devoted to issues of HIV/AIDS should be given to trafficking in persons.

Mr. Arinze Orakwue, head of media and communication of the Agency counseled journalists to constantly beam their searchlight on the ignoble trade in order to stop it. He said even with paucity of funds, the Agency has done so much in the last few years to reduce trafficking in persons in the country.

University of Malawi students will take to the streets again this month end, to demonstrate against child labour, the University of Malawi Students Union (UMSU) has said in a press release. 

The statement says the students will on August 25 be in the capital Lilongwe demonstrating against child labour. 
UMSU president, Titus Divala, who signed the statement say the demonstration is part of the students’ contribution to “national development” and equate that to their demonstration against members of parliament actions over the national budget. 

“University of Malawi students do many things for national development and this is just one of them. For instance, on August 25, 2007, we will be in Lilongwe demonstrating against child labour, after that we will have the UMSU HIV and AIDS Day in Blantyre and at the end of the year we will have the UMSU National Service,” read the statement made available to Nyasa Times. 

The press statement says a student from Polytechnic, who injured his left foot and right hand “as he was trying to jump into a moving bus” at the New State House was discharged on Tuesday, August 14, 2007 from Kamuzu Central Hospital (KCH) where he was admitted. 

The condition of the student whose identity could not be verified has been described as “stable”. 

However, UMSU statement states that University students do not equal to violence as it claims to be portrayed in the media.

Roxas City (15 August) -- The council for the welfare of children in President Roxas, Capiz has been taking steps to gradually eliminate, if not totally curb, cases of child labor in said town.

Mayor Rosauro Buenafe, who chairs the Municipal Council for the Welfare of Children and Women (MCWCW) in said town, vowed to initiate some measures to protect the rights of their children, particularly those engaged in child labor.
Buenafe disclosed that last year, their council was able to register some 60 children who are into child labor.

He said that most of said child laborers are working in sugar cane plantation being sakada or in fishing activities and domestic help works.

He pointed out that except for those who are employed as house helpers, most of said children are in-school.
Buenafe stressed that they have also been providing alternative livelihood assistance, particularly to parents of said children.

Last year, the local government of said town was able to release about P203,500 to some 375 members of their Barangay Fisheries and Aquatic Resources Management Council (BFARMC) in the 9 coastal barangays, Municipal Agriculturist Leonardo Barcenas said.

Earlier, media practitioners from the country's tri-media industry have pledged solidarity in the fight to push back the worst forms of child labor with the government, International Labor Organization (ILO), labor and employers, non-government organizations and other partners.

Labor and Employment Secretary Arturo Brion noted the achievement of the country's partnership against child labor which had demonstrated concrete results in the effort to combat it and promote decent work in both the local and global spheres. (PIA)

PENANG: Non-governmental organisation Tenaganita, with assistance from the police, has rescued 148 abused Indonesian maids in the Klang Valley after receiving over 200 calls through its Domestic Workers’ (DW) Action Line. 
Its programme co-ordinator Aegile Fernandez said Tenaganita was able to detect more than 1,050 human rights violations ranging from rape to physical abuse since 2005. 

“An average of six to seven violations were recorded per case but in more serious cases, there were up to 10 violations. The most common violations have been non-payment of wages and physical abuse. 

“More than 70% of these cases have been settled while the rest were referred by the police to the Attorney-General’s office and are awaiting decisions," she said. 

According to Fernandez, there was also a rise in child labour cases with children aged 15 being recruited as domestic workers. 

“This is bonded labour which can be classified as human trafficking,” she told reporters after opening a two-day gender sensitisation training programme for the police at a hotel in Tanjong Tokong here. 

She said Malaysia had ratified the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (Cedaw) and Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC). 

“But we have failed to live up to our commitment to protect their rights. 

“Investigation officers need to be gender-sensitised when handling investigations as the bulk of domestic workers are women who faced violence in an isolated work environment,” she added.

In the year 2000, at the UN Millennium Summit, world leaders approved a set of goals for combating poverty, hunger, disease, illiteracy, environment and gender inequality. 

They are now referred to as the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

Although much progress has been achieved, most of MDGs remain elusive for most regions.

The sustainability and quality of growth for some countries is being undermined by unreasonable resource extraction and pollution. The world now needs to scale up aid, show greater policy coherence and align assistance around national development strategies. 

It also needs to tackle the unacceptably high gender inequality and the needs of “fragile states.” Fragile states have twice the poverty level of non-fragile states and are way off the track of the 2015 poverty goal.

Child labor is still a serious problem threatening Yemeni society and requiring effective solutions, said the Children’s Parliament in its fifth convention. The convention was held in three sessions, from August 6 to 8 in the Yemeni Parliament building. The sessions were held under the slogan, “Child labor: A problem requiring a solution,” and were supported by the Friedrich Ebert Foundation.

“We are supporting the Democracy School, especially these sessions of the Children’s Parliament, because we know that it is very important that young people start already at an early age to get use to democratic process and it is a very good opportunity for these children in youth to get some experience on how democracy works,” said the resident representative of the Friedrich Ebert Foundation, Felix Eikenberg. “It is not only electing, it is also working in Parliament, in communities, in talking to the government representatives, and they can learn in these sessions and this is why the Friedrich Ebert Foundation since we are supporting process of democratization that Yemen has impact on, this is a way of supporting this process for the future as well.”

The recent sessions were preceded by some field visits conducted by members of the Children’s Parliament in the various governorates. They talked to people in the streets and houses, including street children and people in police stations, to become more aware of the children’s conditions in such places in general. “The report resulted from the previous visits was made to be discussed in these sessions,” said the Chairman of the Democracy School, Jamal al-Shami. “The recommendations will be sent to President Ali Abdullah Saleh, the president of the Parliament and the Prime Minister.

We tried to discuss such important issue with the authorities involved in such thing but every one of them throws the responsibility on another one,” said the president of the Children’s Parliament, Nada al-Shira’i.  “We can just bring some recommendations and suggestions for the authorities. The strange thing is that until now the government does not have a statistics base to show the real number of children working in the different governorates,” said Safa al-Watari, a member of the Children’s Parliament.    

In 2001, the International Labor Organization estimated that 19 percent of children ages 10 to 14 years were working in Yemen.  Child labor is growing in Yemen, since the rate of children working increased from about 7 percent in 1990 to 9 percent in 1999.   The rate is still increasing, and is at about 11 to 15 percent these days, according to the implementation report of the ILO’s International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour for 2006. The children working in Yemen were estimated to be more than 700,000, according to the poverty survey conducted in 1999. 

Child labor is common, especially in the rural areas, where there are 90 to 95 percent of the total number of working children in Yemen.  Children also work in urban areas, in stores, restaurants and workshops, and peddle goods on the street. The vast majority of children work in agriculture, without wages. Other children work as street vendors, beggars, domestics, and in the fishing, leather, construction, and automobile repair sectors.  There are no official reports that children in Yemen were victims of trafficking. Children under age 18 are prohibited from entering the government’s armed forces, but there are some reports that children are involved in armed conflicts.

The Constitution guarantees free and compulsory education to all Yemeni citizens. Education is compulsory for children from ages 6 to 15 years. According to the ILO, the gross primary enrollment rate in 2000 was 79 percent, including 61 percent for girls and 97 percent for boys, while the net primary enrollment rate was 67 percent, 49 percent for girls and 84 percent for boys.  Primary school attendance rates are unavailable for Yemen.  While enrollment rates indicate a level of commitment to education, they do not always reflect children’s participation in school.

The Ministry of Education reported that nearly 200,000 boys dropped out of school in 1999. Child labor is reported to interfere with school attendance, particularly in the agriculture and domestic service sectors.  During these sessions, the members of the Children’s Parliament interrogated a number of the governmental authorities involved in combating the child labor phenomenon, and a number of the international organizations working in the children’s rights such as the ILO, Friedrich Ebert Foundation, and some social organizations. The members have also received training in communication skills, recitation, and writing reports. 

Poverty was cited by the participants as the main cause of the rise in child labor. The factors that mainly cause poverty include social and educational difficulties, wars, natural disasters, migration, and rapid population growth. When children enter the labor market, they often lose their legal, social and cultural rights. In the long run, this results in increasing unemployment, a change in the social structure, and harm to their health.

Therefore, the participants have expressed their concern regarding the rise in poverty, and stressed the need to expand the social safety network. “The children labor phenomenon in Yemen is increasing and our abilities are very limited, so our efforts will not appear in fighting such problem. We cannot solve such a problem in one day, but we try to do what we can do in our limited abilities,” said Mohammed al-Ansi, a representative of the Ministry of Social Affairs and Labor.  At the end, the Children’s Parliament recommended a lot of things but most of them are focused on how to support the poor families and how to educate them towards such issues.  

Brought into the country under false identities and tricked into leaving their families with the promise of an education and a better future, hundreds of African children are being trafficked into the UK for a life of servitude, according to human rights campaigners.

NGOs and human rights lawyers have sounded the alarm over the "invisible children", illegally smuggled into Britain using false visas and documents.

Dragan Nastic, Unicef UK's policy and parliamentary officer, said: "The first recognised case of child trafficking in the UK was a Nigerian girl more than 10 years ago in 1995. Here we are in 2007 and there have been no prosecutions made in cases of children trafficked into domestic labour from Africa. Not one."

Since 2003, 62 cases of child trafficking have been prosecuted, and there are 59 pending. The police do not break the statistics down in terms of ethnicity, but experts confirm that no prosecution has ever been made relating to African children.

Recent studies suggest that hundreds of children are brought over from African countries, such as Nigeria, Ghana and Uganda, by highly organised traffickers.

Nigeria is believed to be the main source country on the continent, where destitute families are either paid for their children or persuaded to give them away believing that they will receive an education and a better life in the UK.

On arrival, children as young as 10 are kept undercover from British society and forced to work as domestic slaves or prostitutes. Behind closed and often locked doors, they work long days for no money, are kept from school and beaten if the work is not done.
Debbie Ariyo, director of Afruca (Africans Unite Against Child Abuse), said: "It's a scandal nobody has been convicted when we know so many people who have been trafficked and have lost their childhood.
"We're making a serious mistake in not convicting people, because it won't stop. How long can we go on for before someone is arrested and convicted? So many lives will be destroyed if urgent action is not taken".

The Home Office minister, Vernon Coaker, acknowledged that the Government still had a long way to go in tackling the issue of trafficked children from Africa. He said: "Research suggests that [trafficking] is not reducing in either scale or reach. It's a sad sign of our times that children are still being trafficked to the UK as modern slaves."

Mr Coaker, who has been implementing the UK Action Plan on Tackling Human Trafficking, published earlier this year, said the practice was "a moral outrage", but it would take time for change to happen. "You can't change it overnight, but we [the Government] are also human beings, we also have children, and we're outraged that this happens. We'll do all we can to move this forward as quickly as possible."
The first report dedicated to child trafficking into the UK, published by the Home Office in June, showed that more than a third of the 330 children that were discovered to be either trafficked or suspected of being trafficked were African. The survey, which was undertaken over a 10-month period, revealed that 102 west and east African girls were discovered to have been trafficked into the country and enslaved.
And the authors of the report, the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre, acknowledge that this initial figure is "not a definitive number, but simply the cases that were brought to us in our initial study".

Christine Beddoe, director of Ecpat, a coalition of charities dealing with child trafficking, including Unicef, Save The Children and the NSPCC, said that the Government's failure to prosecute the traffickers of African children was just one of the failures of the system.

She said the charity had found "a culture of disbelief in the offices looking at asylum claims", that caused escaped child slaves to be treated as illegal immigrants rather than unwitting, isolated victims. According to Ms Beddoe, African child slaves have become "the invisible children", passing by police, immigration and social services unnoticed. "Having suffered the most debilitating experience, they get no support", said Ms Beddoe. "They are often here without a legal basis to stay, then are treated within the system as undeserving of help."

One of the main reasons why so many cases are disbelieved is the children have been given fake passports and identities, which contradict the true story they try to convey. Add to this a lack of training in recognising victims, and it becomes clear why many of these young people feel so let down by the police and social services they tried to turn to in the days after their escape.

Tolu, 19: 'It was like being in prison'

Tolu never wanted to leave her family in Nigeria but when her parents insisted she went to the UK for an education, she decided to do as they asked. At just 13, a stranger brought her over on a flight to London and took her to the family who were supposed to be looking after her.

But education could not have been further from her minders' thoughts. "They tricked my family, they told them I would be coming here to study", she said. "But when I arrived I was here to work and look after the children. I was so disappointed." Waking at seven every morning she had to cook breakfast for three children and take them to school, before getting on with the housework. "People used to ask me why I wasn't at school, but I was too afraid to say", she said.

The woman she worked for, that she refers to as her "auntie", was a well-to-do British Nigerian who worked in the Home Office. "She knew it was wrong", said Tolu, but that did not stop her from continuing to beat and bully her to work all hours at her beck and call. "It was like being in prison. At least in Nigeria I had freedom, even though we didn't have much".

After two years, the family finally registered her at a college but she was only allowed to go one evening a week. "because of all the work I had to do I was too tired to concentrate, and I failed the foundation maths exam twice".

She finally escaped at 19, after being severely beaten around the face for using the telephone to call a friend. She ran away while the couple were at work and is now applying for asylum.

Lately, there has been a lot of controversy over whether child labour actually exists in the cultivation of cocoa and generally in the agriculture sector.

Any time the issue comes up, the normal response is often,"Oh there is no child labour in farming in Ghana", or "we have all helped our parents on the farms before, and gotten to where we are today so what is the big deal of children helping their parents on the farm?
"We are training them to be good farmers so what all this noise about". You can get these responses from a cross section of the society like Doctors, Lawyers, Teachers, Engineers, and Politicians.

We do not have to look very far to see children working in Ghana, On your way to work when all children are suppose to be in school, some children from the age of twelve years are seen selling during school hours, when the others are in class studying or are seen carrying heavy loads from the farm to the market.

On the issue of all of us ever helping our parents on the farm, if we will be truthful to our selves, those of us who really helped our parents on the farm will testify that, if we had not been engaged on the farm, we would have advanced further than we are now in our careers.
Would we not be limited by injuries or illness acquired from working on the farm? But we think our children should still go through the same experience. On training them, you can bear with me that there are other ways to learn farming and still give children a chance to be educated, protected and cared for, as enshrined in the Children Act of 1996.

One key issue at the moment is that consumers of chocolate world wide are concerned about whether there is the worst form of child labour in cocoa production. If there is, what are we doing about it?

The International Labour Organisation (ILO) convention 182, classifies four categories of work as the Worst Forms of Child Labour. These are: 1) Engagement or recruitment of children into slavery and all forms of slavery- like practices such as child trafficking and forced labour.

2) Engagement or recruitment of children for illegal activities such as production and trafficking of drugs, and smuggling of cocoa

3) Engagement or recruitment of children in pornography and pornographic performances, prostitution.

4) Engagement of children in hazardous Work. Hazardous work is that which by the nature involves risk or danger especially to health, safety and moral of a person.

The pilot phase of the Yen Daa Kye (YDK) project in twenty four cocoa communities in three districts in Ghana has identified that, children assist parents in cocoa farming in Ghana. They sometimes engage in hazardous activities such as spraying, using dangerous implements, and are not given any form of protections.

However, parents and communities by identifying the need to protect children are changing their attitude/approach by placing the child first in all issues and looking at what is in their best interest.

In cocoa production, there are a lot of activities children engage in, which are very risky. For instance, the use of sharp implements for harvesting Cocoa, popularly called 'go to hell' can be very dangerous even to the adult, much more to a child.

Koku Pii (not real name) A fourteen year old boy in a community near Wassa Akropong had his ear and side of face cut off when the sickle fell off the supporting stalk and cut part of his face and part of the ear off while he was harvesting cocoa.

He now has a big scar on the face for life. Children involved in applying chemicals on cocoa by fetching water are also in danger as they come into contact with the chemical on their skin or inhale them, which is harmful to the child's health and could potentially lead to death. These are what pertain on the farms.

The question is, should we leave our children, who are our future to suffer these things? What would our future be if potential cocoa farmers, agriculturist, teachers, agronomist, engineers etc are not there because they were not educated? Should we not be educating and protecting all children in Ghana?

The issue we all need to look at critically is how to protect and prevent children who through factors such as lack of awareness on parental roles, low income of families and lack of educational facilities in the communities end up engaging in work to help support the family.
Some times providing protective clothes for the farm is a solution or supervising a child to work or better still putting mechanism in place by the community to protect these children from these negative effects.

From the YDK experience of dialoguing and sensitizing communities members on the issue, parents now buy simple rubber sandals for children, reduce loads children carry and communities come out with bye laws on protecting children on the farms.

These are simple but cost effective solutions that can help address the issue. We can all do something for these children rather than try to defend the issue, by changing our attitude or advising families or friends who are cocoa farmers.

Let as all work to protect our future, our children especially those in cocoa growing communities in Ghana.

An Indian NGO has won what it believes could be a landmark court case for the rehabilitation of child labourers.

In October 2005, Bachpan Bachao Andolan (BBA) rescued 129 child labourers from embroidery factories in Kotla Mubarakpur area, Delhi.

However, the case registered by the police after the rescue was filed under the Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act, 1986 and the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection) Act, 2000 which do not provide for Rehabilitation of children.

BBA then filed a case with the National Human Rights Commission against the office of the Sub-divisional Magistrate (Defence Colony).

They demanded that the case of these children be registered under the Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act 1976, as the children were working under 'bonded' conditions and were therefore eligible for rehabilitation under centrally-sponsored schemes.

Repatriation

After almost two years, the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has upheld BBA's stand by granting the issue of release certificates for the children, repatriating them to their native places in Jharkhand, Bihar and West Bengal, and arranging for their rehabilitation.

NHRC cited various provisions of law and decisions taken by the Supreme Court regarding the issue of release certificates and bonded labour.

NHRC also emphasised the need for an understanding of the meaning and implications of the words "child", "bonded labour system" and other terms in various acts relating to the prohibition of child labour.

Sensitisation

It has also indicated a need for sensitisation among officers at the Labour, Revenue and Police departments of the Delhi Administration.

The ruling implies that all other cases of rescued child labourers, working under similar conditions, will be registered under the Bonded Labour Systems (Abolition) Act which will provide for their rehabilitation.

BBA believes this makes it a significant victory in the battle against Child Labour.

A one-day workshop to sensitise cocoa farmers and other stakeholders on harmful effects of using children as child labourers has been organized at Cape Coast.

Personnel from the police, non-governmental organisations, and CHRAJ, Ghana Education Service, Department of Social Welfare and assembly members attended.

Mrs Joana Annan of the Department of Child Labour at the Ministry of Manpower, Youth and Employment said child labour was work being performed by a person below the age of 18 years, which deprived the person of basic human rights, was abusive, hazardous, exploitative and harmful to the health, safety and development of the child.

Children between 13 and 15 years can be used to assist in light work on the farms but not at the cost of their education.

Mrs Annan said the government had embarked on a long-term project to eliminate child labour on cocoa farms in all the 46 cocoa producing districts of the country by July 2011. She urged the farmers to avoid all forms of child labour to ensure survival and development of children to enable them grow into responsible citizens.

Mrs Annan cautioned them against using trafficked children on their farms and anybody found culpable would be liable to a jail term of five years.

Ghana Government has embarked on a long-term project to completely eliminate child labour on cocoa farms in all the 46 cocoa producing districts of the country by July 2011. Mrs Joana Annan, of the Department of Child Labour at the Ministry of Manpower, Youth and Employment, announced this yesterday at a day's workshop at Cape Coast in the Central Region, to sensitise cocoa farmers and other stakeholders on the harmful effects of engaging children as farmhands.

She explained that the practice, denied such children education, or did not allow them the full benefits of school when they attempted to combine education with heavy work for long hours.

Mrs Annan defined child labour as work performed by persons below the age of 18, which deprived such persons of basic human rights and was abusive, hazardous, exploitative and harmful to the health, safety and development of the kids.

She noted, however, that children between 13 and 15 years could be occupied to assist in light work on the farms but not at the expense of their education and cautioned that such children should not be made to undertake risky jobs that could cause injury.

Mrs Annan urged the farmers to avoid all forms of child labour to ensure the survival and proper development of children to enable them to grow into responsible citizens. She also cautioned them against using trafficked children on their farms and stated that anybody found culpable, would be dealt with in accordance with the law.

In a welcoming address, Mr Peter Dery, Municipal Co-ordinating Director, underscored the importance of the workshop and advised the participants to impart the knowledge they had acquired to others.

Police personnel, representatives of NGO's and personnel from CHRAJ, Ghana Education Service and the Department of Social Welfare, as well as assembly members attended the workshop.

HA NOI – Children across the nation have called for increased Government intervention in serious issues affecting their generation – child trafficking and child labour – as part of a forum aimed at raising their voices in the fight.

Child Protection and Child Trafficking Prevention, held in Ha Noi, involving participation of 70 children representing five provinces nationwide. The children have been divided into groups of 10 with two adult facilitators where they exchange views and report their ideas to the Government.

Prominent in the discussions was a desire for adults to listen, respect and respond to the needs of children so children are not too intimidated to speak out.

Attention had to be paid to the root of the problem – poverty – and the children underlined the need for Governments and businesses to help create jobs and provide credit for loans to poor families so that their children don’t end up homeless or miss school to go to work.

To ensure no child slipped under the net, local authorities should ensure children of both migrant parents and street children receive birth certificates when they are born and make sure they have the same rights as other children.

For those already on the streets, the children said local authorities should build shelters for them and make sure they have access to schooling.

"We want to have more access to information to gain knowledge as well as improve our skills so we can protect ourselves from trafficking and abuse, especially those of us from remote and mountainous areas where ethnic minority people live," a proposal read.

Director of International Labour Organisation in Viet Nam Rose Marie Greve said she was impressed by the children’s work at the forum and she would help them promote their message to the leaders of the Mekong region at a regional Mekong Youth Forum to be held in Bangkok in September 2007.

Rose said she believed that yesterday’s efforts would bring positive results in the fight against trafficking and child abuse.

Also present at the forum was Deputy Prime Minister Truong Vinh Trong, who said people across the world should listen and put the children’s words into action by building laws and socio-economic development programmes, and leaders of ministries and organisations should regularly consult with children in order to protect them.

He said it was necessary to attack the negative side of global integration – trafficking and child labour – by building more policies and standards to build a system to ensure the safety of the country’s next generation.

Government action
Trong said Viet Nam always made children a priority, and was always looking to mobilise support for them from individuals, economic sectors and international organisations.

He drew attention to moves already made by the Government, including the action programme signed by the Prime Minister on preventing and fighting human trafficking for the 2004-10 period.

The three-day forum has been organised by Viet Nam Committee for Population, Family and Children, Save the Children UK, International Labour Organisation and UN Inter-Agency Programme. A number of the children participating at the forum will be chosen by their peers to attend the regional Mekong Youth Forum next month.— VNS

Panama needs 304 million U.S. dollars for child labor eradication programs, Guillermo Dema, sub-region coordinator for the International Labor Organization, said on Thursday.

At a session of regional education and labor ministers, Dema said he was optimistic the scourge could be eradicated, and that with 20 years work, the economy will grow enough to eliminate it.

Nearly 48,000 children work in Panama, according to a 2000 survey, a nation which has just over 755,000 people between five and 17 years old.

If children are considered to be under-14, the world working child population is 210 million. If under-17, the figure is 350 million.

Panama's education minister, Miguel Angel Canizales, said that Panama has a program which helps the youngest to advance.

The two-day meeting, which has the motto "ending child labor and forging a worthy life for children," ends on Thursday.

MANILA, Philippines -- Some 41,200 children, mostly in the informal sector and in the sugar industry, have been freed from the shackles of labor over the past five years, the Department of Labor and Employment said Thursday.

In a report, the department’s Bureau of Women and Young Workers (BWYW) said: “Around 41,200 children, mostly from the sugar and other industries, have now been successfully withdrawn from the worst forms of child labor by the DoLE-led, multi-sectoral Philippine Time Bound Program (PTBP).”

BWYW Director Chita Cilindro said the 41,200 children represented 93 percent of the PTBP’s 2002-2007 goal to free the victims from the worst forms of child labor in the country.

Cilindro attributed the program’s success to the solidarity with local government units, non-government organizations, the media, and other sectors.

“Majority of child laborers are in the informal sector,” she said.

Household workers, sidewalk vendors, and workers in unregistered family-based enterprises are among those that comprise the informal sector.

The worst forms of child labor does not exist among legitimate establishments due largely to DoLE’s effective inspection procedures being enforced, and complied with, in the country’s formal sector, Cilindro said.

Child labour prevention youth clubs will be formed in various communities in the Awutu-Effutu-Senya District towards the elimination of child labour in the area.

The decision was taken by the Centre for Rural Enterprise Development, a non-governmental organization, working in the Central Region, in collaboration with the District Secretariat of the National Youth Council (NYC).

The District Co-ordinator of NYC, Mr. Emmanuel Sodja Martey said these at a forum to sensitize the people on the formation of the clubs, at Sankor, a suburb of Winneba.

He said the formation of the clubs was being encouraged to serve as advocacy medium to eliminate child labour and other forms of child abuses.

Mr. Martey said child labour was common in the area as most children instead of going to school were engaging in fishing in either the area or Yeji.

He said the clubs when formed would sensitise the people on negative effects of child labour.

Mr. Martey said the clubs would be expected to undertake house-to-house education, report parents and guardians who would flout child labour laws to the child labour committee, assembly members or chief.

Delight is written all over Alice Wanjiru's face as she narrates how she landed at a centre for abused children. At 13, Wanjiru has done household work and slept on pavements in several towns since being orphaned by HIV/Aids.

The first born in a family of five, she became the breadwinner, although she had no idea how she could fend for her siblings. Then one day, her grandmother ordered her to accompany a stranger who had visited them.

Robert Ndungu, five, demonstrates how he used to weigh scrap metal that would earn him Sh30 per day in Nyeri. With him is Alice Wanjiru, 13, who also did odd jobs to support her orphaned family. Picture by Moses Omusula

"She ordered me to pack my clothes and go with the stranger who would give me a job. She asked me to be sending money," said Wanjiru, who was the in the company of several children rescued from similar circumstances. Wanjiru says she still wanted to pursue her education, but her grandmother's stunning order gave her little option

From her home in Sagana, Kirinyaga district, the stranger took her to Nyeri, where she worked as house help for two days. But her employer complained she was too young and threw her on the streets of Nyeri town. She later found her way to the local police station, from where she was taken to Children and Youth Development Centre in Thunguma village, Nyeri, which currently hosts 88 children.

Like Wanjiru, thousands of children are finding themselves in unfamiliar places, where they are sexually abused and even killed. Child rights activists in the region are worried that the trend could spiral out of control. The Nyeri District Children Officer, Mr Paul Kisavi, says children are being handed to strangers by parents who poverty has pushed to the brink.

Many end up working in deplorable conditions in farms while others get jobs as house helps. Still, there are those like Wanjiru who get abandoned in strange places after their brokers fail to find suitable jobs.

Bureau hawking children

Kisavi says brokers usually lie to parents that children would get well-paying jobs. Parents later LEARN that their children were subjected to hard labour or even prostitution.

Kisavi cites a particular case of an employment bureau in Nyeri town that has been hawking children as young as 10. "The rate at which parents are handing their children to ruthless people who misuse them and waste their capabilities worries me," said Kisavi.

He says that despite one trafficker having been sued several times, she has continued to hawk under age girls with the consent of parents, who say they are forced into it by poverty.

Central Provincial Commissioner, Jasper Rugut, says there are 70,000 school-going children engaged in child labour in the area. The children, he says, have been left out of the free primary education programme. Most of children are working in coffee farms and quarries. According to the PC, the most affected districts are Thika, Murang'a, Maragua and Nyeri.

Child rights officials say horticultural farmers in parts of Kieni West and East Divisions in Nyeri District have a record of recruiting young boys. Others have however been recruited into business. A classic example is that of Robert Ndung'u Gitau, who, only at the age of five, has come to understand barter trade inside out. The boy was forced to sell scrap metals by her mother.

Gitau would wake up at 6am and walk to Grogon garage in Nyeri town's Majengo slum to collect scrap metal. He would then carry the pieces to his trading partner who would weigh the package and pay anything between Sh20 and Sh30. His parents had pushed him into the business due to extreme poverty.

"My mother would use the money to buy food," he said. He says that whenever they went to Nairobi to sell the scrap metal, they would survive by either borrowing food or scavenging leftovers. "She used to tell me to look for money either from the streets or from selling metals," said the young boy. Gitau later ended up in the rescue centre after a lady he did not know picked him from Nyeri town.

He says his ambition is to be an army officer and not a businessman. The director of Nyeri's Children and Youth Development Centre, Mr Patrick Miheso, says they rescue children from traffickers weekly. "They come here in very bad condition and some of them have to be put on a special diet," said Miheso.

Child rights activists say although current laws address certain aspects of trafficking - such as kidnapping, rape or exploitation - they fail to punish perpetrators for the crime itself.

HA NOI – Children across the nation have called for increased Government intervention in serious issues affecting their generation – child trafficking and child labour – as part of a forum aimed at raising their voices in the fight.

Child Protection and Child Trafficking Prevention, held in Ha Noi, involving participation of 70 children representing five provinces nationwide. The children have been divided into groups of 10 with two adult facilitators where they exchange views and report their ideas to the Government.

Prominent in the discussions was a desire for adults to listen, respect and respond to the needs of children so children are not too intimidated to speak out.

Attention had to be paid to the root of the problem – poverty – and the children underlined the need for Governments and businesses to help create jobs and provide credit for loans to poor families so that their children don’t end up homeless or miss school to go to work.

To ensure no child slipped under the net, local authorities should ensure children of both migrant parents and street children receive birth certificates when they are born and make sure they have the same rights as other children.

For those already on the streets, the children said local authorities should build shelters for them and make sure they have access to schooling.

"We want to have more access to information to gain knowledge as well as improve our skills so we can protect ourselves from trafficking and abuse, especially those of us from remote and mountainous areas where ethnic minority people live," a proposal read.

Director of International Labour Organisation in Viet Nam Rose Marie Greve said she was impressed by the children’s work at the forum and she would help them promote their message to the leaders of the Mekong region at a regional Mekong Youth Forum to be held in Bangkok in September 2007.

Rose said she believed that yesterday’s efforts would bring positive results in the fight against trafficking and child abuse.

Also present at the forum was Deputy Prime Minister Truong Vinh Trong, who said people across the world should listen and put the children’s words into action by building laws and socio-economic development programmes, and leaders of ministries and organisations should regularly consult with children in order to protect them.

He said it was necessary to attack the negative side of global integration – trafficking and child labour – by building more policies and standards to build a system to ensure the safety of the country’s next generation.

Government action
Trong said Viet Nam always made children a priority, and was always looking to mobilise support for them from individuals, economic sectors and international organisations.

He drew attention to moves already made by the Government, including the action programme signed by the Prime Minister on preventing and fighting human trafficking for the 2004-10 period.

The three-day forum has been organised by Viet Nam Committee for Population, Family and Children, Save the Children UK, International Labour Organisation and UN Inter-Agency Programme. A number of the children participating at the forum will be chosen by their peers to attend the regional Mekong Youth Forum next month.— VNS

VietNamNet Bridge – Children across the nation have called for increased Government intervention in serious issues affecting their generation - child trafficking and child labour - as part of a forum aimed at raising their voices in the fight.

Child Protection and Child Trafficking Prevention, held in Hanoi, involving participation of 70 children representing five provinces nationwide.

The children have been divided into groups of 10 with two adult facilitators where they exchange views and report their ideas to the Government.

Prominent in the discussions was a desire for adults to listen, respect and respond to the needs of children so children are not too intimidated to speak out.

Attention had to be paid to the root of the problem - poverty - and the children underlined the need for Governments and businesses to help create jobs and provide credit for loans to poor families so that their children don't end up homeless or miss school to go to work.

To ensure no child slipped under the net, local authorities should ensure children of both migrant parents and street children receive birth certificates when they are born and make sure they have the same rights as other children.

For those already on the streets, the children said local authorities should build shelters for them and make sure they have access to schooling.

"We want to have more access to information to gain knowledge as well as improve our skills so we can protect ourselves from trafficking and abuse, especially those of us from remote and mountainous areas where ethnic minority people live," a proposal read.

Director of International Labour Organisation in Vietnam Rose Marie Greve said she was impressed by the children's work at the forum and she would help them promote their message to the leaders of the Mekong region at a regional Mekong Youth Forum to be held in Bangkok in September 2007.

Rose said she believed that yesterday's efforts would bring positive results in the fight against trafficking and child abuse.

Also present at the forum was Deputy Prime Minister Truong Vinh Trong, who said people across the world should listen and put the children's words into action by building laws and socio-economic development programmes, and leaders of ministries and organisations should regularly consult with children in order to protect them.

He said it was necessary to attack the negative side of global integration - trafficking and child labour - by building more policies and standards to build a system to ensure the safety of the country's next generation.

Government action
Trong said Vietnam always made children a priority, and was always looking to mobilise support for them from individuals, economic sectors and international organisations.

He drew attention to moves already made by the Government, including the action programme signed by the Prime Minister on preventing and fighting human trafficking for the 2004-10 period.

The three-day forum has been organised by Vietnam Committee for Population, Family and Children, Save the Children UK, International Labour Organisation and UN Inter-Agency Programme.

A number of the children participating at the forum will be chosen by their peers to attend the regional Mekong Youth Forum next month.

While the new Children's Act introduced during June 2007 contains no direct consequence for the entertainment industry, the act is not yet completed. Specific provision is made for the Minister of Labour to broaden the scope of what could constitute prohibited child labour, according to entertainment lawyer Charl Groenewald.

Meanwhile, he maintains, too few producers fully appreciate the extent of the legislation that already regulates the use of children in productions.


“The recent release of Notes on a Scandal and Blood Diamond, two highly acclaimed movies that make use of child actors who portray children in extremely disturbing circumstances, has once again raise the issue of how or whether children may be used in productions that expose them to violence, sex or other potentially disturbing situations,” he says.

In Notes on a Scandal, a female school teacher has a sexual relationship with one of her pupils and Blood Diamond depicts children in brutally violent surroundings as child soldiers.

“Legal issues”

“Although the films are bona fide and brilliantly executed, there are legal issues that need to be addressed alongside the ethical and moral ones. In South Africa, a producer could look to the new Children's Act for legal guidance, but that would not be the place to start,” he adds.

Instead, the starting point in this matter is the South African Constitution. Section 28(1)(f) states that every child should not be required or permitted to perform work or provide services that

(i) are inappropriate for a person of that child's age; or

(ii) place at risk the child's well being, education, physical or mental health or spiritual, moral or social development.

Then there's the Basic Conditions of Employment Act that gives legislative effect to the Constitution in sections 43 and 44.

“The two key Sections are 43(1) and 43(2),” Groenewald continues.

Section 43(2) determines that no person may employ a child in employment that is inappropriate for a person of that age and/or that places at risk the child's wellbeing, education, physical or mental health, or spiritual, moral or social development.

“No ifs, ands or buts”

“While there are some basic conditions of employment that may be varied, Section 43(2) is unequivocal – no ifs, ands or buts,” Groenewald says.

Then there's Section 43(1) which determines that no person may employ a child who is under 15 years of age. The Minister of Labour has issued what's known as Sectoral Determination 10 (commonly referred to as ‘SD10') which allows for Section 43(1) to be varied to allow the employment of children in the performance of advertising, sports, artistic or cultural activities.

However, SD10 also requires that before producers can go ahead and employ a child under the age of 15, they must obtain a permit from the Department of Labour. The Department can refuse to issue a permit if it is not convinced that the child's interest would be properly protected.

“It doesn't end there. The Minister of Labour has also issued a Code of Good Practice for the Employment of Children in the Performance of Advertising, Artistic or Cultural Activities. This provides further requirements of which every producer should be aware,” Groenewald continues.

For example, section 5 deals with a child actor's dressing room: ‘No adult shall be allowed to occupy the dressing room simultaneously with the child, except the duly appointed wardrobe mistress and/or parent and/or child minder'.

Fully aware

Producers therefore need to be fully aware of all the general rules applicable to working with children. So, may a child be exposed to violence, sex or similar situations for the purposes of a movie or other production?

“The answer lies in the following questions: will this negatively affect the child's well being, mental health or spiritual, moral or social development, and is it inappropriate for a child of that age?

“If the answer to these questions is ‘yes', the production will fall foul of the Constitution, the Basic Conditions of Employment Act and SD 10. In other words, it would amount to a criminal offence,” Groenewald concludes.

http://www.bizcommunity.com/Article/196/17/16908.html

India's export of human hair to China is a booming business but it's also entangled in issues of respiratory disease and child labor. Margot Cohen reports

A strange harvest is spread out to dry on the dirt roads and flat rooftops of Bhagyanagar, a village in India's southern state of Karnataka. Instead of the usual red chillies or paddy stalks, the display reveals ragged clumps of hair: some black, some gray, some as long as a meter.

It is hard to imagine these lifeless strands attached to the head of a vibrant Indian woman, tightly plaited and festooned with flowers. It is even harder to imagine this hair traveling all the way to China, then transformed into bouncy hair extensions or sleek wigs sought by women in America and Africa. Indeed, the women workers in Bhagyanagar do not know where the hair goes. They only know that it pays for food, and if they can manage, some wedding expenses.

"It's a good job. Until I get married, I will work here," says 17-year-old Sangeeta Devakolla, who earns 35 rupees (HK$7) daily at Vinayak Enterprises, one of 135 hair-processing units in the village. Inside, the floor is littered with bouffant piles, teased apart from the matted tufts culled from combs far away. Hour after hour, Devakolla drags bunches of tangled hair through a bed of iron prongs, separating the valuable strands from the filth.

However humble or nauseating it appears, the human hair trade has evolved into a fast-growing money-spinner for India and China. Thanks to expanding retail markets in the United States and Africa, China is now ramping up imports of Indian hair and providing a livelihood for tens of thousands of Indian villagers. China's biggest players are keen to move beyond their longstanding Afro- American market to design more elaborate products for Caucasians. They also wish to lure domestic Chinese consumers who are experimenting with new hairstyles that blend fakery with fashion.

According to Indian government statistics, India exported US$51 million (HK$397.8 million) worth of hair to China from April 2006 to March 2007, a 25 percent jump from the previous year and two thirds of the total US$73 million in stated hair exports. But industry insiders maintain that the official statistics grossly understate the real value of this little-known nugget of bilateral trade between the two giant neighbors. MM Gupta, chairman of one of the leading Indian hair exporters, Gupta Enterprises, maintains that India's hair exports topped US$175 million last year and predicts the figure should reach US$250 million this year.

Exporters insist that novices must understand the difference between India's two major categories of hair: "temple" hair and "fallen" hair. The first kind is shaved from the heads of devotees who flock to major Hindu temples, such as the Sri Venkateswara shrine in the state of Andhra Pradesh.

While this category has dominated public attention, due to its exotic cachet, it actually comprises just 10 to 20 percent of India's hair exports. The vast majority, estimated at 80 to 90 percent, is "fallen" hair, normally taken from the household comb and sold to a wide network of traders in both northern and southern India. Villages that process the hair are mostly found on the outskirts of New Delhi and Calcutta, or dotting rural districts in Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka.

Chinese companies focus their efforts on procuring the fallen hair, which costs far less than the temple hair. For example, one kilogram of 50-centimeter-long temple hair was priced at US$225 in late May, compared with US$85 for fallen hair of the same length. While the American and European importers tend to praise temple hair for its consistent length and sheen, some Chinese companies believe it is overrated and prefer the bargain hair to keep their own wholesale and retail prices low.

"We can treat the fallen hair to very closely resemble temple hair," says Hawkins Guan, managing director of Dragon Proof in Hong Kong. "Frankly speaking, the price [of temple hair] is much higher than its value."

To be sure, Chinese wig manufacturers like Dragon Proof still rely on 60 to 70 percent of Chinese hair for their products. But Indian hair is known to be softer and finer than the Chinese variety, so it can create a different look, no matter what color it is dyed. Gupta claims that Europeans take the prize for the softest hair worldwide, followed by Indians. As for the Chinese variety, he curtly compares it to "horsehair."

Tradition also plays a part. Particularly in rural areas, Indian women and their male admirers prize long hair. Then it comes down to sheer demographics. "You've got the people, you've got the hair," concludes Guan. The Chinese have identified a few alternative sources, such as Vietnam and Indonesia, but India's 1.1 billion population trumps those countries for volume.

Centuries ago, the abundant strands attracted traders from Ceylon, now Sri Lanka. In more recent times, China and India competed to supply hair to the prodigious wig factories in South Korea. But in the mid-1970s, Korean investors found it more economical to shift their operations to China. And as in other industries, the Chinese quickly mastered the technology, ratcheted up production and seized control of the trade. Today, the biggest manufacturer, Henan Rebecca Hair Products, is based in Xuchang, Henan Province. It employs some 10,000 workers, while more modest factories count 1,000 to 5,000 workers on the payroll. Stunned by the scale of Chinese manufacturing and investment, India has not even attempted to launch wig factories of its own.

Even the smaller Chinese firms are struggling to compete with giants like Henan Rebecca, which exported some US$120 million worth of wigs and hair extensions last year and expects sales to increase 20 percent this year. Despite previous allegations that it has relied on prison labor, the company launched a flagship wig store in Beijing in February and expects to open more retail outlets elsewhere in China. Amid the scramble to purchase sufficient quantities of fallen hair, prices are rising and dozens of small factories have recently collapsed.

"I think in the future, demand will increase," says Zu Lei, director of the overseas material collecting department at Henan Rebecca. "Now we are trying to improve our processing technology and increase the production level. We want to do some more products for the Caucasian market."

Zu says his company aims to buy 800 tonnes of Indian hair this year, up from 600 tonnes last year.
A small army of Indian scrap collectors will help fulfill such ambitions. They roam villages and towns, scooping up hairballs along with discarded metals and other household tidbits. In many cases, barter trade prevails. A vendor might peddle an ice cream to a child, or some trinkets to a mother, and accept a hairball or two as payment.

In Basaveshwarnagar, a ramshackle neighborhood in Koppal town, women tuck tufts of discarded hair into their bamboo fences or nearby electricity poles. They consider such human sheddings so dirty that they won't keep them inside the house. Yet they cheerfully display the booty they have acquired in exchange: costume jewelry, shiny barrettes, plastic flowers, ceramic figurines, even a few round adhesive "bindi" to adorn their foreheads.

The hairballs are then stuffed into sacks and sent by truck or train to the processing units in villages where little alternative work is available. Take Bhagyanagar, which literally means "place of happiness." The village was established in 1953, when the government relocated a community of weavers to make way for a dam. Today, some power looms are still clacking from morning till night. But the village has staked its life on the hair industry, which slowly took shape in the 1970s yet has only flourished over the past five years. In one family, it is not unusual for three or four siblings to chase hair wages. The sisters tease and untangle, while their brothers cut and bundle. Large families predominate in this poor, ill-educated corner of rural Karnataka.

So much work is flowing into Bhagyanagar that it has spilled over to seven or so neighboring villages, drawing 10,000 local people into its network. That has prompted some jealousy in the remaining hair-bereft villages, where landless farmers get by with just 25 rupees a day from working in the fields. "In Bhagyanagar, they are all rich!" exclaims Panduranga Olekar, founder of the Olekar Education and Welfare Society, a non-government development group based in Koppal.

The village doesn't look so prosperous. Pigs wander along unpaved roads. Drainage is poor, and residents say they can't get decent drinking water. But here cement has replaced the mud bricks used in homes elsewhere. Approximately 150 self-help groups have sprung up, helping women workers save roughly 40 rupees a week, according to Nagaraj Joshi, senior manager of the Bhagyanagar branch of the Pragati Grameen Bank. Between the purchasing agents and other players in the hair industry, the branch collects one million rupees each day, far exceeding the turnover in nearby branches where agriculture remains the only source of income.

Still, this "place of happiness" has its share of distress. Dr Mahesh Umachadi, medical officer at Bhagyanagar's public health center, points to the hair industry's debilitating side effects. Out of the 1,300 patients he sees each month, 40 percent suffer from respiratory tract infections, which he attributes to tiny dust particles that are emitted during hair processing and settle in the lungs. And since workers are reluctant to take a break for treatment, such infections can flare into serious illness. From January to July, Dr Umachadi has treated 22 patients for tuberculosis. Poor quality food tends to reduce immunity to the disease.

"Everybody depends on this work. We should not stop it, but we should encourage more hygienic conditions, such as requiring workers to wear masks," he says. Umachadi has distributed free masks, but no one bothers to wear them.

One of his patients recovering from tuberculosis is Gangamma Pattar, a mother of six. She received no benefits when she missed work for four months. There were plenty of other hands to tease the hairballs and whip them through the iron prongs. Now, she is preparing to return, eager to scrape together the school fees for her youngest daughter, 11-year-old Lalitha.

"I struggled so much," says Pattar. "I want to send my daughter to school, so she can get a job with the government."

Some local leaders argue that the hair exporters should do more to support the community.
"They only give money to construct temples. They are not helping the people," says Krishna Ittangi, vice president of the gram panchayat, the local council. "They should contribute two percent of their earnings for workers' health and education."

The business already employs too many tiny hands. Despite periodic government raids on child labor in Bhagyanagar and neighboring villages, it remains common to see small girls in pigtails bent over piles of hairballs.

"She will not be paid," stammers Basavaraj, manager of the BS Pawar processing unit, when asked about a 10-year-old child toiling next to her mother. As in other unskilled occupations, some children manage to combine hair work with homework. The hair factories are flush with children during the school holidays, according to Olekar and other observers.

No controversy over child labor or health issues will likely derail this lucrative trade. A far greater threat lurks in Japan, where some companies are determined to develop the perfect synthetic hair: softer, cleaner, and cheaper than human hair. If they succeed, India's "fallen" hair could plummet to insignificance in the global wig market, just another fashion victim with human consequences.

Ministers from several Central American nations are gathering to discuss child labor problems in their countries.

Ministers of Education and Labor from Central America and the Dominican will meet in Panama to discuss the problem of child labor, especially in the rural areas of the region.

In addition, presidents of the Episcopal Conferences of Panama, Honduras, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala and Dominican, will also attend the meeting which is to be held on August 8 and 9.

The goal of the meeting is to eradicate child labor in the region. The ministers also plan to create programs ensuring a more decent life for children.

Programs include creating strategies aimed at guaranteeing children's right to education, prevention and eradication of child labor, as well as work safety programs for teenagers at work place.

Central and South American regions face enormous problems with regards to child labor and juvenile delinquency issues caused by poor economic conditions.

Despite laws and regulations, child labor continues to be a major problem of the country

An orphan from an early age, Madan Karki (name changed),14, used to work at his uncle's small farm in Jeevanpur of Dhading District, 50 kilometer west of capital. Madan's job was to take the cattle for grazing the whole day. One day, a family friend approached him with offer for work at his home in Kathmandu with a promise that he will be admitted in a school.

However, the man instead engaged him at a carpet factory in Kathmandu. Working like a bonded labor, Madan was forced to learn knotting wool rugs on heavy wooden looms. His workdays started at 4 am in the morning till 11 at night. The earthen floor of the factory was his bed. When the owner obtained a rush order, he and the other boys would have to work throughout the entire night. Despite his hard work, the owner always scolded and physically abused him.

After working in harsh conditions for about eight months in the factory, Madan –who was not paid - fled the factory to work as a helper in a gas tempo. Now, he earns about Rs 1000 (approximately $15) a month. Madan's case is not a unique one as this is the reality of many child workers in Nepal.

One of the significant factors that have forced children like Madan to work is poverty. His uncle could not afford school for him. Instead, he wanted Madan to help in his household chores.

As long as Madan assisted his uncle, his uncle did not have to spend extra money by employing a shepherd. Therefore, Madan was also contributing to his family income. However, it is against the law to make children work all day long by denying them education, entertainment and rest. But this law is rampantly violated.
"The ministry has been doing its best to rehabilitate the children working in risk areas," said spokesman of the Ministry of Women, Children and Social Welfare.

According to a recently published report of Nepal Living Standard Survey II, more than 30 percent of the population lives below poverty line where parents income is not sufficient to cater to the basic needs of the family. Therefore, children are obliged to work to generate income to supplement the family earning.

Children supply their labor with nominal money. Since poor parents only care about their children's salary, which they receive, they are oblivious to the working situation of their children.  

Although law exists to prevent child labor, statistics show that there are too many child labors in Nepal. According to ILO, there are 2.6 million children between the ages of 5 to 14 years currently working in Nepal. The National Census 2001 revealed that children aged below 14 years consist of 40 percent of total population.

Because Nepal's dependency on child labor is so deeply entrenched, only half of the children are allowed to complete the fifth grade of school. The ILO reports showed that. Children are employed in eighteen different sectors like in brick kiln, coal mines, child prostitution, mug house, leather processing industry, coal mine, stone quarrying, match factory, house-hold helper, bonded labor, street children, mine and carpet factory, drug trafficking, transport sector etc. About 1.4 million children are not provided the salary for their work and 1.27 million children are working in worst forms of labor.

There are many reasons for child labor in Nepal like poverty, illiteracy, and lack of employment, family problems, internal conflict, and the lack of law enforcement, cheaply available child labors and scant economic opportunities.

“The government should create new employment opportunities in rural as well as urban areas. Along with launching different skill development programs for unskilled labor, the government needs to enforce the child labor act strictly,” said an NGO worker.

Experts argue that education up to secondary level should be made free so that children will not be forced to drop out because of poor economic situation. Apart from enforcing law and addressing poverty, government also requires the help of the civil society to tackle this problem.

With the support from ILO and other INGOs like Save the Children Norway, Save the Children USA and CWIN, the situation has been gradually improving but there is still a long way to go before bringing about positive changes in the lives of children like Madan Karki.

EMBU - Vice President Moody Awori today called for an end to an emerging culture of child trafficking in the country.

Terming the cases as both disturbing and a violation of the law, Mr. Awori urged Kenyans and law enforcement agencies to join hands and ensure that the trade is stamped out immediately.

The Vice President stressed the need to uphold and protect the rights of the child, particularly the girl-child, saying the future of the nation rested with them.

At the same time, Mr. Awori appealed to leaders and parents to educate the youth on the dangers of taking drugs.

“As leaders we should be in the forefront in supporting the government in this war which threatens the very future of our country”, Mr. Awori said.

The Vice President was speaking at Sacred Heart, Kyeni Girls High School in Embu District during a fundraiser towards the construction of the school’s science laboratory.

During the function, Kshs. 5,059,031.00 was raised with Mr. Awori‘s donation of Kshs. 300,000.
The Runyenjees Member of Parliament, Mr. Nyaga Wambora contributed Kshs. 30,000, the School’s Board of Governors, Kshs. 300,000, the school’s Parents Teachers Association, Kshs. 3million, the Embu Diocese Catholic Church Bishop, Rt. Rev. Anthony Muheria gave Kshs. 25,000 while the Embu Provincial Director of Education, R. Adu gave Kshs. 300,000.

The Vice President said it was the government’s intention that the country’s youth get a quality and holistic education through the provision of the necessary facilities such as laboratories, libraries and social halls among others.

Mr. Awori advised students to work hard in their studies especially in the science subjects so as to secure their future.

In politics, the Vice President appealed to Kenyans to support President Mwai Kibaki’s bid for re-election in the forthcoming general elections.

“President Kibaki’s leadership has seen this country register tremendous development in various spheres of the economy and it is only fair that Kenyans granted him a second term to accomplish the vision he has started for the country”, he pointed out.

He similarly urged them to support Narc-Kenya party saying that besides having a national outlook it had the best vision for the country’s future.

Runyejees MP, Mr. Wambora promised that the local Constituency Development Fund committee will allocate Kshs. 500,000 towards the construction of a library at the school.

The MP commended the Catholic Church who are the sponsors of the school for supplementing government efforts to provide quality education to Kenyans.

Bishop Muheria assured of the church’s commitment to produce students who are both academically and spiritually strong in all its education institutions.

The Prelate appealed to members of societies to set good examples to the youth by defending and upholding virtuous life.

LANGKAWI, Aug 6 (Bernama) -- Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi's passion to enhance capacity building and human capital to eradicate poverty suits the smart partnership approach of the Langkawi International Dialogue (LID).

His special representative to the Commonwealth Partnership on Technology Management (CPTM), Tan Sri Omar Abdul Rahman, who said this, pointed out that since organising LID in 1995, Malaysia has been looking at issues affecting development in the developing countries from the smart partnership perspective.

Omar said the various LID series and its similar editions in the form of the Southern African International Dialogue (SAID), participants have discussed in an informal environment how the smart partnership framework can help solve the problems of African countries.

"We have been having dialogues in Africa and dialogues in Langkawi. And the topics have always been what the host country wanted but we examined all these things in relation to national development within the smart partnership perspective," he told Bernama.

"When it was Malaysia's turn to host LID again, the Prime Minister wanted to look at poverty alleviation. This is his special area of focus to assist developing countries. So we are looking at poverty alleviation through human capital development and capacity building."

He said that the London-based CPTM, which is assisting the Foreign Ministry to organise LID 2007, had spent a lot of time discussing this year's theme of "Poverty Eradication through Human Capital Development and Capacity Building".