New Delhi, June 28: Describing bonded and child labour as a ''stigma and a shame on national life'', NHRC chairperson Justice S Rajendra Babu has said the existence of this menace is a challenge to the civilisation and a betrayal of constitutional culture.

''Bonded labour is a violation of human rights and contravention of international obligations... We have assured equality of status and opportunity for the dignity of the individual in our constitution yet much needs to be done,'' Justice Rajendra Babu said in his inaugural address at the 'National workshop on Bonded and Child Labour'.

He said by interpreting correctly the provisions of the Constitution the menace can be rooted out.

Stressing upon the need to psychologically rehabilitate the bonded labourers, he said physical and economical rehabilitation is also required to ensure that they do not fall prey again.

The Chairperson asked all representatives to carry out surveys in their respective states to ascertain the presence of bonded labour.

The day-long deliberations dealt with issues related to bonded and child labour, including constitutional provisions, bonded Labour System (Abolition Act) and disowning by states the existence of bonded/child labour.

The participants at the workshop said there is a need for a Nodal Agency, which could release funds for the rehabilitation of freed bonded labourers while stressing that panchayats should be made responsible for rehabilitation and the District Magistrates should be involved.

They also said that specific provisions should be made for traffickers or the labour suppliers who basically uproot the labourers from their native place.

The other topics included centrally sponsored Schemes, convergence of schemes for meaningful, permanent and effective rehabilitation, special problems on identification, release and rehabilitation of migrant bonded labourers (adults and children), child labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act, National Child Labour Project, State Level Monitoring Committee, district and sub divisional level Vigilance Committees and orientation and Training of Members of Vigilance Committees and Magistrates.

Addressing the workshop, Union Labour Secretary Suddha Pillai called upon state officials to initiate projects so as to converge development schemes for the benefit of bonded labourers.

''Prosecution is an essential tool to do away with this problem.

Panchayati Raj institution can play an active role in identifying bonded labour,'' she observed.

Mr Pallai asked state authorities to organize workshops on bonded labour at district levels to sensitize the people.

Representatives from the Ministry of Labour and Employment and several states including, Andhra Pradesh, Chattisgarh, Gujarat, Haryana, Jammu and Kashmir, West Bengal and Delhi participated in the workshop.

The Talensi-Nabdam District Chief Executive (DCE), Mr. Sebastian Tibil Bisnab has entreated chiefs and the people of the District to support the Assembly and its collaborating agencies to eliminate all forms of child labour in the District.

He indicated that the efforts of the Assembly and partner organizations to manage, control and prevent the occurrence of child labour in the District would be fruitless without the co-operation and support of all.

The DCE made the appeal at a durbar in commemoration of the World Day Against Child Labour and the launch of Afrikids-Ghana's and the International Labour Organization (ILO) collaborated project on Worst Forms of Child Labour in the District, christened 'Operation Fresh Start'.

Mr. Bisnab said the theme, "Harvesting for the Future,Agriculture without Child Labour" drew the nation's attention to the abuses meted out to the children who were expected to lead this nation in future, reiterating that about seventy percent of children of school going age were engaged in agriculture at the expense of their education.

Mr. Bisnab said government had put in place friendly and pragmatic measures such as the capitation grant and school feeding programme to ease the financial burden of parents and guardians to enable them enroll and retain their children in school.

He said what the parents, guardians and chiefs could do to complement government's efforts was ensuring that all children at school going age were enrolled and retained in school, stating that it was therefore not justifiable to deny the children their right to education under the pretence of poverty.

"Let us resist the temptation of selling out or giving out our children for menial jobs in the cities.

Investing in the education of the children is a sure guarantee for their future and we owe it a duty as a signatory to the ILO Child Labour Convention to uphold the rights of our children", he urged the people.

The Country Director of Afrikids-Ghana, Mr. Nicholas Kumah explained that 'Operation Fresh Start' was aimed at withdrawing at least 150 of child labour with emphasis on children in mining by providing them with an alternative livelihood and to prevent 450 children from entering into worst forms of child labour by educating them on the dangers involved in such work.

The project according to him, would also empower parents of such children to enable them to provide for their needs and that of their children so that they would not suffer the absence of support their children offered to them as a result of working at the mines.
He announced that the project which has two-year lifespan would cost 1,232, 164,000 cedis, which the ILO was contributing 529,274,000 while the deficit of 710,290,000 cedis would be borne by Afrikids and its partners.

Given the short lifespan of the project, Mr. Kumah proposed that the District Assembly should include worse forms of child labour elimination in its development plans while it promulgate bye-laws to deter and check children from entering into galamsey.

He suggested that the micro-finance component of the project should be seriously supported by the Assembly to enable parents of beneficiary children to continue the up keep of the children as well as encouraging vigorous education by all stakeholders for the Free Compulsory Universal Basic Education (FCUBE) programme to take its roots.

In recognizing that sustainability always had a social and economic dimension, the activities designed in 'Operation Sunlight' involved working with collaborators such as the district and community child labour committees, parents, teachers, religious leaders and child labour clubs to create a sense of ownership and responsibility for the programme, Mr. Kumah noted, indicating, "Here sustainability is generated through the provision of knowledge and guidance to the relevant communities to provide for an anticipated long-term change in communities attitude towards children, children's rights and child labour."

The pupils held a procession through the streets of Tongo, the capital of Talensi-Nabdam District with placards. Among some of the inscriptions on the placards were 'child labour is a crime, arrest them all', 'children have the right to education', 'send all children to school' and 'stop child labour now!'

Government and other social partners should come up with measures that eliminate and fight the worst forms of child labour, a senior official has said.

Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare permanent secretary Mr Lance Museka said this yesterday when he officially opened a workshop on the elimination of the worst forms of child labour in Zimbabwe.

"Government and other stakeholders should draft a methodology which makes it possible for us to achieve our goal of eliminating the worst forms of child labour and, ultimately, all forms of child labour," Mr Museka said.

"May we, therefore, find strength and vigour in executing our vitally important mandate to eliminate the worst forms of child labour in Zimbabwe, knowing that there is no other endeavour as pertinent as this one for the sustainable development of our country."

Mr Museka said the fight against child labour, particularly in the agricultural sector, was not the concern of the International Labour Organisation only but that of governments, employers and other social partners, including the Food and Agricultural Organisation and the International Fund for Agriculture.

He said Zimbabwe had come up with legislation that seeks to eliminate all forms of child labour.

"As you would be aware, following the National Child Labour Survey of 1999 and the subsequent ratification of Conventions 138 and 182 by Zimbabwe, our labour legislation has been reviewed to strengthen initiatives against child labour," he said.

Zimbabwe has also come up with an action plan that protects and ensures orphans and other children in difficult circumstances have access to amenities such as education, food and health services, he said.

"In the main, the action plan seeks to protect children from abuse and exploitation," he said.

The action plan was operationalised through co-ordinated efforts by the Government, United Nations agencies and civil society organisations.

Mr Museka, however, noted that legislation alone was not adequate to address child labour but there was need to come up with other measures to protect children.

He said penalties against the practice were also not deterrent enough.

"It is, therefore, incumbent upon us to find other viable means of complementing the measures as expressed in our legislation and the various instruments on the rights of the child," he said.

Zimbabwe, like any other developing nation, continues to be afflicted by child labour and the issues have also been compounded by the HIV and Aids scourge and the increasing number of child headed families.

At least 132 million children in the world are working in the agricultural sector, operating heavy and dangerous machinery and work the longest hours.

This constitutes about 70 percent of all children engaged in child labour.

The Founder of the Global March against Child Labour, Mr. Kailash Satyarthi, will arrive in Ghana on Friday to learn about the progress being made to eradicate forced labour and child labour on cocoa farms.

As part of his visit, Mr Satyarthi would hold meetings with government officials and other international organizations operating in Ghana including the International Labour Organization (ILO), United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and local non-governmental organizations that advocate the elimination of child labour in Ghana

A statement signed by Mr Andrews Addoquaye Tagoe, Head of Programmes, Sustainable Agriculture and Rural Development of the Ghana Agricultural Workers Union (GAWU), said Mr. Satyarthi’s visit would also be a platform to strengthen the Global March Movement, particularly the partnership between trade unions, NGOs and other civil society groups in the fight against child labour and decent work for adults.

Mr. Satyarthi, who is also the President of the Global Campaign for Education, will also appoint a Ghanaian as the Anglophone Africa Coordinator for the Global March against Child Labour while in Ghana.

Also on his agenda is a meeting to introduce and share the “Quadrangular Paradigm” which establishes a necessity in their linkage on the issues of child labour, illiteracy, poverty and violence against children while strengthening the movement against child labour for free and good quality education for all children.

Mr. Satyarthi, born in 1954 in Vidisha in Madhya Pradesh, India, gave up a lucrative career as an electrical engineer to dedicate his life for the cause of child bonded labourers.

He founded Bachpan Bachao Andolan (BBA) (Save the Childhood Movement) in 1980, which is currently used to symbolize the struggle against child labour and child servitude.

Mr Satyarthi spearheaded the rescue of over 75,000 bonded child labourers from brick kilns, carpet looms and stone quarries and developed a successful model for their education and rehabilitation through the three rehabilitation centres that he and his organization had established.

His achievements as an international child labour activist are numerous. Among them was the lead role he played in bringing together over 20,000 NGOs around the world to participate in the 80,000-kilometre long Global March against Child Labour.

Spanning 103 countries, including Ghana, over 7.2 million people globally participated in it and this led to the ILO Convention 182 on the Worst Forms of Child Labour in 1999.

GOVERNMENT and other social partners should come up with measures that eliminate and fight the worst forms of child labour, a senior official has said.

Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare permanent secretary Mr Lance Museka said this yesterday when he officially opened a workshop on the elimination of the worst forms of child labour in Zimbabwe.

"Government and other stakeholders should draft a methodology which makes it possible for us to achieve our goal of eliminating the worst forms of child labour and, ultimately, all forms of child labour," Mr Museka said.

"May we, therefore, find strength and vigour in executing our vitally important mandate to eliminate the worst forms of child labour in Zimbabwe, knowing that there is no other endeavour as pertinent as this one for the sustainable development of our country."

Mr Museka said the fight against child labour, particularly in the agricultural sector, was not the concern of the International Labour Organisation only but that of governments, employers and other social partners, including the Food and Agricultural Organisation and the International Fund for Agriculture.
He said Zimbabwe had come up with legislation that seeks to eliminate all forms of child labour.
"As you would be aware, following the National Child Labour Survey of 1999 and the subsequent ratification of Conventions 138 and 182 by Zimbabwe, our labour legislation has been reviewed to strengthen initiatives against child labour," he said.

Zimbabwe has also come up with an action plan that protects and ensures orphans and other children in difficult circumstances have access to amenities such as education, food and health services, he said.
"In the main, the action plan seeks to protect children from abuse and exploitation," he said.
The action plan was operationalised through co-ordinated efforts by the Government, United Nations agencies and civil society organisations.

Mr Museka, however, noted that legislation alone was not adequate to address child labour but there was need to come up with other measures to protect children.

He said penalties against the practice were also not deterrent enough.

"It is, therefore, incumbent upon us to find other viable means of complementing the measures as expressed in our legislation and the various instruments on the rights of the child," he said.
Zimbabwe, like any other developing nation, continues to be afflicted by child labour and the issues have also been compounded by the HIV and Aids scourge and the increasing number of child headed families.

At least 132 million children in the world are working in the agricultural sector, operating heavy and dangerous machinery and work the longest hours.

This constitutes about 70 percent of all children engaged in child labour.

CHILDREN under 14 will not be legally allowed to work under tough new child labour laws approved by the SA Industrial Relations Commission today.

SA Unions emerged victorious from a lengthy legal battle it had fought with Business SA over controversial laws it had drafted last year.

As reported by The Advertiser last July, the call for a shake-up of child labour laws was first made in a draft submission from SA Unions to the Industrial Relations Commission review of legislation covering youth employment.

The SA Unions proposal, modelled on Queensland's Child Employment Act 2006, is designed to protect children under 16 from performing work that may be harmful to their health and safety.

SA Unions secretary Janet Giles said winning the case brought by Business SA was a "major breakthrough" for young workers and unions.

She said the decision meant SA Unions was able to proceed to make an award to protect children regardless of the industry in which they worked.

"We will now assess the best way to proceed through discussions with employers and the Industrial Relations Minister," she said.

"We believe that the IRC's decision to reject Business SA's opposition to our proposal is a victory for workers and their unions and a victory for common sense."

She said legal advice obtained by SA Unions was that the proposed Child Labour Award 2006 would override the Federal Government's IR laws.

Key elements include:
ESTABLISHING 14 as the minimum age for employment.

CHILDREN under 16 banned from unsupervised deliveries to private residence.

LIMITING hours of employment for children in formal education or training.

CHILDREN under 15 banned from working between 6pm and 6am.

CHILD workers must be supervised by an adult, who has responsibility for no more than three children at the same time.

However, the draft award does not apply to children working in a family business.

Business SA chief executive Peter Vaughan said the blanket award proposed by SA Unions was "inappropriate and unnecessary".

He said the award would limit availability and flexibility for junior workers.

"Laws already exist to protect children against issues such as harassment, bullying and discrimination," he said.

"We will examine the decision and decide which path to proceed with from here."

Industrial Relations Minister Michael Wright said the government supports moves to improve safety and working conditions for young people.

'However further consultation needs to take place on a suitable approach,' he said.

Twenty former child labourers have completed training in different fields at Kyema Vocational Training Institute in Masindi, putting a smile on the faces of civil society organisations engaged in combating child labour.

The institute, located in Karujubu sub-county, offers courses in carpentry and joinery, brick laying and concrete practice, tailoring and cutting, agriculture as well as computer and entrepreneurship training.

The institute was established two years age to provide educational opportunities to child farmers in the area.

The national labour policy identifies the worst forms of child labour as engaging in agriculture, domestic labour, armed conflict and commercial sexual activities.

Globally, the agricultural sector employs about 70% of children, making it one of the dangerous industries in the lives of children.

"Currently, Kyema has 65 boys and 47 girls. The graduands will be able to establish sustainable careers in future," says Jacob Akunobere, the Principle of the institute.

A study done in four tobacco growing districts of Arua, Apac, Rukungiri and Masindi showed that 90% of the homes used children to work in their gardens, primary school enrolment was low and that absenteeism in schools was high -- at 25% during the tobacco peak season.

The study also showed that academic performance was adversely affected.

According to the chairman of the Partnership of Eliminating Child Labour in Tobacco in Uganda, Martin Gwoke, child labour in agriculture is one of the biggest issues that hinders children from getting education in Uganda and also fuels poverty.

Over $600,000 has been injected into the establishment of the Kyema project, which is a day and boarding institute.

The project is funded by the International Labour Organisation through its International Programme for the Elimination of Child Labour.

The project involves identification of child labourers and placing them in Universal Primary Education schools or Kyema Vocational Institute for skills training.

"The institute is one of the projects which Masindi district and the Government will use to address child labour by giving children alternatives.

It is a high profile institute, with a lot of space for expansion (68 acres). It may turn into a university in future," noted the Minister for Elderly and Disabled, Sulaiman Madada.

Masindi was chosen as a good site for the giant institute because apart from being centrally located, there are examples of intervention of child labour like capacity building of government and civil society organisations and community sensitisation on prevention and withdraw strategies.

The Centre for Rural Enterprises Development (CRED),a Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) has enrolled 77 children withdrawn from worst forms of child labour in the area to acquire formal education.

The NGO undertook the project in collaboration with the International Labour Organisation (ILO), the International Programme on Elimination of Child Labour and the Ajumako-Enyan-Essiam district Assembly.

Breman Essiam, Ajumako Bisease, Enyan Maim, Eyan Apaa, Okuadze, and Kookwado were some of the communities where children were engaged in commercial agricultureand quarry projects,

James Ampiah the Deputy Executive Director of CRED disclosed this at a durbar to celebrate World Child Day by the Ajumako District at Breman Essiam.

He said the children, aged between the ages of five and fourteen have been supplied with school material including books, pens, pencils, sandals, bags and school uniforms.

Mr. Ampiah said a memorandum of understanding have been signed with the school authorities to show particular interest in the welfare of the children.

Mr. Ampiah said, 23 of the children have been enrolled as apprentices in hairdressing, auto-mechanics, electronics, dressmaking, adding that the NGO has procured equipment, including sewing machines, driers, electrical tools and other materials for the beneficiaries to open their shops after training.

He said, with funding from Danish International Development (DANIDA), Government of Ghana and technical support from Community Water and Sanitation, CRED is providing training for Water and Sanitation Committees in 12 communities in Ajumako District.

Mrs.Abena Serwa-Opare, the focal person for the elimination of the worst forms of child labour in the district said any work that was hazardous or interfered with children education or harmful to the health of the child contravened the children Act 560 of 1998.

She therefore urged parents and guardians to eschew the habit of using children who are future leaders as labourers for economic gains, but rather mobilize their resources to educate them to be useful citizens in society.

ON June 12, Uganda celebrated World Day Against Child Labour. The theme of the day was Harvest For The Future: Agriculture Without Child Labour.

Speaking at the celebrations held at Kyema Vocational Institute in Masindi district, the state minister for the Elderly and Disabled Suliaman Madaada asked parents to stop bad practices like polygamy, which makes them use children as labourers on their farms.

"Parents should stop using children to do work that hinders their education, development and future live hoods," Madaada said. Pupils from Kyema Vocational Institute and Kyema Church of Uganda Primary School marched around Masindi town against child labour.

Kabul: Poverty, lack of educational opportunities and the demand for cheap labour are helping to fuel the prevalence of child labour across Afghanistan, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) has warned.

Nearly one quarter of Afghan children between the ages of 7 and 14 are working, with more girls working than boys and the problem worst in rural areas, Noriko Izumi, head of child protection for UNICEF in Afghanistan, said at a press conference in Kabul.

Poverty and low family income levels force children to work to support while some types of work serve to teach children new skills that can help them become responsible and productive adults. She said work that interferes with the education of children and affects their mental, physical and social well-being is considered child labour.

Lack of educational opportunities also pushes a child to work, as did the demand for cheaper labour, she stated, adding children are cheaper to employ than adults and easier to manipulate. It is easier to hire and fire children.

The International Labour Organisation (ILO) estimates that 218 million children worldwide, from 5 to 17 years old, are engaged in some kind of labour, with 126 million children engaged in the worst forms of child labour.

PUNE: Over 20 slum children from Vishrantwadi braved heavy rains on Friday to dissuade half-a-dozen shopkeepers in the area from employing children in their establishments.

The children in the age group of 6 to 17 years are members of Balsena, a children’s empowerment initiative started by city-based NGO Dnyana Devi, which also runs Childline, the 24-hour helpline for children in distress, to train children to identify and solve their problems. The Balsena was launched last year and has received good response in schools as well as slums, where Dnyana Devi runs informal schools — Gammat Shalas — for children.

Friday’s drive against child labour was a fallout of several complaints received by the Balsena about shopkeepers employing children. While most shopkeepers lost their temper when the Balsena confronted them, there were a handful who listened patiently and assured that they have not and will not employ children.

Kailas Jagtap of Bharatnagar Gammat Shala said, after the summer vacation they found that some students were not attending school. “Other students revealed that the students who were bunking classes were working in some shops.” The Balsena volunteers then decided to visit the shops to create awareness about the ban on child labour and ill-effects of employing children and persuade them to stop the practice, Jagtap added.

The Balsena volunteers for the drive were drawn from Gammat Shalas at Bharatnagar and Katarwadi in Vishrantwadi. They were supervised by their teachers Kailas Jagtap, Shripad Kulkarni and Savita Divate.

While many shopkeepers refused to listen to the Balsena volunteers, some like Rajkumar Agarwal, who runs a shop near Shantinagar tank, were co-operative. He said he did not employ any child labourers.

Aditya Dhandavare (13), member of Balsena, said the Balsena would continue to work for the rights of children and solve their problems.

A gorgeously dressed "madam" strolls into the house and the entire family rises to welcome the aunty just back from the city. The recently retrenched father races towards the aunty along with his wife to state the family woes. The returnee madam asks for the children, who rushes out to meet her. She assures the family that she will take care of their needs even as she announces that she will be going back to the city with one of the children, a ten-year old girl with the family's instant approval.

Just then, she answers her GSM phone where she pleads with a certain Mr. Johnson to exercise a little patience for her. She further tells him that the business was not as easy as he thinks. But before she could end her conversation, nemesis catches up with the "madam" as law enforcement agents, acting on a tip-off, appears on the scene to effect her arrest for child trafficking. The bemused family she was visiting rushes to claim their daughter, who was to accompany the madam to town as she was led away for her past malfeasance.

This short drama sketch staged to mark this year's Day of the African Child at the Women Development Centre, Abuja, penultimate weekend, clearly brings to the fore the pervasive child trafficking malaise, which is raging in most developing countries of the world today. With children from some schools, dignitaries from related agencies and top officials of the Nigerian Children Parliament in attendance, it was a perfect venue to discuss the ills the menace pose to the society.

The   trafficking   of  children  for  the  purpose  of  domestic service, prostitution  and  other  forms  of  exploitative  labour  is  a widespread phenomenon  in  Nigeria.  In view of the clandestine nature of  trafficking, accurate  and reliable figures are hard to get. Globally, child trafficking is  one  of  the  fastest  growing organised  crimes with an estimated 1.2 million victims per year, of which 32 per cent are Africans.

The  Federal Office of Statistics/International Labour Organisation (FOS/ILO)  National Child Labour Survey (2003) estimates that  there are 15  million children engaged in child labour in Nigeria with 40 per cent of them at the  risk  of  being trafficked both internally and externally for domestic and   forced   labour,   prostitution,  entertainment,  pornography,  armed conflict, and sometimes ritual killings.
Nigeria is a source, transit and destination country for child trafficking. Currently,  external  trafficking  of  children  exists between Nigeria and Gabon, Cameroon, Niger, Italy, Spain, Benin Republic and Saudi Arabia.

The National Agency for the Prohibition of   Trafficking   in  Persons  and  Other  Related  matters  (NAPTIP) and United Nations Children's Funds (UNICEF)  Situation  Assessment  of Child Trafficking in Southern Nigerian  States (2004) reported that 46 per cent of repatriated victims of external trafficking  in  Nigeria  are children, with a female to male ratio of 7:3.

They  are  engaged  mainly  in  prostitution  (46%), domestic labour (21%), forced  labour  (15%)  and  entertainment  (8%).  Internal  trafficking  of children  in  Nigeria  was  also  reported  to be for the purpose of forced labour (32%), domestic labour (31%) and prostitution (30%). Boys are mostly trafficked  from  the  south  eastern  states of Imo, Abia and Akwa-Ibom to Gabon,  Equatorial  Guinea and Congo, while those from Kwara go to Togo and as far as Mali to work on plantations.

Between  October  and December 2003, over 500 children from the Republic of Benin  were  rescued  from  granite  quarries and repatriated back to their country  of  origin, through a joint effort of UNICEF in Nigeria and Benin.

Similarly, Nigeria has recently seen an increased number of  repatriation of trafficking  victims  from  many  foreign  countries  such  as  UK,  Italy, Netherlands, USA, Belgium, Ireland, Saudi Arabia and South Africa. Private  transit  camps  have  been  reported  to exist in Akwa-Ibom, Cross Rivers  and  Ondo  States  where  children  are  transported from the south eastern  states  and  forced  into  hard labour and prostitution.

According to close watchers of the trend, there  are  diverse  reasons  why  many Nigerian children are vulnerable to trafficking,   including  widespread  poverty,  large  family  size,   rapid urbanization  with  deteriorating  public services, low literacy levels and high  school-drop out rates. The demand for cheap commercial sex workers in countries  of  destination  strongly  contributes  to  the  growth  of this phenomenon  and  the success of this criminal network.

With a theme: "Combat Child Trafficking", this year's Day of the African Child anniversary was replete with activities designed to end the insidious trade in the country. Speaking at one such event in Abuja, Mrs. Carol Ndaguba, executive secretary, NAPTIP stated that theme of the anniversary was an opportunity to revisit all the vices militating against the African child. She mentioned such crimes to include rape, homelessness, trafficking, prostitution, poverty and the rest of them.

According to her, in July 2003, the Trafficking in Persons Prohibition and Administration Act was  passed in Nigeria, a legislative framework that prohibits all forms of trafficking  in  persons  and protects children and adults against criminal networks.  As  a result of the law, the National Agency for the Prohibition of   Trafficking   in  Persons  and  Other  Related  matters  (NAPTIP)  was established  to  fight  human  trafficking  through investigation of cases, prosecution  of criminals, rescue and rehabilitation of victims. She added that NAPTIP has opened  shelters  to host rescued/repatriated children while investigations are being carried out and the families identified.

She said since 2005, prosecution and conviction of 12 traffickers who are presently imprisoned have been achieved by NAPTIP working in concert with other security agencies. 32 cases, she added are currently at different stages of prosecution in the law courts, while a total of 757 victims have been rescued between February 2004 and December2006, including 6 babies.

Most of these victims, she stated are Nigerian females, while a smaller number are Benin nationals, Togolese and Ghanaians.

In a speech read on his behalf by Mr. Joshua Emmanuel, UNICEF Country Representative in Nigeria, Mr. Ayalew Abai noted that trafficking of children and women was one of the gravest violations of human rights in the world today. "Children and women are terribly abused by people with no conscience and regard for human life. Every year in Nigeria, thousands of women and children are trafficked within the country and across borders to live a life of hardship and untold suffering", Abai stated.

However, he commended the impressive steps that have been taken to address the illegal trade in human beings. He said the legislative framework created by the passage of the Trafficking of Persons Prohibition and Administration Act in 2003 emboldened NAPTIP to properly fight the crime. Similarly, he reckoned that the Child Rights Act which was passed in the same year seeks to create a protective environment for children.

"On behalf of the United Nations, I would like to commend the efforts made by the Federal government of Nigeria in combating child trafficking. Every year, we have seen increasing progress in terms of number of cases reported and investigated, number of criminals prosecuted and convicted, victims rescued and rehabilitated. NAPTIP has opened shelters to host rescued children while investigations are being carried and the families identified", Abai stated.

He lauded the giant leaps that have been recorded in the short time between 2003 and now. He said the collaborative initiative and mutual cooperation between NAPTIP, the Nigeria Police, the Immigration authorities, the justice ministry, NGOs, social workers, psychologists and the media should be applauded.

Abai stressed that great progress was made to address the international dimension of trafficking by signing bilateral agreement with the Benin Republic and supporting fully the organisation of the regional conference on trafficking in persons involving 27 countries from West and Central Africa last year in Abuja. He gave the assurance that UNICEF and its sister agencies would continue to support efforts to fight against child trafficking in all its ramifications.

UNICEF's  support  to  the  prevention  of  child  trafficking  in  Nigeria includes: Enhancing knowledge and research on the phenomenon of trafficking by supporting an efficient surveillance system to document the incidence and nature of rights violation.

Raising public awareness through involvement of the media and addressing attitudes, behaviors and practices through an appropriate communication strategy; Advocating to national / state leaders to effectively combat trafficking by adopting adequate policies and programmes and by implementing legislation; Improving the co-ordination framework and strengthening collaboration at national, regional and international levels; Development and improvement of appropriate institutional responses and care for child victims of trafficking and exploitation.

Others are enhancing the knowledge of the children themselves and adopting a preventive approach. Apart  from  direct  interventions  to  address child trafficking, UNICEF's priority  is  to  build  a  protective  environment  to  prevent the abuse, violence and exploitation of children throughout the country.

To  prevent  young people from being trafficked, UNICEF has facilitated the establishment  of  Youth  Resource  centers  with  the  support  of Swedish International  Development  Agency (SIDA)  and  the UK National Committee. These  centers  provide  health  promotion,  skills  training, recreational services, legal support and information to young people.

In her address at the Abuja event, Dr. Rosemary Abdullahi, director, child development department, Federal Ministry of Women's Affairs and Social Development, stated that the choice of this year's theme was aimed at drawing public attention to the plight of trafficked children in Africa and the need for collective effort towards tackling the challenge.

Abdullahi explained that internal and international child trafficking which is thriving in Nigeria today, has great implications for children and for the future of the country. "A trafficked child is liable to miss out on education, love, protection and care of a normal family life. His or her chances of growing up into a well-adjusted adult are jeopardised", he said.

She said statistics have shown that children between the ages of seven and 16 have been transported to Gabon and Cameroun, from various points in the south-south and south-east of Nigeria. She added that these criminal syndicates involved in smuggling children across international frontiers, do it mainly for menial work, plantation work in Cameroun and commercial sex work in Europe.

"It is no longer news that young girls are trafficked from Nigeria to Italy for work in the sex industry. These girls are deceived with promises of legitimate and lucrative jobs. However, on arrival, they are introduced to the sex trade. The young girls sometimes become destitutes and unable to return to Nigeria except they are deported", Abdullahi stated.

She gave the assurance that government was committed to achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) particularly as they relate to poverty reduction and access to education. She expressed the optimism that poverty and ignorance, which have been the main drivers of child trafficking would be laid to rest.

Abdullahi commended the support and complementary role played in Nigeria by the various UN agencies, development partners, international and national NGOs, philanthropic organisations and other public spirited individuals for their overall effort in curbing child trafficking in the country.

Master Ibrahim Adamu, Senate President of the Nigerian Children Parliament expressed that sadness that many parents give out their children in exchange for a small fee. "It is sad to hear that our country is a source, transit and destination point for child trafficking. We commend the ongoing efforts by various stakeholders towards combating child trafficking in Nigeria", Adamu stated.

He presented the resolutions of the Children's Parliament held the previous day at the same venue. These include the following; the government should provide more job opportunities for the people at the grassroots to solve the problem of poverty; Child participation through the media should be encouraged down to the grassroots to increase awareness on the dangers of child trafficking and children should be enlightened on their rights especially at the grassroots level.

Others are that security personnel should be well trained to protect children from being trafficked especially the border control officers; Universal Basic Education (UBE) should be made totally free for all children everywhere in Nigeria so as to keep children gainfully occupied; government should provide more social amenities to improve the standard of living at the grassroots in order to reduce the rate of rural-urban migration; the penalty for child trafficking should be increased from 14 years to life imprisonment; government should have some form of penalty for parents who involve their children in trafficking willingly; individuals who take children below the age of 18 as house help should be fined, among several other resolutions.

The children's parliament also wants the government to support the Almajiri system of learning, mostly operational in the northern part of the country by incorporating it into the formal education system because it is a major index through which children are being trafficked.

In her goodwill message, Mrs. Kehinde Anjorin of the Human rights Commission saluted the courage of the children who marched for their rights in Soweto, South Africa in 1976. Anjorin noted that the theme for this year's anniversary is apt because of the alarming dimension of the problem. She stated that about 15 states have passed the Child Rights Act and implored the new state legislatures where it has not been passed to expedite action on the law.

A similar message delivered by Mr. Samaila Makama, chairman of the Nigerian Population Commission (NPC) stressed that government has recognised the rights of the child through the promulgation of the CRA. He implored parents to register births since denial of registration at birth short changes the society.

An address presented on behalf of the permanent secretary of the Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development, Dr. Safiya Mohammed, noted that trafficking of children was a violation of the CRA and a contributory factor to exploitative labour. According to her, ILO describes it as the worst form of child labour and it was a matter of regret that Nigeria remains a major supplier. She said the government was collaborating between ILO and UNICEF to rehabilitate trafficked children so that they could be provided skills.

http://www.thisdayonline.com/nview.php?id=81868

BEIJING (Reuters) - "Arise, ye who refuse to be slaves!" go the stirring words that open China's national anthem.

But shocking images of men and children padlocked and brutalized in stifling brickworks have shown that even in this officially socialist nation, where workers are supposed to rule, slavery has secured a niche in the galloping market economy.

If, nearly six decades after the communist revolution, China can sustain even small-scale slavery, what of other parts of Asia where forced labor has deep roots that have long defied rights campaigns?

Observers of workers trapped in forced labor say economic growth does not necessarily spell the end of slavery, and small brick-makers across Asia often exploit trapped labour.

"The number-one predictor is corruption," said Kevin Bales, an expert on the problem who is president of Free the Slaves, a Washington D.C.-based group.

"You can certainly see economic growth and slavery going hand in hand when that primary criterion of corruption is there."

In north China's Shanxi province, the centre of the national scandal, witnesses said paying off officials was normal in this region dotted with small coal mines and belching factories.

CORRUPTION RULES
Bales, who has studied slavery in brickworks across Pakistan and India, said a similar brew of bribery and lax law enforcement also lubricated the grim business there.

More than three-quarters of the world's estimated 12.3 million forced laborers are in Asia and the Pacific, where 9.5 million people are trapped by debt bondage, trafficking and other coercion, the International labor Organization estimates. Bales has estimated the global slave workforce at about 27 million.

Hotspots include India, Pakistan and Indonesia -- nations where child labor remains common -- as well as Myanmar, where the military regime oversees widespread forced labor.

An Indian campaigner said a swelling middle class there was in fact drawing more children into domestic servitude.

"Trafficking is growing," said Kailash Satyarthi, founder of Bachpan Bachao Andolan, which seeks to rescue exploited children in farming, rug-making and other industries.

"There is disempowerment of the poorest of the poor. They are marginalized, they are losing their traditional forms of livelihood, and entering into modern forms of slavery."

In Pakistan, too, child and bonded labor appeared to be spreading, not shrinking, as the economy grew, said Zulfiqar Shah of the Pakistan Institute of labor Education and Research.

"The informal economy is increasing and new people are getting trapped in debt bondage," Shah said.

A SHORTCUT TO PROFITS
Making bricks is back-breaking work that uses cheap materials but needs constant labor to tend fires and move loads. Farmers in Shanxi said they were no longer willing to do such work, leaving bosses to seek cheap labor from poorer areas.

"This isn't work locals want to do. They want to go home for meals and rest. And the wages are too low," said Gao, a farmer who lived nearly next door to a kiln owned by Wang Bingbing, now detained after one worker died there and 31 were rescued.

Endemic corruption and competitive pressures have encouraged the spread of harsh exploitation and outright slavery throughout rural China's brick industry, said Robin Munro, director of research for the China labor Bulletin in Hong Kong.

"Factory owners have been driving production costs down and slavery is a short-cut to that," he said. "If you're not doing it, your competitor down the road probably is."

That theme was echoed in India, Pakistan and Nepal, where kiln owners have also sought to increase profits by turning to forced labor, said Aidan McQuade, director of Anti-Slavery International in London, who has visited slave brickworks in Nepal.

But if the workers rescued from Shanxi were scarred and emaciated from their experiences, the houses of some of their captors appeared little better than the average in the dusty villages where kilns have sprung up.

Across Asia and other poorer regions, rural slave exploiters tend to be not much richer than their victims, said Bales.

"If you had a lot more money you'd just leave there," he said. "It's reflecting people who have got some power and are able to take advantages of the resources they have to exploit other people."

The International Labour Organisation (ILO) has revealed that Asian children mainly from India, Pakistan and China are being trafficked into Uganda.

“Children from these countries are trafficked into the country disguised as cultural dancers on short- term visits,” ILO said.

Somali children were also noted to be brought in as refugees.

The revelations are contained in ILO’s rapid assessment report on trafficking of children based on a study conducted in the Ugandan districts of Busia, Pader, Kalangala, Masaka and capital city Kampala.

This was issued to participants from the Great Lakes region who are attending a conference on ‘First Regional Anti-Human Trafficking Conference in Eastern Africa’ at Speke Resort Munyonyo in Kampala.

According to news sources, the UN agency noted that Uganda is a source, transit and destination for child trafficking.

“There are complicated informal and yet well coordinated networks of individuals and groups. They have trafficking chains right from villages with transit points such as Nyendo and Busia towns to the final destinations.”

Those involved in the lucrative trade include pimps, employment bureaus, churches, transport agents, NGOs, peers, fishermen and individuals.

On cross-border trafficking, children are facilitated by traffickers and middlemen with accommodation, food, travel documents and transport, and by agents to Dubai, United Arab Emirates and the US.

Other children are facilitated by long-distance drivers who promise them employment or rosy marriages across the borders along the Trans-East African Highway from Mombasa through Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, up to the DR Congo, the report said.

“Networks of cross border traffickers mainly have their bases in salons, shops in Kampala city business centre and these usually connect girls to Dubai city in the United Arab Emirates.”

Kenya is ranked as the number one destination of children trafficked from Uganda at 51%, followed by Sudan 39%, Tanzania 6%, Rwanda 3% and the DR Congo at 1%.

“Most children are trafficked to Kenya because of the existence of more opportunities for commercial sex and marriages.

“It also acts as a convenient transit point and gateway to the Middle East and other countries,” the ILO report states.

Most of the trafficked children are engaged in the worst forms of child labour such as fighting as combatants with rebels, used as sex slaves, involved in commercial sex, while others are married off.


According to ILO, it was disclosed that Uganda had no specific legislation to address the crime but that many cases were prosecuted under the Penal Code Act.

The study established that there was little effort by the local leaders to address the problem.

To combat child trafficking, the International Labour Organisation report proposed a strategy based on five pillars namely, law reform and awareness, community involvement and capacity building, sustained multi-media campaigns and development of victim support programmes.

The ministry of social affairs and labour s working on drawing up new perceptions for fighting the phenomenon of child labour, in response to official directives and with the help of the International Labour Organisation (ILO).

A meeting organized by the unit of child labour at the ministry of social affairs and labour on how to confront this phenomenon and possibility of activating the ways necessary for curbing child labour which has become serious in the Yemeni society.

The meeting stressed the importance of setting up clear-cut plans for activating the efforts in the area of preventing child labour and providing necessary protection for the life of younger people and also to work for curbing the habit of school children leaking from schools to the labour market.

The ministry intends to establish applicable treatments enabling the children families to find income-yielding resources that would get them not forced to push their sons to labour markets at an early age.
Modern social studies have warned against aggravation of child labour in Yemen and its serious reflections on childhood situations in educational and health fields. The studies have disclosed causes behind students flee schools to labour market citing the most important of which as retreat of the purchasing power of the national currency, drop in level of family income, and rise in rates of number of dependent children ranging between 5-7 children in each family in addition to the high cost of living in the country.

Children do usually work in dangerous professions like workshops, carrying heavy weight things, selling products on sidewalks and squares and other jobs that usually endanger their lives and expose them to suffering, catching diseases without entertaining any health securities.

For this reason the government has launched a campaign for curbing the phenomenon of child labour and set up a committee for implementing the national program for this purpose. The committee is consisted of a number of ministries, the higher council for motherhood and childhood and a number of societies working in this field.

BANGALORE: Overcrowded municipal schools might annoy you, but for those working for child rights, it is a reason to cheer. "Demand for education among the poor also means end of child labour," said Dr Shantha Sinha, chairperson of National Commission for Protection of Child Rights, who delivered the keynote address at the state-level workshop on 'Role of civil society in elimination of child labour', held here on Friday.

"It is a battle for schools versus cheap labour. Poverty cannot be an argument to allow child labour. Instead of building walls by creating stereotypes of employers or teachers, we must rope them into the campaign. We need sustained efforts for the next decade to ensure that an entire generation gets both primary and secondary education," she said.
Professor Ravivarma Kumar, an advocate, rued that both the state and Supreme Court, which had called for a levy for violation of child rights, fell short of framing rules to ensure that the compensation of Rs 20,000 paid by the employer reaches the victim.

NGOs and civil society groups expressed concern over lack of personnel to handle child labour cases, poor reporting and follow-up action, proof of age acting as barrier to justice, and exclusion of many sectors like agriculture out of the law's scope.

BEIJING (Reuters) - "Arise, ye who refuse to be slaves!" go the stirring words that open China's national anthem.

But shocking images of men and children padlocked and brutalised in stifling brickworks have shown that even in this officially socialist nation, where workers are supposed to rule, slavery has secured a niche in the galloping market economy.

If, nearly six decades after the communist revolution, China can sustain even small-scale slavery, what of other parts of Asia where forced labour has deep roots that have long defied rights campaigns?

Observers of workers trapped in forced labour say economic growth does not necessarily spell the end of slavery, and small brick-makers across Asia often exploit trapped labour.

"The number-one predictor is corruption," said Kevin Bales, an expert on the problem who is president of Free the Slaves, a Washington D.C.-based group.

"You can certainly see economic growth and slavery going hand in hand when that primary criterion of corruption is there."

In north China's Shanxi province, the centre of the national scandal, witnesses said paying off officials was normal in this region dotted with small coal mines and belching factories.

CORRUPTION RULES

Bales, who has studied slavery in brickworks across Pakistan and India, said a similar brew of bribery and lax law enforcement also lubricated the grim business there.

More than three-quarters of the world's estimated 12.3 million forced labourers are in Asia and the Pacific, where 9.5 million people are trapped by debt bondage, trafficking and other coercion, the International Labour Organisation estimates. Bales has estimated the global slave workforce at about 27 million.

Hotspots include India, Pakistan and Indonesia -- nations where child labour remains common -- as well as Myanmar, where the military regime oversees widespread forced labour.

An Indian campaigner said a swelling middle class there was in fact drawing more children into domestic servitude.

"Trafficking is growing," said Kailash Satyarthi, founder of Bachpan Bachao Andolan, which seeks to rescue exploited children in farming, rug-making and other industries.

"There is disempowerment of the poorest of the poor. They are marginalised, they are losing their traditional forms of livelihood, and entering into modern forms of slavery."

In Pakistan, too, child and bonded labour appeared to be spreading, not shrinking, as the economy grew, said Zulfiqar Shah of the Pakistan Institute of Labour Education and Research.

"The informal economy is increasing and new people are getting trapped in debt bondage," Shah said.

A SHORTCUT TO PROFITS

Making bricks is back-breaking work that uses cheap materials but needs constant labour to tend fires and move loads. Farmers in Shanxi said they were no longer willing to do such work, leaving bosses to seek cheap labour from poorer areas.

"This isn't work locals want to do. They want to go home for meals and rest. And the wages are too low," said Gao, a farmer who lived nearly next door to a kiln owned by Wang Bingbing, now detained after one worker died there and 31 were rescued.

Endemic corruption and competitive pressures have encouraged the spread of harsh exploitation and outright slavery throughout rural China's brick industry, said Robin Munro, director of research for the China Labour Bulletin in Hong Kong.

"Factory owners have been driving production costs down and slavery is a short-cut to that," he said. "If you're not doing it, your competitor down the road probably is."

That theme was echoed in India, Pakistan and Nepal, where kiln owners have also sought to increase profits by turning to forced labour, said Aidan McQuade, director of Anti-Slavery International in London, who has visited slave brickworks in Nepal.

But if the workers rescued from Shanxi were scarred and emaciated from their experiences, the houses of some of their captors appeared little better than the average in the dusty villages where kilns have sprung up.

Across Asia and other poorer regions, rural slave exploiters tend to be not much richer than their victims, said Bales.

"If you had a lot more money you'd just leave there," he said. "It's reflecting people who have got some power and are able to take advantages of the resources they have to exploit other people."

A national programme for the elimination of worst forms of child labour in the cocoa sector has been established within the Ministry of Manpower, Youth and Employment.

Under the programme, a system to monitor the incidence and prevalence of child labour in the cocoa sector has been put in place.

Additionally, actions are being taken to support children engaged in worst forms of child labour by placing them back in school or into apprenticeship.

Mrs Frema Osei-Opare, the Deputy Minister of the Ministry, said this in a statement in Parliament to mark World Day Against Child Labour, which fell on June 12.

The theme for the celebration was "harvest for the future: agriculture without child labour."

The Deputy Minister said an international protocol required that all cocoa producing countries develop measures to eliminate child labour in the cocoa sector.

"The deadline for putting these measures in place has been set for July 1, 2008. Even before the deadline, Mr Speaker, all cocoa producing countries are being carefully observed to ensure that child labour is eliminated."

She told the House that the Ghana Child Labour Survey of 2003, showed that the Volta region was leading in child labour, with 33.2 per cent of child labourers involved in deep-sea fishing without safety and schooling

"Mr Speaker, government's multi-sectoral approach to dealing with poverty, which causes and also results from child labour, needs to be strengthened in order to keep our children from child labour...."

She said government had instituted key interventions such as the capitation grant, school feeding programme and the institution of a women's development fund to address the situation.

Mr Joseph Amenowode, NDC-Hohoe South, urged MPs from the Volta region to collaborate and tackle the issue of children engaging in deep-sea fishing in the region.

Hajia Alima Mahama, Minister of Women and Children's Affairs, urged MPs to use part of their common fund in sensitizing the communities on the issue and also in supporting women economically to enable them cater for their children.

Mrs Juliana Azumah-Mensah, NDC-Ho East, called for laws that would deal with irresponsible fathers who do not take care of their children.

The History Expedition, a film that shows children across Karnataka working their tiny bodies for an even tinier wage, was recently aired at Bal Bhavan.

 The History Expedition, a film that shows children across Karnataka working their tiny bodies for an even tinier wage, was recently aired at Bal Bhavan. This project by the Bornfree Art School, had rescued child labourers armed with cameras covering child labour across 27 districts of Karnataka, Canacona of Goa and Krishnagiri District of Tamil Nadu. These adolescents managed to take 25,000 photographs of children working hard for a wage.

According to the Documentary, 50 per cent of the world’s child labourers are from India, out of which 75 per cent are girls working mostly in fields.

Terrible conditions
According to the research done by The Born Free Art School, one child labourer dies every four days in Karnataka. Three children employed in the domestic sector are subject to sexual or physical harassment everyday.

Children are forced to work in mines as well for a daily wage of Rs 35. The 2000 hectares of private mines in Bellary employ more than 200000 children.

According to John Devaraj, the director of the History Expedition, some of the people who employ these little children believe that they are helping the children. The man believes that children can free other children.

The Rainbow Warriors is one such club that consists of children who want to stop child labour. It is open to everyone aged under 18. The next project by the Bornfree Art School will be a cycling expedition from Bangalore to Lahore and is scheduled for January next year.

The children
Mioi Nakayama of Japan, a project coordinator says that the experience has been an eye opener. According to Nakayama, around 15-16 workshops have been conducted by the school.

She praises Elsa, a child labourer who was rescued and educated. “Elsa now teaches the students mathematics, Hindi and Kannada,” says Nakayama.

Madhu, an ex-rag picker of Jayanagar agrees with Nakayama. “Elsa teaches well and I can understand better,” says the boy who was never interest in his lessons before Elsa took over.

Jayaram, aged 15, worked in a bar and restaurant for two years after he left school. He was caught by the police for stealing and has been in jail twice. Now Jayaram is a changed young man who dreams of being an artist.

Lafreeda, a young orphan whose new name was inspired by Frida Kahlo the famous Mexican painter, had a stint with silk factory. Silk Factories prefer child workers due to their height. Children have been known to go deaf due to the loud clanging, rattling and shattering noises produced by the machines. The poor ventilation and strong stench result respiratory ailments. “I want to help other children,” says Lafreeda.
Anthony Dass, who is currently in the 9th standard at St Josephs, had dropped out of school in the 1st standard to look after a petty shop. He ran away in the 7th standard and painted signboards in Tilaknagar, where he met Jayaram and joined the school. He wants to be a drummer some day.

Current mind set
 John Devaraj talks about how people these days treat all children differently. He says a person treats their child in a different manner from how they treat their young maid. Most of us are against child labour, but we do not actively try to stop it.

In our busy lives, we forget that a child who is meant to be carefree is just as busy as we are and perhaps doing something a lot more dangerous than what we are doing. Young Anand, a coconut vendor, should have been in school studying and playing to his heart’s content, not getting his hands cut everytime he served a coconut. Little Kiran should have been sleeping in his bed instead of working in a hotel till after midnight.

While most of us may not be actively involved in stopping child labour, the Bornfree Art School has definitely given a lot of these youngsters hope.

New Executions Highlight Arbitrary Nature of Iranian Justice

(New York, June 20, 2007) – Iran should immediately suspend the use of the death penalty for crimes committed by children under age 18, Human Rights Watch said today. Iran is known to have executed at least 17 juvenile offenders since the beginning of 2004 – eight times more than any other country in the world. 

Iran’s highest judicial authorities have repeatedly upheld death sentences handed down to juvenile offenders charged with committing crimes when they were as young as 15. Such sentences violate Iran’s international treaty obligations, which prohibit the death penalty for crimes committed by people under 18. In some cases, the death sentences also violate Iranian domestic law requiring that children under 18 be tried before special juvenile courts.

“Iran holds the deplorable distinction of leading the world in juvenile executions, and the authorities should end this practice at once,” said Clarisa Bencomo, children’s rights researcher on the Middle East at Human Rights Watch. “The Iranian government needs to stop sending children to the gallows and start living up to its international obligations by issuing clear legislation to ban the juvenile death penalty.”
Iran is known to have executed two juvenile offenders already this year. Syed Mohammad Reza Mousavi Shirazi, 20, was executed in Adel Abd prison in the city of Shiraz on April 22 for a murder he allegedly committed when he was 16. His family was not notified of the planned execution and did not see him prior to the execution.

Documents in Human Rights Watch’s possession show that both the lower court and the Supreme Court acknowledged that Mousavi was wrongly tried in an adult court. Nevertheless, the Supreme Court rejected Mousavi’s request for a retrial before a juvenile court, accepting the lower court’s argument that it was in effect “acting in place of a juvenile court.” The Supreme Court confirmed the death sentence, stating “in the light of the direct confession of the accused and the rest of the evidence presented against him, the court sees no significant flaws or shortcomings in the proceedings.” Torture and ill-treatment are common in Iranian detention centers, making the court’s willingness to accept a child’s confession in a death penalty case particularly disturbing.

In a separate case, Iranian authorities executed 17-year-old Sa'id Qanbar Zahi in Zahedan on May 27. According to press accounts, Zahi’s arrest, confession, trial, sentencing, and execution took place in the space of a few weeks. If true, these factors raise serious doubts that the 17-year-old was able to mount a meaningful defense, and raise further serious concerns about whether other basic fair trial standards were met.

Iranian officials have repeatedly stated that they are working to comply with Iran’s legal obligations by ending executions of child offenders. High-ranking Judiciary officials have repeatedly said that no juvenile executions take place in Iran. On October 1, the chief of Tehran’s Judiciary, Alireza Avaii, told reporters that “our current policy is that execution sentences for juveniles not be implemented and it has been a long time that any such executions have taken place.”

Iranian officials also point to legislation that would establish a new legal framework for juvenile courts, pending in parliament since July 2006, and claim that it would end executions of juvenile offenders. In fact, this legislation would only offer the possibility of reducing sentences if the judge finds that the defendant is not mentally mature. The proposed legislation (Article 33) makes clear that reduction of sentences in qisas and hadd crimes, for which punishment includes execution, shall be applied “when the complete mental maturity of the defendant is in doubt.” Qisas crimes are offenses against a private right where the victim is entitled to a similar retribution, and hadd crimes are offenses with punishments specified under the Islamic penal code.

Article 31.3 of the proposed law would allow a sentence of the death penalty or life imprisonment, if imposed on juvenile defendants ages 15 to 18, to be reduced to a term of imprisonment ranging from two to eight years in a juvenile correctional facility. The majority of juvenile executions in Iran are for qisas and hadd crimes, where judges would continue to have discretion to order executions, if the mental maturity of the defendant is determined by the judge not to be in doubt.

“Iran has had more than enough time to demonstrate its commitment to ending the juvenile death penalty,” Bencomo said. “The government now needs to take urgent, concrete steps to end this practice.”
Human Rights Watch called on the Iranian parliament to remove from the proposed law the discretion for a judge to impose the death sentence on a juvenile offender. Parliament should also pass the remainder of the proposed legislation mandating reduction of sentences as soon as possible. Human Rights Watch also urged the Council of Guardians, a clerical body with veto power over adopted legislation, not to oppose the proposed legislation.

Only Iran, Sudan, China and Pakistan are known to have executed juvenile offenders since 2004. Sudan carried out two such executions in 2005, while China executed one juvenile offender in 2004 and Pakistan executed one juvenile offender in 2006. In contrast, Iran is known to have executed at least three juvenile offenders in 2004, eight in 2005, and four in 2006. In total numbers, only China carries out more executions than Iran. On a per capita basis, Iran executes more people annually than any other country.

The war crimes court for Sierra Leone has handed down the first convictions by a UN-backed tribunal for the crime of recruiting and using child soldiers. Human Rights Watch said that these convictions are a ground-breaking step toward ending impunity for commanders who exploit hundreds of thousands of children as soldiers in conflicts worldwide.

In Freetown today, the Special Court for Sierra Leone handed down verdicts against three accused men from the rebel Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC), one of three warring factions during Sierra Leone's 11-year brutal armed conflict, which ended in 2002. The judges found the three accused – Alex Tamba Brima, Brima Bazzy Kamara and Santigie Borbor Kanu – guilty of war crimes, crimes against humanity, and other serious violations of international humanitarian law, including the recruitment and use of child soldiers.

"This use of child soldiers is a particularly horrific crime. These children should have been learning how to read, not how to shoot an AK-47," said Jo Becker, children's rights advocate for Human Rights Watch. "We hope that the Special Court's decision will protect children in other parts of the world from suffering what so many Sierra Leonean children were forced to endure."

Thousands of children were recruited and used by all sides during Sierra Leone's conflict, including the Revolutionary United Front (RUF), the AFRC, and the pro-government Civil Defense Forces (CDF). Children were often forcibly recruited, given drugs and used to commit atrocities. Thousands of girls were also recruited as soldiers and often subjected to sexual exploitation.

The Special Court for Sierra Leone was established in 2002 to prosecute those "who bear the greatest responsibility" for war crimes, crimes against humanity and other serious violations of international humanitarian law, along with several domestic offenses, committed since 1996. All nine defendants being prosecuted by the Special Court have been charged with the recruitment and use of child soldiers. The trial phase is complete for cases involving individuals associated with the CDF and AFRC. For accused associated with the RUF, the defense began presentation of its case this May. The Special Court began the trial of former Liberian president Charles Taylor on June 4 in The Hague.

"Commanders in many conflicts deliberately prey upon children as recruits," said Becker. "Now that child recruiters are being brought to justice, their impunity is no longer so certain."

The Special Court's Appeals Chamber also issued a significant ruling in 2004 that the prohibition on the recruitment or use of children under the age of 15 had crystallized as customary international law prior to 1996, and that individuals bore criminal responsibility for such acts.

The first individual being tried by the International Criminal Court (ICC), the former militia leader Thomas Lubanga from the Democratic Republic of Congo, has also been charged with the crimes of enlisting and conscripting children as soldiers and using them to participate actively in hostilities. In March 2006, Lubanga was transferred to the ICC in The Hague.

Published: Thursday, 21 June, 2007, 01:45 AM Doha Time

BEIJING: China announced a nationwide crackdown on enslavement and child labour yesterday, in the highest admission yet of grim exploitation in rural brick kilns where official complicity has been charged.

Revelations of hundreds of poor farmers, teenagers and some children forced or lured to kilns, mines and foundries in Shanxi and Henan provinces have unfolded over past weeks, outraging citizens and local media. But until now, national leaders have avoided public comment.

Premier Wen Jiabao chaired a meeting of the State Council Standing Committee, or cabinet, which heard of a gruesome chain of abuses, state television news reported.
“In the Shanxi black kilns there were not only grave illegal employment problems, but also criminal forces abducting, restricting personal freedom, using coerced labour, employing children and maliciously wounding to the point of death,” said a summary of the meeting read out on television news.

“Strike hard against law-breaking and crime and criminal forces, rescue all the victims,” ordered the meeting. It announced a national inspection focusing on child labour and enslavement in small rural kilns, mines and workshops.

The scandal has been a slap in the face for Wen and President Hu Jintao’s vows to create a “harmonious society” that respects and enriches poor farmers.
Local officials and police have been accused of ignoring or even helping the trade in trapped workers, many taken from around railway or bus stations. One detained kiln owner, Wang Bingbing, was the son of the village party secretary.
A father who tried to find and rescue his missing son and other victims said he was brushed off by police.

“If you find your own kid, just take him away. Otherwise, keep your nose out of this,” an officer told him, according to the official Xinhua news agency.
The governor of Shanxi, Yu Youjun, made a self-criticism at the meeting on behalf of his administration. By Tuesday, police there and in Henan had detained over 130 people suspected of involvement in the hidden human trade and freed over 500 workers.
The cabinet meeting vowed to “strictly investigate and punish involved officials for any corruption and dereliction of duty” and urged all officials to “absorb lessons” from the scandal. - Reuters

The Gujarat Agriculture Labour Union (GALU) is launching a campaign next month against child labour in cotton farms across north Gujarat. Thousands of tribal children from Rajasthan are employed in these farms every year during the harvest season.

A study conducted by the Migrant Workers’ Protection Front found that every year, several thousand tribal children between the ages of 10-14, shepherded by contractors came to work in the cotton farms of Sabarkantha, Banaskantha, and Mehsana districts of Gujarat.

The study carried out by Sudhir Katiyar, convener of the Front, which is a network of civil society organisations of Gujarat and Rajasthan says that largescale migration is a dangerous phenomenon, and particularly so when the children hired are underage.

GALU shares the same concerns and has been raising the issue here with the Labour Department for the last one year. GALU vice-president Paulomee Mistry said, “It is serious issue. After all, the future of so many children is at stake.”

Katiyar’s study says that the children who are employed for cross-pollination work of Bt cotton seeds are made to do extremely strenuous work. Moreover, girl children are preferred as they are more manageable and work harder.”

Mistry said, “This also makes the girl child vulnerable to sexual abuse. In most of these farms the children are made to stay in makeshift tents in the middle of the field.”

An average day at the farm starts at 4 am and goes on till noon. After a break of three hours, the children are back to work. Mistry said, “Usually the children are paid Rs 30-40 per day, which is lower than the minimum wages of Rs 50 for agricultural workers. The rest is eaten up by the contractors.”

Mistry said, “As part of GALU’s plans to campaign against child labour in Bt cotton farms, we will distribute pamphlets so that farmers come to know they are breaking the law by employing children. We will also post volunteers at check posts on state borders to check the trafficking of children and co-coordinating with civil society groups in Rajasthan.”

However, Vipin Bhatt, Rural Labour Commissioner denies the allegations. “Children are not employed on cotton fields,’ he said.

According to International Labour Organisation (ILO) report, cases of child labour have dropped by 11 percent.

The International Day of the African Child will be celebrated worldwide tomorrow. As part of activities to mark the day, the United Nations Information Centre (UNIC) Yaounde organised a media out reach event last Thursday in Yaounde.

The event was chaired by the Minister of Social affairs, Catherine Bakang Mbock and the Resident Coordinator of the UN system in Cameroon, Sophie De Caen, under the theme "Fight against child labour". Representatives of UNICEF, ILO and UN sub-regional Centre for Human Rights and Democracy (UNCHRD) made brief presentations on the current situation of child labour and activities pursued in this domain by their agencies.

Speaking during the occasion, the Minister of social affairs, Catherine Bakang Mbock, said investing in children is investing in the future. She said, the government is working hard to fight against this scourge. According to the minister, several actions have been carried out such as the ratification of the 1989 UN convention on children.

She also explained that the government has eight structures for distressed children as well as 200 social centres in the country which take of social problems. According to the International Labour Organisation conventions, child labour is considered as all work hampering the welfare and well-being of children and an impediment to their education, development and future.

ILO's 2006 report says the actual number of child labourers worldwide fell by 11 percent between 2000 and 2004, from 246 million to 218 million. The report states that the Sub-Saharan Africa region has the highest proportion of children, almost 50 million working and engaged in economic activities. "The end of child labour within reach" was the key message of the report adopted for this year's Day of the African Child.

The General Assembly of the OAU today known as the (AU) placed the commemoration of the Day of the African Child, in memory of the Soweto Uprising in South Africa during which 600 children were massacred. The 16th of June is the day set aside by the African Union and the United Nations to focus on Rights of the African child.

http://allafrica.com/stories/200706190650.html

RABAT, June 20 (Reuters) - Five years ago Khadija's mother sent her 8-year old daughter to work as a housemaid in the city, where her first employer beat her.

"In the capital my daughter will dress well and eat well," said Manana of her decision. She is paid 500 Moroccan Dirhams ($60.56) monthly for Khadija's work.

"No person likes to see their children suffering. I sent her to work for her own well-being," Manana said on condition their family name was not used. "Me and my husband cannot look after her and the other 4 children."

Now 13, Khadija is one of tens of thousands of girls working as domestics in Morocco, who according to a 2006 Human Rights Watch report face physical and psychological abuse as well as economic exploitation.

The U.N. agency for children UNICEF said in a recent report that 600,000 Moroccan children aged between seven and 14 are obliged to work, of whom 84 percent work in farms and 96 percent are forced to work for their own families. The same report showed that 800,000 Moroccan children do not attend school.

Khadija still remembers the day when a woman go-between brought her to Rabat from her hamlet in northern Morocco.

"The first family I worked for was very bad. The woman beat me for no apparent reason," she told Reuters. "One day she hit my head against the window sill because I left the washing in a bucket."

The International Labour Organization (ILO) estimates that more girls under 16 work in domestic service around the world than in any other category of child labour.

A working day of 14 to 18 hours, with no holidays, is common for girls like Khadija, Human Rights Watch said. Many are paid as little as six dirhams ($0.70) a day, some even less.

Denied basic labour rights, they are beaten, exploited and sexually abused, and the authorities rarely punish employers who abuse them.

"There is a myth that these girls are improving themselves by working...the reality is that far too many girls end up suffering lasting physical and psychological harm," said Clarisa Bencomo, children's rights researcher for Middle East and North Africa at Human Rights Watch.

It reports similar situations in El Salvador, Guatemala, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Togo, the United Arab Emirates, and the United States.

PROSTITUTION
Khadija, smiling awkwardly, says she is happy to work for her new employer -- a Moroccan family in Rabat.

But her prospects are not bright, according to Souad Tawessi, a human rights activist and social worker.
"The danger for the young house maids is that they could become prostitutes when they grow into adults," said Tawessi, who worked for 10 years in Moroccan organisations looking after unmarried mothers: "About 90 percent of the unmarried mothers I met were house maids in their childhood."

The plight of child workers, Tawessi said, is the result of Moroccan social problems like poverty, illiteracy and an educational system which discriminates between girls and boys.

The government has vowed to fight abuse of child maids: Yasmina Baddou, family affairs junior minister, agreed that discrimination in education is a factor behind child labour alongside poverty and violence.

"People accept that girls work at home and this makes the exploitation acceptable by the society," she told Reuters. "We want to make national opinion more sensitive about the danger of child labour."

Baddou said the government sought to regulate the work of housemaids, insisting that no girl under the age of 15 should be employed as a domestic servant.

Human Rights Watch has praised Morocco's efforts to expand legal protection against abuse and address the underlying causes, but the group said the kingdom's efforts "do not constitute the integrated strategy for combating the worst forms of child labour that Morocco needs".

For social worker Tawessi, that would need a profound change: "The poverty which is more dangerous is cultural poverty -- by which I mean Moroccan society increasingly turning its back on solidarity, as selfishness and greed prevail."

Child trafficking is common all over world, especially in the hotspots of South East Asia, Eastern Europe and West Africa, according to the UNICEF Programme Co-ordinator, Marcus Betts.

He was speaking at the 'Day of the African child' commemoration at Boipuso Hall on June 16.

The theme of the day was 'Combat Child Trafficking'. He said that child trafficking involved sale and purchase of children, usually with the involvement of a middleman and often involving transportation of the children across borders.

He said that they are then exploited as domestic workers, farm labourers, factory workers or as prostitutes.
"They are sometimes left without even a name or a nationality and they are always left without dignity," Betts said.

He said because they are away from their homes, they are left vulnerable without access to family, health services and education.

Betts said that the children are exposed to hazardous labour. Many are exposed to disease including HIV for those who are recruited into commercial sex work. He pointed out that most suffer mental and emotional stress.

After the experience of trafficking, the chances of the children ever living a full, safe and satisfying life are close to zero.

The Minister of Local Government, Margaret Nasha, said that when they started talking about children's rights ten years ago it was not easy. She said that they were often told that they want to lead children astray. She said that in a traditional set up, children were not allowed an opinion.

She said that in Botswana children are not necessarily sold but some are removed from households and taken to farms under difficult conditions.

Nasha condemned those who say they have hired them and questioned how one can hire a person who is unable to negotiate a contract. She said those who do it take advantage of a sad situation.

Nasha promised to get to the bottom of the problem. "Those children have no business baby-sitting for anybody. If one wants a baby sitter they should get someone old enough," she said.

Nasha said Batswana had a tendency of turning a blind eye when they see something happening next door and urged people to report suspicious activity.

She promised to infiltrate those farms that have been 'padlocked' to get the children out.

Olorato Mbi, addressing issues of child protection from a child's perspective, said the issue of child trafficking was not clearly known in Botswana but that it was rampant in some African countries. He said sometimes they were moved across borders or within the country.

Mbi said there were cases in which children were made baby-sitters or herd boys. They are often forced to work for little or no pay at all. He said others were used as prostitutes, or as child soldiers, or used to traffic illegal drugs. He urged Botswana to say 'No' to child trafficking.

Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Local Government, Gabaake Gabaake advised children that they had a responsibility to set themselves goals in life. He said there were two types of people in the world; those who wait to die for their story to be told by others, and those who tell it while they are still alive.
"I urge you to achieve your goals," he said.

It is a common practice for children to work in many African countries. Some of these children engage in selling agricultural produce and vending. Others are domestic workers, shop attendants, telephone operators (tuvugane) among other.

Though some African countries have tried to kick out this scenario through the introduction of Universal Primary Education to enable children attain education, there has been a diminutive response from parents.
The causes and the effects of this problem however, range from cultural ties and background to political situations within which children's rights have been abused in a number of ways.

Families with rigid cultures like the Masai, Karamajong, and the Pokot in East Africa have since failed to recognise governments' effort to end child labour since children are seen as source of labour as well as wealth.

Most African countries have continuously faced internal wars and conflicts that have claimed lives of thousands of people, destroyed property leaving behind devastated communities with vulnerable children that need financial assistance.

Some children become family heads at an early age thus end up engaging in tedious jobs to sustain their siblings and parents who at times may be too old or incapacitated.

Children who work as house girls have been sexually abused making them more vulnerable to HIV/Aids scourge and other related problems.

Commercial agriculture in Africa is known to harbour many child labourers. Surveys in sample countries reveal low primary school employment ratios and high rates of employment on the land.

Some children start work at the age of five. Their numbers are so substantial and the conditions in which they work is so severe that the International Labour Organization (ILO) has launched a special programme of action to remove children from hazardous and exploitative tasks, improve working conditions and ultimately to eliminate the employment of children in agriculture throughout the sub-Saharan region.

The plan was adopted in a technical workshop held in Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania, in August 1996, attended by representatives of governments' and employers' and workers' organizations from Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, South Africa, Uganda, Tanzania and Zimbabwe.

The plan requires an overall national policy to rise the minimum age for admission to employment to 15 years, to stop hazardous work, bonded labour and work done by children under 12.

Despite all forms of child labour in Africa, all concerned bodies such as the ILO and governments should try to adopt such measures like;

National laws which should be modelled on International Labour Conventions; minimum wage law should also apply to children, and special measure should be taken to guarantee occupational safety and health standards. In all aspects, child workers should enjoy at least the minimum standards act in law for adults.
Steps to improve law enforcement should include training and upgrading of labour inspectorates and the establishment of welfare committees of employers, workers, labour inspectors, teachers, doctors and community leaders.

Better training and employment opportunities for women in agriculture should be promoted in order improve their status, together with child-care and health services and social security.

Countries should apply principles embodied in International Labour Organization (ILO) standards; collective bargaining should play a leading role in the improvement of working conditions. The principle of compulsory, free and universal education should be reaffirmed and applied in a bid to provide skills to the young generation for a better future.

A strategy of community mobilization and public awareness should attempt to reach all sections of society to generate public support for the national campaign against child labour in agriculture.

Special initiatives, often best undertaken by local organizations - employers' and workers' organizations included - should reinforce the national campaign towards assisting the young generation to develop skills and knowledge that would lift up their standard of living.

There should be a detailed health plan services that will foster complete physical, mental and social well-being of children in commercial agriculture and those who continue to be sexually abused.

eliable information is needed for designing programmes, applying performances, identifying strengths and weaknesses and mobilizing additional resources that would lend a hand in the process of eliminating the milieu.

All said and done, this form of slavery will eventually come to an end and the upcoming African children will have the best they deserve from their respective governments.

It is therefore, our responsibility as Africans to assist the government, Non Governmental Organizations (NGOs) in the fight against child labour in all corners of life as this will facilitate a realization of unbiased resource utilization for economic development.

Almost One in Four Young Afghan Children Forced to Work, Says UNICEF

Poverty, lack of educational opportunities and the demand for cheap labour are helping to fuel the prevalence of child labour across Afghanistan, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) warned today.
Nearly one quarter of Afghan children between the ages of seven and 14 are working, with more girls working than boys and the problem worst in rural areas, Noriko Izumi, head of child protection for UNICEF in Afghanistan, said at a press conference in Kabul.

“Poverty and low family income levels force children to work to support their family,” said Ms. Izumi.
While some types of work serve to teach children new skills that can help them become responsible and productive adults, she said work that interferes with the education of children and affects their mental, physical and social well-being is considered child labour.

“It is those jobs which are detrimental to children’s development that we are talking about.”
Lack of educational opportunities also pushes a child to work, as did the demand for cheaper labour, she stated, adding “children are cheaper to employ than adults and easier to manipulate. It is easier to hire and fire children.”

The International Labour Organization (ILO) estimates that 218 million children worldwide, from 5 to 17 years old, are engaged in some kind of labour, with 126 million children engaged in the worst forms of child labour.

UNICEF is working on several fronts to tackle child labour in Afghanistan, which already has a number of legal and policy instruments to protect children, including a national strategy for children at risk and a child labour law defining the legal age of employment.

At the same time, it urged the Afghan Government to sign and ratify two important ILO conventions – one concerning the minimum age of employment and the other one regarding hazardous work.

Among the challenges for UNICEF is difficulty verifying a child’s age because of the low birth registration rate in the country, which has emerged from decades of conflict.

“It is also difficult to regulate informal sectors like agriculture where we know many children are employed in Afghanistan,” Ms. Izumi added.

UNICEF’s interventions in the country include non-formal education, which it hopes will help transit the child to formal schooling, and vocational skills training for older children. It is also supporting children “associated with armed forces and other war-affected children.” Since 2003, over 12,600 children have been supported in 29ᾠprovinces with literacy classes and vocational training.

Ms. Izumi noted that while there are fewer children now involved in child labour globally, that does not seem to be the case in the Asia-Pacific region. “So we still have lots of work to do in this region.”

The Deputy Director-General of the Police CID, DCOP Patrick Timbilla has said the security forces would soon carry out an operation along Ghana/Cote d'Ivoire frontier to clampdown on the activities of human traffickers and their collaborators.

He said the exercise would be code named "Operation Bia." Bia is a town on the frontier noted for trafficking of children.

Mr Timbilla said this at a durbar to observe the national celebration of the African Union (AU) Day of the African Child at Gemeni in the South Dayi District.

The Ministry of Women and Children's Affairs (MOWAC) and the Coalition on the Rights of the Child organized the event.

It was under the auspices of the International Labour Organization, the International Programme for the Elimination of Child Labour (IPEC) and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF).

Mr Timbilla said the passage of the Human Trafficking ACT (ACT 964) of 2005 gave mandate to the Police Administration to enforce the law to curtail child trafficking.

"Human trafficking and child labour are heinous crimes and not cultural practices", Mr Timbilla said and urged development partners to assist the Police Administration to deal with recalcitrant perpetrators.

The Minister of MOWAC, Hajia Alima Mahama, blamed human trafficking on irresponsible parenting and appealed to parents to take advantage of the numerous government interventions to become economically self-sufficient.

Mr Joseph Nayan, Deputy Volta Regional Minister urged parents to change their attitude towards children and invest in their education.

KATHMANDU, June 17: The 96th annual conference of International Labour Organization (ILO) concluded its 15-day run in Geneva Sunday adopting a comprehensive new set of labour standards for the fishing industry and holding extensive discussions on new approaches to promoting sustainable enterprises and decent work.

The conference also launched a new partnership aimed at eliminating child labour in agriculture and considered a number of issues regarding adherence to international labour standards.

The Annual Conference of the ILO drew more than 3,000 delegates, including heads of State, labour ministers and leaders of workers and employers organizations from most of the ILO's 180 member states.

The ILO awarded its first annual Decent Work Research Prize to Nobel peace laureate and former South African president Nelson Mandela and to eminent academic and specialist in social security, Professor Carmelo Mesa-Lago, citing their contributions to improving the lives of people around the world.

At a ceremony at the ILO's annual International Labour Conference, Mandela received the exceptional prize for his extraordinary lifetime contribution to knowledge, understanding and advocacy on the central concerns of the ILO. Mesa-Lago received his award for major scholarly contributions to the analysis of socio-economic relationship and policy instruments for the advancement of decent work, in particular of social security and pension reform.

ILO Director-General Juan Somavia said, "If any one person embodies the values of decent work, it is president Maldela. As a lawyer, an activist, a prisoner, a politician and a statesman, Nelson Mandela has lived the ideals of the ILO - through his lifelong pursuit of dialogue, understanding fairness, social justice and, above all, dignity."

In his reply, the former president, speaking via a pre-recorded video presentation, thanked the ILO for its support when he was a prisoner of the apartheid regime in South Africa and afterwards. Today the ILO continues to promote the values we share, the rights we all must respect and the ideal that progress is only possible through genuine dialogue".

Mandela highlighted that decent word was about "the right not only to survive but to prosper and to have a dignified and fulfilling quality of life" and added, "We rely on the ILO to continue its struggle to make decent worked a global reality."

Carmelo Mesa-Lago, Professor on Economics and Latin American Studies of the University of Pittsburgh, USA, was cited for having had, with his research, a notable impact on social security and pension reform processes in Latin America for many years.

In a social policy lecture to the Conference, Professor Mesa-Lago referred to "millions of workers and peasants in Latin America who suffer from lack of coverage or poor protection against social risks" and expressed the hope that social security "coverage is substantially expanded in the next decade thorough a combined effort from the ILO, the International Social Security Association (ISSA) and other international organizations, as well as all countries represented in this conferences".

Created by the ILO's International Institute for Labour studies (IILS), the decent work Research Prize which draws on the endowment form the Nobel Peace Prize awarded to the ILO in 1969, rewards outstanding contributions to the advancement of policy relevant knowledge on the ILO's central goal of decent work for all.

The ILO established the IILS in 1960 as a centre for advanced studies in the social and labour field to further a better understanding of labour issues through education and research.

http://www.gorkhapatra.org.np/content.php?nid=21213

A study commissioned by the International Labour Organisation and the department of environmental affairs and tourism's child-labour programme of action has found that one of every four people who scavenge for recyclables on a landfill or dumpsite is a child under the age of 18.

The report also found that most of these children are under the age of 15, with many having left school to become waste pickers. Those who remained at school juggled long hours on the site with schoolwork.

The study, the first of its kind in South Africa, interviewed 75 children in landfill and dumpsites in Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal, and included a review of international and local literature on waste picking, as well as an analysis of existing policy and legislative frameworks governing waste management.

It noted that:
·  Children who engage in waste picking often contribute up to 50% of a household’s income, either directly or through the quantity of recyclable materials they collect.
·  Some of the children live with parents who are either unemployed or employed in low-paying jobs such as domestic work, farm labour or waste picking. Others live with a grandparent, surviving off the grandparent’s pension, which they supplement by scavenging recyclables.
·  Most of the children said the money they received for waste picking was given to the adults in the household.

The study said the plight of child waste pickers has been ignored by civil society movements, including child advocacy groups and environmental justice groups, and that there are virtually no civil society or union advocacy programmes on the issue.

The study recommends that children under the age of 18 should be prohibited from working as waste pickers on landfill and dumpsites.

However, because it is “an adaptive response to poverty and unemployment, and because children are engaging in this work to supplement their families’ incomes”, it is vital to “recognise, regulate and control the work of adult scavengers, making it economically viable for them, with the aim of phasing out this work into other forms of waste reclamation work”.

The report remarked that the department of environmental affairs and tourism had produced numerous legislative and policy documents on waste management and the environment, but that these took no account of the waste-picking industry.

Saranel Benjamin, who conducted the research, said that in policy documents the department spoke about waste management with zero waste in mind.

“They don’t provide a budget and programmes to foster recycling, and they make no connection between scavenging and recycling. Yet the largest reclamation of recyclable material comes from scavengers,” Benjamin said.

In the “minimum requirements for disposal of waste by landfill” drawn up by the department of water affairs and forestry in 1998, landfill site managers were responsible for waste pickers and had to sign an indemnity form taking responsibility for any injuries.

The role of enforcing minimum standards has since fallen under the department of environmental affairs and tourism.

The National Waste Management Strategy, drawn up in 1999, said that “salvaging” on landfills will be formalised and controlled by 2003 “with the aim of phasing it out completely in the long term”. It vaguely notes that the department of environmental affairs and tourism will investigate the best option for promoting and implementing waste recycling.

The trade union movement also ignored waste pickers, Benjamin said. She had been told by a unionist that the reason for this was that such workers did not earn enough to pay union membership fees.

“It’s quite sad that they [unions] won’t touch them, as they would be quite easy to organise,” she added. “Scavengers are not migrant workers, they go to the same spot from Monday to Friday.”

Joining forces for better pay
Waste pickers in parts of Asia and Latin America have, mainly because of their sheer numbers, mobilised for recognition and better working conditions by forming worker cooperatives.

Researcher Martin Medina, based at the Institute for Global Environment Strategies in Japan, lists the first of these as Asmare (Waste Picker Association of Belo Horizonte City), which was founded in 1988 in Brazil.

Its 380 members recycle 500 tons of paper, metal, cardboard and plastics each month. They earn four to six times the minimum wage and receive training and benefits.

After a conflict between the municipality and a Brazilian cooperative over access to parts of Sao Paulo, Unicef helped to put pressure on the state to recognise waste pickers’ rights. This led to the formation of a national Movement of Rubbish Reclaimers in 1999.

Waste pickers have also organised in India. In 1996 Indian “social entrepreneur” Millind Ranade helped mobilise more than 100 pickers to go on a hunger strike over demands that the Bombay council make clean drinking water and ablution facilities available at dumps.

The government conceded to the former demand, and the fight for improved rights led to the formation of the KVSS (Waste Collectors and Transporters Union), which operates in all 32 of Mumbai’s municipal wards. -- Kwanele Sosibo

On my way to and fro work, I pass by this girl, seated on the veranda of a bed-sitter in the slum through which a shortcut to the taxi stage from my home is. I have never heard her say a word although I always find her outside, no matter how early or late in the day.

Then one evening, I find her excitedly speaking to another child. Although I do not understand what they are saying, I can tell that whatever language they are speaking is not a Bantu one. Infected with her unusual excitement, I join the conversation. Through her friend, I ask for her name. She tells me (through the friend) that she is called Akiror (not real name).

Not sure I had heard her right, I ask her to spell it. The friend laughs and tells me that she just came from the village, in Soroti, and can neither read nor write. There are so many questions I want to ask this girl, but I cannot because of the language barrier.

Does this girl even know where her new home is? How old is she? Did she agree to coming to this strange city where she cannot even communicate? Does she have parents? Do her employers know that by taking her away from her home -- just so they can leave her in their house to mind their baby -- know that they in effect are abusing this child?

Unfortunately, Akiror is just one of the many children, who have become victims of child trafficking because of their vulnerable circumstances. Orphaned or dropped out of school, and living in poverty, they look at opportunities to leave home as a God-sent opportunity.

According to the Uganda Demographic and Health Survey (UDHS 2002) by the Uganda Bureau of Statistics, 2.7 million children are working in Uganda -- and most of them have been trafficked.

Sixty per cent of the children who are working in Uganda's informal urban sector have been trafficked from one area to another, while 44 per cent have been migrated from one district to another, according to another report on child labour, done by the International Labour Organisation.

Mr Venansio Ahabwe, the programme officer at African Network for Prevention and Protection Against Child Abuse and Neglect (ANPPCAN-Uganda) says that internal child trafficking is the most rampant form of child trafficking in Uganda. "It (child trafficking) is so rampant that society has come to accept it as normal; that when a well-to-do person needs a house help, all they need to do is to go to the village and pick a child from any impoverished family", he says.

The traffickers mainly target children in vulnerable situations, such as orphans and school dropouts. The children and their unsuspecting parents are hoaxed with items such as sugar, money, employment opportunities and a better life. There, however, seems to be limited efforts to try and combat this evil, which has eaten up our country. This has been compounded by lack of clear legislation about domestic workers, and high poverty levels forcing parents and guardians to practically sell off their children.

Studies by the Platform for Labour Action on Adult Domestic Workers in Uganda indicate that about 54 per cent of all (ADW) started working when they were still below 18 years. A good number of orphans and children who drop out of school join this type of work, which affects the literacy rates of the 15-24 year-old bracket as a whole, and that of the female, as well as their life opportunities.

Quite often, these children are under paid, if paid at all, forced to work for long hours; do chores that are too strenuous for them and are exposed to the risks of sexual, physical and emotional abuse by their employers. "All these are forms of abuse and exploitation," says Ahabwe.

But as we joins the rest of the continent to celebrate the Day of the African Child, may we as families and communities reflect on the challenges and threats that compromise the healthy growth and development of all children, and their health, and acknowledge them as Africa's most valuable assets.

The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) marked the Day of the African Child today by calling on governments, communities and families to boost efforts to prevent child trafficking.

"Globally, an estimated 1.2 million children are trafficked each year, within countries as well as across borders," said UNICEF Executive Director Ann M. Veneman. "Children are trafficked into prostitution, into armed groups to serve as child soldiers, to provide cheap or unpaid labour, and to work as house servants or beggars."

Trafficking exposes children to violence, sexual abuse, severe neglect, and HIV infection, she pointed out, while violating children's right to be protected, to grow up in a family environment and to have access to education.

UNICEF called for punishing the perpetrators of human trafficking, which generates an estimated $9.5 billion a year and fuels other criminal activities.

Concerted action is also needed to tackle the social and economic factors behind this crime, which has its roots in poverty, UNICEF said. Children are frequently lured with promises of good jobs in other countries or in cities in their own countries. In reality they are "traded like commodities" to work in brutal conditions and many children face beatings and other forms of physical and sexual abuse from their employers.
Also marking the Day, Radhika Coomaraswamy, UN Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict, recalled meeting a 13-year old Congolese girl who was abducted on her way to school, gang raped, subject to forced nudity, and used as a sexual slave by a dissident armed group in Eastern Congo for more then two years.

The victim, who became pregnant during her ordeal, is now receiving schooling while her baby receives childcare. But Ms. Coomaraswamy said the girl has no response when asked about her future. "Her silent answer and her whole story is the most heartbreaking one that I have ever heard," said the Special Representative.

Citing another example of the trauma endured by African children in conflict, the Special Representative described the ordeal of a former child soldier in Sierra Leone who left his community because he felt "haunted by bad spirits" and was re-recruited to fight for rebels in Liberia before working as a mercenary in Côte d'Ivoire. He said he left Sierra Leone because there is peace there now, explaining: "What I really know how to do well is fight and be a soldier."

Ms. Coomaraswamy pointed out that courts are now trying Charles Taylor, the former President of Sierra Leone, and Congolese fighter Thomas Lubana. The battle against impunity, she said, is the key to end grave violations against children.

"Children deserve protection. Violations of children's rights must stop, impunity must end," she said.
The Day of the African Child is celebrated on 16 June in recognition of the day when, in 1976, thousands of Black schoolchildren had marched in the streets of Soweto to claim their right to a better education, sparking a two-week revolt in which more than 100 people were killed and thousands were wounded.

Chinese investigators said a stationery company accused of using child labour to produce merchandise for next year's Olympics.

Chinese investigators said a stationery company accused of using child labour to produce merchandise for next year's Olympics had illegally employed children but not to make Olympic products, state media reported.

A report by the Playfair Alliance, released in London on Monday, said four factories in south China had exploited workers and that Lekit Stationery had employed "more than 20" children younger than 16.

An investigation by local authorities in Dongguan, an industrial hub in China's southern Guangdong province, found that Lekit Stationery had hired eight schoolchildren under the age of 16 during school holidays in January and February, Xinhua news agency said on Thursday.

The children, including six middle-school students and two from primary school, were paid 32 yuan ($4.20) for a 12-hour day and had worked six days a week, Xinhua said, citing the investigation.

The children were hired to "pack notebooks, not Olympic-licensed products," Xinhua said, and had told investigators that they had not made Olympic souvenirs.

"The city government says the under-aged children should not have been working at all and that Lekit underpaid them," Xinhua said, adding that the city authorities had ordered the company to "rectify" the situation.

Investigators did not say if the children would receive back pay or if the company would be fined.

The Organising Committee for the Beijing Olympic Games (BOCOG) had summoned Lekit and three other manufacturers to answer charges they had breached labor laws in the manufacture of Olympic products, Xinhua said.

"The legal affairs department has started to look into the accusations and the results will be announced as soon as the investigation concludes," Xinhua quoted Lu Chuan, a BOCOG spokesman, as saying.

The BBC reported on Wednesday that the manager of Lekit Stationery admitted a sub-contractor sometimes used by the company had hired schoolchildren for "light work" during their holidays.

Lekit manager Michael Lee later denied that the company's Olympic products manufacture had been contracted out to the factory in question.

The investigation had also found that Lekit had not signed labor contracts with 352 of its 772 workers and had underpaid them, Xinhua said.

FORMER Nelson solicitor and North West Liberal Democrat Euro MP Sajjad Karim has called for greater efforts to combat the production of toys by children.

Mr Karim has been vigorously campaigning against child labour and especially the exploitation of children in the production of toys since becoming a member of the International Trade and Human Rights committees in the European Parliament.

He spoke following International Day against Child Labour.

Mr Karim said: "I find it quite perverse that we have a system of labelling toys that recommends the age group a given product is suitable for and yet there can be no guarantees that the product itself has not been made by a child that is younger than those it is intended for.

"Retailers and importers of children's toys need to adopt an ethical approach to their purchasing strategy and only deal with manufacturers who can give an unqualified undertaking that children have not been exploited in the production of their goods.

"As a father of two young children I often find myself wondering when I buy them presents and toys if the children responsible for the production of what I am buying are even younger than my own."

The government has drafted a bill against child trafficking in the country, Minister of Gender and Family Promotion in the Prime Minister's Office, Valerie Nyirahabineza, has said. Nyirahabineza made the revelation on Monday while addressing journalists.

"The cabinet has already approved this draft law and has sent it to parliament. The anti-child trafficking law will be of great help," Nyirahabineza said at Prime Holdings conference hall.

She underlined the need to direct financial support to the disadvantaged children in society so that Rwanda can get an enterprising future generation.

"The child you neglect today will become a gangster in years to come. Let us act now," the minister appealed.

She explained that though child trafficking in Africa is widespread and increasing, there has not been any such case in Rwanda.

"The government says that it's better to prevent the problem before it occurs. This is the bottom line," Nyirahabineza explained.

Because of the gravity of the problem, Nyirahabineza appealed to all the community to get involved in the struggle against child abuse and labour.

She said families that stop children from studying and force them to join cruel activities like working on tea farms or mining will face the full wrath of the law.

The Minister for Public Service, Skills Development and Labour, Prof. Manasseh Nshuti suggested that to curtail the trend, punitive measures are to be put in place to punish leaders found guilty of denying children their rights.

He said intensive sensitisation through the media to warn parents against torturing children as young as seven, who are trafficked primarily for labour in Africa, has been going on.

Some countries where child trafficking is said to be on the increase include Mali, Ivory Coast, Benin, Gabon, Ghana, Togo, Nigeria, Niger, and Burkina Faso.

Nshuti said many children trafficked ultimately do not earn the money promised and the conditions in which they are forced to live and work range from basic to brutal.

The Day of the African Child was first recognised by African ministers in charge of family affairs in 1990 in memory of the children killed in Soweto during the apartheid in South Africa in 1976.

No one knows the scale of the problem, but the International Labour Organisation estimates that at least 200,000 children are trafficked within West Africa annually.

Most of the African girls and women who are trafficked to Europeend up on the streets as prostitutes.

Namibia has once again committed itself to eliminating all forms of child labour.

In a joint statement issued by the Ministry of Labour and Social Welfare and the International Labour Organisation (ILO) on the World Day Against Child Labour, commemorated yesterday, Government pledged to drastically reduce child labour.

According to the last figures recorded for the country in a 1999 study, 72 000 children out of 450 000 between the ages of 16 and 18 were either working or were available for work countrywide.

A total of 40 000 of these children were said to be under the age of 14.

While the term child labour usually conjured up visions of children working in factories and sweatshops, the joint statement released yesterday noted that in Namibia it was generally the agricultural sector that was responsible for this illegal practice.

"Child labourers - irrespective of whether they work on their parents' farms or hired to work on the farms of others, can face more serious risks than adults just because their minds and bodies are still growing," the statement says.

"During (a)...

qualitative study of 2006 on children in Namibia, one 13-year old boy who has never been to school said, 'I look after the cattle,goats and sheep.

I am not scared of big cows, but sometimes I am scared because in this area lions and elephants sometimes pay a visit'.

"This little boy was so small and skinny we could hardly see him between the cattle," an extract from the joint statement reads.

The Labour Ministry said it was making good progress on the drafting of a national action plan to eliminate child labour.

A draft version of the plan should be ready to be submitted to Cabinet by next month, the Ministry said, and had already passed the stage of consultation with key organisations.

In Namibia, 23 per cent of all rural-based children are suspected to be forced into work, while in urban areas the figure is believed to be two per cent.

The ILO estimates that approximately 70 per cent of the world's working children between the ages of five and 14 years of age are engaged in agricultural activity.

Still, it said, agriculture is rated as one of the three most dangerous sectors to work in, not only for children but at any age.

The other two sectors named were mining and construction.

http://allafrica.com/stories/200706130815.html

Severe penalties promised for any child-labor abuse

BEIJING -- The Olympic image could be damaged by allegations that children as young as 12 are being employed to make officially licensed products for the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

That's the message Wednesday from Chen Feng, deputy director of marketing for the 2008 Beijing Olympics, who has summoned four manufacturers to Beijing to answer charges of labor-law violations in the making of Olympic goods.

A report released Sunday entitled "No Medal for the Olympics on Labor Rights" alleges four factories in southern China broke national labor laws on child labour, overtime pay and minimum wages to make souvenirs for the 2008 Olympics.

The four manufacturers acknowledge they have Olympic contracts, but deny charges in the report by Brussels-based PlayFair 2008. The report also says the Beijing organizers -- and the Lausanne-based International Olympic Committee -- are doing too little to guarantee ethical work conditions in the making of official products that carry the five-ring Olympic logo.

Chen said he planned to meet Wednesday with representatives of the four companies. Li Zhanjun, director of the Beijing Olympic media center, said it would be several days before any findings might be released.
"We don't want them (makers of Olympic products) to damage the Olympic image," Chen said. "We want them to realize that their performance in terms of corporate responsibility, environmental protection and quality control has a lot to do with the image of the Olympics, and the reputation of the Olympic Games."
Chen said there was a "huge gap between the report and what the businesses told us. They have told us they did not employ child labour at all."

Chen, repeating threats made earlier by Jiang Xiaoyu, executive vice president of the Beijing Olympic organizing committee, said contracts would be terminated if violations were found.

"We will continue our investigation until we find the truth," Chen said. "If we find any problems, we will severely punish those violators."

Chen also promised a crackdown on the sale of counterfeit Olympic merchandise, like fake DVDs and knockoffs of designer goods, being sold on many street corners in Beijing.

"We really have taken notice of the problem," Chen said. "Some cases constitute criminal offenses, and we will take legal action to tackle them.

"Those (counterfeit Olympic) products are all provided by unauthorized businesses because we have strict controls on the authorized businesses. If the authorized businesses sell to an unauthorized buyer, that would be a serious violation of the contract and we would severely penalize them."

WHEREAS some children have deliberately shunned Universal Primary Education, 12-year-old Proscovia Nabakonye is longing for a good samaritan who can take her back to school.

Despite the availability of free UPE, Nabakonye has failed to make it to school.

Nabakonye, a child domestic worker in Katwe, one of Kampala's slums, dropped out of school in 2004 while in primary six because her grandmother, who had supported her right from primary one, could no longer afford her school requirements.

An only child, Nabakonye did not have a chance to live with any of her parents. Her father died a few days after she was born and a year later, her mother also passed away, leaving her in the hands of her elderly peasant grandmother in Mityana district.

"I did not see any of my parents because they died when I was still very young. I was raised up by my grandmother who catered for everything including education until 2004 when I dropped out of school because she could no longer afford to do so," she says.

Nabakonye's only option was to help her grandmother till land to produce enough food for home consumption and sell the surplus to cater for their financial needs.

When her paternal aunt told her she had got her a job in Kampala, Nabakonye was brought to Katwe where she became domestic worker.

Work schedule
Her day starts at 6.am with domestic chores like cleaning the house, washing dishes, preparing breakfast, lunch, supper, fetching water and preparing children to go to school. The list is endless. Nabakonye's aunt has four children. Her only prayer is to get someone who can take her back to school and relieve her of this kind of work.

The Chairman of Katwe I Parish Paul Lukombira Kabi says there are many domestic child labourers in his parish and that most of them are not only being exploited but also abused sexually by their employers. He says one male employer in Musoke Zone recently chased away his 14-year-old domestic worker after he allegedly infected her with HIV/Aids. Another employer was forced to marry his housemaid after he impregnated her.

Mr Kabi says most of the domestic child labourers are orphans and that there is need for urgent attention to liberate them. "They work for long hours, they are under paid and some are sexually abused. Some of them are not paid if they break a glass in the process of washing it," he says. Mr Kabi says these children usually find their way to Kampala by the help of their relatives, who at times convince them that they are going to educate them but end up turning them into domestic workers.

He says the situation has been worsened by the increasing number of brokers who are collecting children from other districts and selling them to people in Kampala as housemaids.

He says most children come from Masaka, Luweero, Jinja and Mbarara. "There are so many brokers who go upcountry, get children and sell them to those who need maids. They have turned the act into a lucrative business but we are working in collaboration with Katwe Police Post to crack them down," he says.

Mr Kabi says the local councils in the area have taken an initiative to inspect homes where these children are employed to examine their living conditions. Those who are willing to go back home are taken back to their parents or guardians.

He says last year alone, they were able to resettle 20 child labourers to their homes. Statistics at the Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development indicate that out of 2.7 million child labourers in Uganda, 54 per cent are domestic workers.

Mr Kabi says NGO’s like Friends of Children with Autism and Platform for Labour Action had also embarked on training some of these children in hair dressing, mechanics, tailoring and connecting them to NGOs that are willing to finance their education. The children are also sensitised on HIV/Aids.

The assistant manager of Child labour and HIV/Aids programme at PLA Eva Mugade says their project in Katwe targets 110 child workers and those who are at a risk of becoming child workers.

Ambassador Mark P. Lagon, Senior Advisor on Trafficking in Persons On-The-Record Briefing: Release of the 2007 Trafficking in Persons Report Washington, DC June 12, 2007

AMBASSADOR LAGON: It's a pleasure to be here. Thank you, Secretary Rice, and good morning. I'd like to offer an overview of what's in the report and then after a few minutes, welcome your questions. It's an honor to succeed Ambassador John Miller as director of an extraordinary office dedicated to ending a deeply dehumanizing form of exploitation. Human trafficking or trafficking in persons is modern-day slavery.
At the heart of U.S. efforts to end human trafficking is a commitment to human dignity. Every day, all over the world, people are coerced into bonded labor, bought and sold in prostitution, exploited in domestic servitude, enslaved in agricultural work and in factories, and captured to serve unlawfully as child soldiers. Estimates of the number vary widely. According to U.S. Government estimates, approximately 800,000 people are trafficked across international borders each year and about 80 percent of them are female. Up to half are minors.

And these figures do not include millions who are trafficked into labor and sexual slavery within national borders. Stomach-wrenching individual stories, however, tell more than the aggregate numbers and these are the people who motivate everyone active in the movement to abolish human trafficking.

Let me tell you about one victim. At age 22, Ko Maung left Burma with his new bride to find work in a neighboring country. He took a job on a fishing boat for two years because he was promised good money, $70 per month. But that boat stayed at sea for three years and the workers were fed only fish and rice. Not getting enough vitamins, they began to starve. They were denied medical care or passage home. The good job turned out to be a floating death camp. One by one, the men began to perish, including Ko Maung. His body was dumped overboard. So were the exhausted, malnourished bodies of 29 other modern-day slaves.

60 fishermen who survived weren't paid at all. Police refused to prosecute the employer since there are no bodies to prove a crime. In a climate of official indifference with forced labor violations typically not criminalized, desperate, migrant laborers are especially vulnerable to forced fraud and coercion, the fundamental markers of human trafficking. This seventh annual Trafficking In Persons report is dedicated to Ko Maung and to his grieving family.

The structure of the report and the purpose are focused largely on drawing the world's attention on the existence of modern-day slavery and the desperate need to eliminate it in the same way that the world ended the African slave trade more than a century ago. Human trafficking plagues every country in one way or another, including the United States. The report covers 164 countries and territories, comprising some 85 percent of the world. It ranks 151 countries and territories where there have been some 100 cases of human trafficking that were documented. It spells out what countries are doing on prosecution, prevention and protection and what more can be done together between the United States and other countries on all three fronts.

The U.S. Government is committed to taking action in cooperation with other nations. The process of diplomatic engagement bilaterally to mitigate the problems documented in the report goes on throughout the year, not just in this season that I'm talking to you now. Our sources of information for this report include U.S. Embassies, NGOs worldwide, brave activists fighting human trafficking, foreign law enforcement officers and staff visits. Extensive analysis based on criteria laid out by Congress in the law goes into the assignment of countries into Tier 1, Tier 2, Tier 2 Watch List and Tier 3.

A country falls into Tier 3 if its government is not making a significant effort to combat human trafficking. A Tier 3 country can be sanctioned if it doesn't take seriously antislavery action in the next 90 days. Sadly, this year the list of countries on Tier 3 has grown to -- due to a lack of effort by these governments to combat this serious transnational crime. There are a total of 16 countries on Tier 3, seven of which dropped down to Tier 3 this year: Algeria, Bahrain, Equatorial Guinea, Kuwait, Malaysia, Oman and Qatar.

It's especially disappointing that so many wealthy countries in the Near East that aren't lacking adequate resources to make significant progress are on Tier 3. For instance, Saudi Arabia is on Tier 3 for the third year. These are countries in that region that rely extensively on foreign migrant laborers. Practices such as sponsorship laws create conditions that make guest workers especially vulnerable to trafficking in the region.

Sponsorship laws give employers extensive personal authority over workers, allowing them to control movement and legal status. These -- there are cases of workers escaping abuse in private homes or work sites. They flee to local police. But if their sponsor denies them an exit permit to leave the country, the exploited workers are effectively held hostage in a shelter or a police detention center, sometimes for years. The power given to sponsors over foreign workers should be limited and counterbalanced with rights for workers to seek legal redress and governments in destination countries should be more active in protecting workers.

Now 32 countries are on the Tier 2 Watch List, the same number as last year. The Tier 2 Watch List should be a warning. Unfortunately, too many major countries on the Tier 2 Watch List have ignored this warning year after year. India, Mexico, and Russia are on the Tier 2 Watch List for the fourth consecutive year. Armenia, China, and South Africa are on Tier 2 Watch List for a third consecutive year. For all Tier 3 and Tier 2 Watch List countries, the United States outlines a short-term action plan through which to spur bilateral commitment and specific steps to improve the situation. Tier 2 Watch List is not supposed to become a parking lot for governments lacking the will or interest to stop exploitation and enslavement on their soil. We stand ready to cooperate with these nations and support any efforts they make to end this travesty within their borders.

On a positive note, 10 governments ranked on Tier 2 Watch List last September when the President made final determinations on tier status moved up to Tier 2 on this report: Bolivia, Brazil, Indonesia, Israel, Taiwan, Peru, Jamaica, they're among these moving up to Tier 2 based on significant new efforts. Belize moved up from Tier 3 to Tier 2 in one year. The Government of Brazil renewed its commitment to confronting slave labor in the Amazon with a number of new measures. The Government of Indonesia enacted a sweeping counter-trafficking law providing protection for all victims including migrant laborers who are fraudulently recruited from overseas work, but fall into trafficking as a trap.

Last week, a raid in Taiwan, a real success story, demonstrated a welcome new attitude. Working closely with U.S. law enforcement, Taiwan broke up a cross-border trafficking ring, arresting 12 people suspected of trafficking women to the United States and other countries where they were exploited in prostitution and pornography. Countries that have established credentials in good governments and rule of law are more likely to move quickly in protecting victims of trafficking and handing down justice to exploiters.

For example, while China resisted joining the international community in upholding universal anti-trafficking standards, given a lack of rule of law, Taiwan's vibrant civil society and democratic character have helped it adopt significant reforms over the past year. On Tier 1, three countries appear for the first time this year: Georgia, Hungary, and Slovenia. Georgia's performance is particularly notable, considering it's the only Tier 1 country in a region struggling to strengthen rule of law. Georgia has shown an admirable political commitment to confronting human trafficking. Its improvement includes efforts to prevent girls and women from being lured into the global sex trade, where exploiters turn women and girls into mere commodities with their bodies for sale.

Young girls and unsuspecting women are often lured or kidnapped or sold into an omnivorous sex industry. The length between prostitution and sex trafficking is indisputable. That's why we must move with more creativity and commitment to deal with the demand for victims. Prostitution is not a victimless crime. It ruins lives from Mexico to Malta, from Tel Aviv to Tokyo, from Albany, New York to Abuja, Nigeria. Sexual servitude is particularly grotesque in human trafficking. The report is interspersed with stories of survivors who have been aided by U.S. programs that demonstrate our commitment to rescue and rehabilitate innocent victims.

Let me tell you briefly about some trends that we see highlighted in the 2007 report. Use of debt, first of all, as a tool of coercion and secondly, stalled progress in strengthening rule of law. First, in both labor and sexual exploitation, illegal or illegitimate debt is increasingly used to keep people in servitude. This debt is used by traffickers as an instrument of coercion. How does this work? People are enticed into fraudulent offers of work abroad that require a steep payment up front for the services of a labor agency arranging the job or a payment that goes straight to the future employer.

To pay the fee, workers often borrow money from relatives and friends or they mortgage property. Sometimes, additional debt is added at the place of employment: inflated fees for supposed costs of room and board or equipment. Sometimes, new, unexpected transportation fees are added. The debt becomes exorbitant on purpose, yet workers are trapped into trying to pay it off for years. This debt is as effective as overt force in keeping them in bondage, yet it's invisible and often overlooked by criminal investigators. In trafficking for prostitution, we're increasingly aware of debt being used to coerce and control victims. Daily fees charged by brothel owners for rent, food, drugs, even condoms create an inescapable financial burden that amounts to debt bondage, a form of human trafficking.

A second trend, second theme; the 2007 TIP report reflects our overall sense that progress on the critical front of rule of law appears to have stalled. Democracy and rule of law are crucial to fighting human trafficking. And fighting trafficking conversely is crucial to the future of democracy worldwide, since trafficking is one of the most brutal ways to silence women, half of humankind worldwide. This lack of progress on rule of law can be traced to official corruption and complicity on the one hand and indifference on the other. These passive and active factors perpetuate abuse despite increased public awareness and despite extraordinary bravery on the part of activists and NGOs around the world.

It hurts my heart to share with you this very recent example that typifies the confluence of officials' complicity in trafficking and indifference in the face of heroism to end modern-day slavery. One of the heroes highlighted in this year's report, Kailash Satyarthi of the Indian NGO Bachpan Bachao Andolan or BBA, prompted the rescue of 92 Bengali children enslaved in goldsmith and jewelry factories in India's capital city of New Delhi. The children were forced to eat, sleep, and labor in workshops, 10 to a room. Dangerous chemicals were used for making gold ornaments in the same rooms that they were kept 24 hours a day. Most of the children were under the age of 14. According to the children, many were physically and sexually abused.

Just days after this rescue which didn't result in any arrests in India, the factory owners, managers, and their thugs showed up at BBA's shelter with iron rods, sticks, and bricks. They tried to recapture the children. Shelter staff were injured. When police finally responded, no one was arrested. The connections and clout of these traffickers were enough, apparently, to thwart justice. India has the world's largest labor trafficking problem with hundreds of thousands of sex trafficking victims and millions of bonded laborers including forced child laborers. In India, there is no national anti-trafficking effort, no recognition of bonded labor on an official level, and poor efforts against sex trafficking. The world's largest democracy has the world's largest problem of human trafficking.

The goal of this report is not to punish. It's to stimulate government action in concert with the United States to end modern-day slavery and to celebrate the heroism of those who are working to help spare victims from pain. The report identifies anti-trafficking heroes from around the world and commendable practices. Individuals and local initiatives can make a difference in leading path-breaking efforts to protect victims, increase global awareness, and protect and prosecute criminals. On pages 38-41 of the report, you see some of these inspirational examples, and I'd urge you to read that part of the report carefully.

The United States is deeply committed to fulfilling its responsibilities and to fight against trafficking in persons within our own borders as well. We have a problem at home which we're confronting forcefully, and we're working to be a partner to those abroad, including through substantial and frankly compassionate funding. In fiscal year 2006, we contributed more than $74 million abroad, funding 154 international projects in 70 countries. Since fiscal year 2001, the United States Government has funded more than $448 million to fight human trafficking.

This report is not just an assessment and a judgment about nations, but a blueprint about the sorts of things the United States can help other countries do programmatically. Modern slavery has met with a powerful movement, seeking its abolition in the 21st century, assuming the mantles of William Wilberforce and Josephine Butler.

I want to thank you for your support. Thank you for joining us here; taking the time. By broadcasting this tragic but true story of trafficking in persons, you help prevent a widespread crime against human dignity and help give victims hope for escape. I welcome your questions and I'd ask you when you ask a question, to identify yourself and your media organization.

New Delhi, June 13 (IANS) World Day Against Child Labour was observed Tuesday amid some worrying statistics and a lingering hope to fight this social evil that threatens to strangulate the future of the world. There are more than 12.6 million child labourers in India.

Global March Against Child labour, a worldwide movement of child rights group, teacher organisations and trade unions, is observing the day as 'Stop Child Labour in Agriculture Day' by organizing rallies, demonstrations and meetings in many of its member countries.

Active in 140 countries, the movement calls for urgent action to stop child labour in agriculture sector. An estimated 150 million children are engaged in this sector, which form 70 percent of the total child labour force in the world.

Kailash Satyarthi, chairperson of the movement as well as of Bachpan Bachao Aandolan (BBA), a civil society group in India, said: "It is unethical to eat delicious food and wear expensive clothes which are produced by half fed, half naked and even enslaved children trapped in agriculture worldwide."

Uttar Pradesh tops the list in India with 1,927,997 child labourers. Andhra Pradesh and Bihar are next with 1,363,339 and 1,117,500 children respectively, working below the legal age of 14.

Gerry Pinto, advisor of Butterflies, a voluntary group working on child rights issues across the country, said: "On this day we are trying to swallow the frustration of being unable to do much to stop child labour."

Saying that April 30 is observed as Child Labour Day by all the civil society groups in India instead of June 12, which has been fixed by International Labour Organisation (ILO), Pinto said that not much work has been done in this context.

"The problem is that all the international organizations put up slogans against child labour but when it comes to doing some real work like recognizing and addressing this issue and putting pressure on the various governments to address the same, they don't do much," Pinto told IANS.

He said: "For instance, in September last year there was a ban on domestic child labour and child labour in eateries and 'dhabas' in our country. Before that in the 1986 legislation, 57 occupations have already been identified where child labour is banned.

"But when you walk down the road you still see children working everywhere. The implementation has not been effective. It's not enough just to make rules."

Satyarthi echoed similar sentiments. "There is lack of political will in India in tackling this problem effectively. We keep saying that children are our future but the number of child labourers is still very high," said the noted civil society activist.

The Indian government has prohibited the employment of children below the age of 14 years in 15 hazardous occupations under the Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act of 1986.

Yet, more than 20,000 prosecutions had to be launched against violators during the last three years in various states and union territories, said a statement released Tuesday by the ministry for labour and employment.

Minister of State for Labour and Employment, Oscar Fernandes, says his ministry and the US Department of Labour have been working on a common project called Indus to eliminate the social menace in 21 districts of five states through effective support from the department of education.

LONDON: On 'World Day Against Child Labour’, the Environmental Justice Foundation (EJF) has asked retailers to guarantee that child labour is not used to produce their cotton.

The Environmental Justice Foundation (EJF) is dedicated to creating, implementing and building solutions where they are needed most - training local people and communities who are directly affected to investigate, expose and combat environmental degradation and abuse.

There is a need to clean the cotton industry, the EJF said.

Children as young as seven years are employed or rather used by the cotton producers on the field. The children can not go to school, are exposed to risks from dangerous machinery and hazardous chemicals used on the crops. In addition to being denied enjoying their childhood they are subjected to all this with little or no pay.

The world cotton production is worth US$30 billion which is mainly used for cloth production.
In Unbekistan which is the second largest cotton exporter in the World the schools do not open in the harvest season. About 2,00,000 children are working in the field to pick cotton. They are punished by scolding, beatings or detention if they fail to meet their daily quota or pict poor quality cotton.

It's time for consumer action and people should ask their retailer to guarantee their cotton is not produced by children. Consumers should not buy from those retailers who do not gurantee about this.

Europe imports almost US$350 million's worth of cotton from Uzbekistan each year. The cotton may be produced by exploiting the children.

Retailers have a duty to know the history of the products they sell through a transparent supply chain that would enable them to help prevent this human exploitation, and guarantee child labour had not been used in their production.

The Environmental Justice Foundation (EJF) is dedicated to creating, implementing and building solutions where they are needed most - training local people and communities who are directly affected to investigate, expose and combat environmental degradation and abuse.

EJF employs the latest video equipment and technologies to document both the problems and solutions, working through the media and creating the momentum for effective action.

World Day Against child labour this year focuses on child labour in agriculture. However, even more harmful is the practice of child abduction, slavery, and prostitution. Some 8.5 million children in denigrating conditions.

World Day Against child labour

According to the website for Human Rights Education Associates, which describes itself as an international non-governmental organization that supports human rights education, agriculture is the world economic sector where the largest percentage of working children is found – up to 70 percent.

On June 12, international organizations mark “World Day Against child labour” which this year will focus on children who work the soil. According to HREA, over 132 million girls and boys aged 5 to 14 years old often work on farms and plantations, planting and harvesting crops, spraying pesticides, and tending livestock. In the US, children work alongside their migrant worker parents, often from Mexico, weeding or picking crops such as strawberries, apples, and grapes.

Each year the World Day Against child labour has often focused on one of the “Worst Forms of child labour” listed in UN Worst Forms of child labour Convention (1999), starting with the Unconditional Worst Forms, such as child trafficking. This was then followed by the categories of child domestic work and then child labour in mining last year. The event is aimed at mobilizing people around the world against child labour and its worst forms.

However, children are also at risk from economic activities in the world far more dangerous than agriculture. According to “Save the Children” and ECPAT International (which stands for End Child Prostitution, Child Pornography, and Trafficking of Children for Sexual Purposes) some 218 million children between the ages of 5 and 17 years of age are workers. Of these, some 126 million work in “very dangerous” conditions while 8.5 million working in “denigrating” conditions near “slavery”. Europe, for example, is not exempt from the presence of child prostitution: it is estimated that in Spain alone, some 5,000 are forced into prostitution while the rate of children involved in pornography grows steadily each year.

Save the Children of Spain focused in a recent report on eight forms of child exploitation:

1. Trafficking of children.

2. Sexual exploitation of children for commercial purposes.

3. Forced labor to allay family debt.

4. Forced labor in mines.

5. Forced labor in agriculture.

6. Child soldiers and combatants

7. Forced marriage.

8. Domestic servitude

Kidnapped and sold down the river

More than 1.2 million children are abducted and/or sold as slaves every year by child traffickers. These children are then engaged in illicit activities such as prostitution or sold for adoption or as forced marriage partners. Save the Children believes that child trafficking is a relatively high profit, low-risk crime, which is facilitated by inexpensive travel and the growth of intercontinental human migration; child trafficking is estimated to represent a business of nearly $31.5 million per year in worldwide. Child trafficking is also a growing phenomenon in the United States and Caribbean countries. Spain, which is a transit country for refugees and illegal emigrants to Europe, is seeing growing numbers of children and young people brought to the country from Africa, Latin America, and Eastern Europe for the purposes of sexual exploitation.

Prostitution

In addition, 1.8 million children are sexually exploited for commercial purposes (forced to exercise prostitution, used in pornography and sexual tourism). In Brazil, Save the Children estimates that at least 500,000 children are sexually exploited for commercial purposes, while in Southeast Asia some 3 out of 10 prostitutes are children.

Forced labor

The practice of forced child labour is found with frequency in Bangladesh, India, Nepal, and Pakistan. Many of these children are sold by their families in order to settle debts contracted by their parents. A million children work in mines in Africa, Asia, and South America, while 132 million children under the age of 15 are engaged in agriculture throughout the world.

Child soldiers

More than 300,000 children under the age of 15 are forced into armed conflict. They are recruited as combatants, messengers, cooks, or wives of combatants. The report by Save the Children (Spain) says of forced marriages that some 100 million girls worldwide have been forced into marriage before the age of 18. Save the Children said that it is possible to solicit brides over the Internet, while the countries producing the most forced marriages are India, Nepal, Bangladesh, and sub-Saharan Africa. This is a practice, said the organization, that is sometimes induced by girls’ parents who fear that their daughters will be sexually assaulted or impregnated outside of marriage.

BEIJING, June 11 (Reuters) - Chinese factories are churning out licensed bags, caps and stationery for the 2008 Beijing Olympics using child labour and paying workers less than half the minimum wage, a reports says.

As members of the International Olympics Committee (IOC) gather in London for a progress update on the 2012 Games, the report -- "No Medal for the Olympics" -- finds evidence of children as young as 12 producing Olympic merchandise.

The Playfair Alliance, represented in Britain by the Trades Union Congress and Labour Behind the Label, researched working conditions at four factories making 2008 Olympic bags, headgear, stationery and other products.

"It also reveals that factory owners are falsifying employment records, and forcing workers to lie about their wages and conditions," the TUC said in a release.

Researchers also found adults earning half the legal minimum wage in China and employees who were made to work up to 15 hours per day, seven days a week.

"Children and adult workers are being grossly exploited so that unscrupulous employers can make more profit," TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber was quoted as saying.
"Their actions tarnish the Olympic ideal, and we don't want more of the same when the Olympics come to London. The IOC must add respect for workers' rights to the Olympic charter."

Beijing authorities seized nearly 30,000 fake Olympic souvenirs in February, some made from toxic materials, state media reported earlier.

A week earlier, Chinese customs officials flagged a crackdown on fake Olympic merchandise, and said more than 100 cases of imported and exported goods infringing on the Olympic trademark had been handled since 2002.

China regularly defends its record on fighting piracy, saying it is a developing country and needs time. But pirated goods ranging from drugs and designer bags to foods, movies and music discs are openly sold in shops and on street corners.

CHILD labour is an issue which has been in Fiji for a long time but people are gradually becoming aware of its illegality and disadvantage to children who are forced to or involved in it.

Although it is hard to give a precise definition of child labour, the International Labour Organisation defines it as any kind of work which hinders a child from going to school to complete his or her education and work which prevents a child from his moral or spiritual development.

Some of the worst forms of child labour globally are drug trafficking, pornography and child prostitution.
Fiji is one of the countries where child labour has existed and one of the worst forms of child labour here is child prostitution, which is not to a great extent, but it does exist.

ILO director Abu Zakaria said there was a difference between a child working to earn his pocket money and a child working to earn an income for his family.

Mr Zakaria said children who worked after school at home or in the supermarket were not counted as child labourers but children who were not allowed to attend school and made to work when they were supposed to be in school are counted as child labourers.

"If children work to develop their skills or earn pocket-money after school and it doesn't tamper their education, then it is not child labour," said Mr Zakaria.

"The ILO is not against children working but they are against children working when they should be in school studying."

Fiji has developed its laws against child labour along the conventions of the ILO where every child has a right to education and children above the age of 16 years are allowed to engage in the work force.
The ILO has organised a number of workshops and training for stakeholders where the issue of child labour was emphasised.

Mr Zakaria said the purpose of the training workshop was to equip the training of trainers with adequate information and tools to take the message of stopping child labour to the community level.

"The ILO is in the process of developing a system of following up the activities of training of trainers.
"It is also a bit early to assess the success of people who have participated in the workshop.
"We do not have any latest statistics on hand however, we are in the process of finalising a project proposal on child labour.

"Among other things, the project will conduct a nationwide survey to determine the extent and type of child labour in Fiji and Papua New Guinea."

Save the Children Fiji is one organisation which is working closely with the ILO on the issue.

The executive director of Save the Children Fiji, Irshad Ali, said it was the responsibility of any parent to see that his or her child attended school and received an education.

"It is also a problem with our education system because there is no means of tracking students and monitor them to check whether they are getting an education," said Mr Ali.

He said it was time to look seriously at legislation to enforce compulsory education so that children were able to receive an education.

Save the Children had released a report where it stated poverty was the main cause forcing children into child labour.

Mr Ali said there was a great need for parents to change their attitude regarding the importance of children going to school.

"Technology is catching up on us and things are becoming complex now. Even the Liquefied Pressure Gas taxis that are being used are creating some difficulties for local automotive mechanics to repair."

He said every child had a right to education and it was the responsibility of every parent to see that his child received an education.

"By the time the child grows up, the whole mechanics of the automotive arena will have changed and because he does not have the basic education, he will find it hard to cope."

He said the issue of child labour had to be looked at in unison with issues such as poverty, education and the enforcement of legislations which require children to receive an education.

He said the main problem was that people failed to see beyond the problem.

"We need to look at the magnitude of the problem in Fiji and work together to find solutions.

"There are people who are genuinely concerned for the welfare of their children but there are those who are exploiting their children and ruining their future."

He said organisations such as the ILO were organising programs to create awareness of the issue of child labour but the issues never seemed to reach those at the grassroots level.

Mr Zakaria admitted there was a need to spread the message of how wrong it was to engage children in child labour to the grassroots level.

"But compared to last year and the year before, people have become aware of what child labour is and the fact that it is illegal and their children have a right to have an education," said Mr Zakaria.

He said the rate of school dropouts was also a factor which influenced the number of children who were involved in child labour in Fiji.

He said such issues had to be addressed first in order to curb the number of children being involved in child labour.

BARGI AREA, JABALPUR: As world commemorates world day against child labour which falls on June 12, 2007, more than 300 children continue to suffer here, as they work in the tough conditions of the stone crushing units in Bargi area, about 30 kilometers off Jabalpur. Jabalpur is located in the centre of the State of Madhya Pradesh in India and is one of the important cities of the State.

The stone crushing units provide concrete which is used for the construction purposes. These units do employ children as they listen, work hard and are easy to hire and fire. Conditions in these units are deplorable. The young children not only have to inhale the dust while they work which flies in these units, but also suffer exploitation at the units. School drop-outs get fast employment here, and they are paid a paltry sum of forty to sixty rupees a day shared a social worker in the area. There is also an issue of exploitation of young women which often goes unreported, he added. Even alcoholism among young is increasing.

Just a few days back Minister of State for Labour and Employment Government of India had made a statement in Rajya Sabha where it was proposed to conduct a survey in the country to assess the number of child labour. As per Census 2001 conducted by the Registrar General of India and Census Commissioner the number of working children in the India is 1.26 crore and based on similar data 10.65 lakhs are in Madhya Pradesh, though non governmental organisations working in the sector claim otherwise.

The Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act 1986 prevents child labour (children under the age of 14) in factories, mines and hazardous employment, and regulates the working conditions of children in other employment. In 1993, the government also prohibited employment of children in occupations and processes like abattoirs and slaughterhouses, printing, cashew nut descaling and processing, and soldering. A new amendment of October 10, 2006 had declared child labour at homes, restaurants, dhabas, hotels, resorts and tea stalls as illegal, and people who engage children in such labour will face punishment.

It is easy to make laws than implement, need is of ‘strength and will’ to work out solutions, as these crushing units are owned by ‘big people’ and how does one address the underlying factors like drop-out from schools, poverty, and livelihood issues which hardly get addressed play a significant role. Need is to not only to make sure that the children go to school, but get quality education. Need is to find alternative employment which can help address issues of livelihood and poverty in the family. There are number of laws, schemes and policies but fact of the matter is that child labour exists and exploitation is happening even as we mark this day against child labour. 

The longest constitutional articles on earth, the most beautiful well carved provisions for its citizen; this is what we have today in India . Unfortunately, it is yet to fulfill its goal to safeguard and abolish –'bonded child labour' in the fourth largest economic power country of the world. Even though there are no specific figures or data from Government and NGOs in India, but it is estimated that there are roughly 13 million child labour under 14 years of age, which constitutes around 3.6 per cent of total labour force in the country.

It would be worthwhile to note it down that the Parliament of India passed the historic 86th Constitutional Amendment Act in 2002 making education a fundamental right of every child and mandating the State to provide for free and compulsory education up to 14 years of age. The Article 21 A of the Indian constitution mentions that the State shall provide free and compulsory education to all children of the age of 6 to 14 years in such manner as the State, may determine. Article 39 opines that no child below the age of 14 years shall be employed in work in any factory or mine or engaged in any other hazardous employment.

In a writ petition filed on 10th December 1996, the Supreme Court of India gave directions on the issue of elimination of child labour that – contribution @ Rs. 20,000/- per child to be paid by offending employers of children to a welfare fund to be established for this purpose; employment to one adult family member of the child so withdrawn from work and it that is not possible a contribution of Rs. 5,000/- to the welfare fund to be made by the state government; financial assistance to families of the children so withdrawn to be paid out of the interest earnings on the corpus of Rs. 20,000/25,000 deposited in the welfare fund as long as the child is actually send to schools, etc.

There are also numbers of provisions and schemes laid down by the government to protect children from hazardous works. In a written reply in Rajya Sabha on 16th May 2007, the Minister of State (Independent Charge), Labour & Employment, Oscar Fernandes had said that the government is implementing the National Child Labour Project (NCLP) Scheme in 250 districts of 20 States for rehabilitation of children withdrawn from work. Under the Scheme, children withdrawn from work are provided with education, nutrition, stipend, vocational training and health care etc. and are finally mainstreamed to regular education system. So far, 3.92 lakh children have been mainstreamed into formal education system, the minister added.

The question is – what and how it is going to be implemented and where have all the earlier provisions of the law and directions given by the Supreme Court gone. It was not so long ago that on 19 May 2007, around 93 child labourers were rescued from a hazardous gold and silver melting units in Regharpura and Beadonpura of Karol Bagh, Delhi. According to media report - of the 93 children, 57 are below 14 years of age and some even 9-10 years of age. Rests of the children are between 14-18 years of age. On 21 November 2006 , in one of the biggest operation against child labour, as many as 425 child labourers were rescued from zari factories in Jafarabad area of Delhi. It is also further reported that the rescued children were simply handed over to their parents without ensuring that children would be going to school. If that not enough then one can see how many children are still working at the commercial hub of Nehru Place of Delhi.

So looking into the matter is a serious problem itself. The very pertinent questions – why are such children being forced to do such hazardous work? What are their parents' occupations? Its economic parameter, social condition and so on – is very much essential to looking into before implementing any schemes or projects. Also what it clearly shows is that the present economic and social structure is not beneficial to them at all. Rather it has a clear bias against them and favours those at the other end of the spectrum.

So the foremost thing that the government can implement is to remove the present imbalance of economic structure in the country and stringent action should be taken up to corrupted officials. The more you are silent the more child labour will increase. Sometimes silence abets a lie.

New Delhi, June 9: The Delhi Police has rescued 22 children, who were employed as labourers at a hazardous industrial unit in north Delhi.

At the initiation of Bachpan Bachao Andolan, an NGO, the children were rescued from plastic factories located in north Delhi's Narela locality.

The units did not have any ventilation and were filled with chemical fumes.

Kailash Satyarthi, founder of the Bachpan Bachao Andolan, said: "Most of the children were working in dangerous conditions in plastic factories manufacturing small items such as slippers".

He said, "They were made to work in an environment filled with chemicals and acids, which can affect organs like lungs and kidneys".

The local Sub-Divisional Magistrate, the police and the labour department helped in rescuing the children.

Satyarthi said that many children were shocked and scared by the commotion and sight of policemen, and had to be coaxed and cajoled to come along.

The children broke down as they were being rescued by the officials.

The rescued children were made to work for long hours. Neeraj, a rescued child, said: "I have been working for last one month. I got 500 rupees. I had to work from 5 in the morning till six in the evening".

Most of the children hailed from Bihar and West Bengal.

Employing children below the age of 14 years is banned in hazardous industries, roadside eateries and automobile workshops.

Those found violating the law can face up to two years' jail and a maximum fine of 20,000 rupees or both.

The Labour Ministry says there are 12 million children under the age of 14 years working in India, but the activists say the number could be five times higher.

News that government has teamed up with some non-government organisations to fight child labour, which is on the increase in the country owing to alleged poverty and other factors is pleasing to the ear.

Although it is not new to see NGOs and government working together in this endeavour, we think this time the two parties have formalised their partnership and have outlined serious terms of reference which the two parties would ensure they are adhered to.

We all know that child labour has no positive gain to the children involved as the apparent benefits are only short term. In fact, there is more harm to the child than the common belief by some parents that pushing their children into the labour market would empower them economically.

What such parents fail to realise is that children in the labour market are subjected to many hazardous elements that might in the long run work to their detriment, physically and psychologically.

Cases abound of employers who abuse their child workers by giving them work that is beyond their physical and mental maturity. Others, especially male employers, end up sexually abusing their employees and risking impregnating them or in worse cases infecting them with sexually transmitted diseases including HIV.

Obviously, this is not what the parents expect when they send their children for early employment but that is what they get in return. With all this, it is clear that it would be better if parents tried all they could to raise funds for the families without involving their children.

In fact, it is the parents’ responsibility to cater for their families’ needs and pushing such responsibilities to under-aged children, is an abrogation of their duties. Some parents think they own their children the same way they lay claim on household property like chairs, tables and beds and think they can do anything to their children. This, in fact, is a violation of the children’s rights.

Instead of pushing children into early employment, parents should strive to educate their children so that they acquire the necessary skills and knowledge so that whatever they do afterwards, contributes towards national development.

With government teaming up with NGOs to stop child labour, we believe emphasis should be on proactive measures other than dealing with cases that have already occurred. We believe countrywide awareness on the dangers of child labour, especially in areas where such practices are rampant, would be the most effective way of dealing with the problem. Once parents appreciate problems associated with child labour, they would be restrained from sending their children into early and premature employment. The awareness should also extend to employers, encouraging them to desist from employing children. They have no justification to employ children when Malawi has so many adults searching for jobs.

Let us all unite in the fight against child labour and in so doing making Malawi a paradise for children.

This year’s World Day Against Child Labour on June 12 is to focus on the elimination of child labour in agriculture, which accounts for a staggering percentage of the world’s working children and is one of the most dangerous forms of work for children and adults like.

The International Labour Organisation’s (ILO) International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour (IPEC) estimates that over 100 million boys and girls aged 5-14 work as child labourers on farms and plantations the world over, where they are often exposed to hazards and risks that run the gamut from the mixing, handling and applying of toxic pesticides to using dangerous cutting tools, to working in extreme temperatures and operating powerful farm vehicles and heavy machinery.

To strengthen the worldwide movement against child labour, the ILO is to launch a new partnership on 12 June with five international agriculture-based organizations: the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO), the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), the International Federation of Agricultural Producers (IFAP) and the International Union of Food, Agricultural, Hotel, Restaurant, Catering, Tobacco and Allied Workers’ Associations (IUF).

The aim of this new partnership will be to develop common policies, programmes and activities at international and national levels against child labour in agriculture. These partner organizations will play an important role in working with ministries of agriculture, agricultural advisory services, research bodies and other offices involved in agricultural policy issues. It may also be expanded in the future to include other agricultural-based organizations.

The ILO stressed that not all children working in agriculture can be considered child labourers under the terms of ILO conventions No. 138 and No. 182 if they perform tasks appropriate to a child’s age and that are a normal part of growing up in a rural environment.

The World Day Against Child Labour is observed worldwide on or around 12 June each year. It serves as a catalyst for the growing worldwide movement against child labour.

Promoting the Convention (No. 182) concerning the Prohibition and immediate action for the Elimination of the Worst Forms of Child Labour, 1999, is a high priority for the International Labour Organization (ILO.
ILO however, estimates that 246 million children between the ages of 5 and 17 currently work under conditions that are considered illegal, hazardous, or extremely exploitative. Underage children work at all sorts of jobs around the world, usually because they and their families are extremely poor. Large numbers of children work in commercial agriculture, fishing, manufacturing, mining, and domestic service.

McDonald's has again been fined for illegally employing under-aged staff in Perth.

ABC Online reports the chain has been fined $80,000 for employment breaches at three of its Perth restaurants.

McDonald's was found guilty in the Industrial Magistrates Court of almost 40 offences which happened between November 2006 and February 2007.

State government officials say McDonald's failed to obtain written permission from the employees' parents for them to work certain hours.

It is the second time this year McDonald's has been convicted of illegally employing children under the age of 15 in WA.

With the World Day Against Child Labour to be celebrated next week, local organisers for the event met yesterday to discuss activities and programs for the day.

The meeting discussed the selection of an appropriate local theme for the day which could be linked to the global theme "Elimination of Child Labour in Agriculture".

International Labour Organisation Pacific director Doctor Abu Zakaria said while the local theme should be tied in with the global theme, awareness on the number of children working on farms should be raised.
He said for children who worked on farms, their time would be better spent at school.

He said last year, the theme was domestic child labour but this was an issue that was not as bad as child labour on farms.

Members of the committee discussed ways in which awareness could be raised about the issue and activities that would help students take part in activities.

A statement from ILO said on a global scale, agriculture was a sector where a large percentage (70 per cent) of child labourers were found.

"Over 132 million girls and boys aged five to 14 years old often work from sun up to sun down on farms and plantations, planting and harvesting crops, spraying pesticides and tending livestock."

"Child labour, according to ILO conventions, is work that harms children's well being and hinders their education, development and future livelihoods."

"When children have to work for long hours on the field, their ability to attend school or skills training is limited, preventing them from gaining education that could help lift them out of poverty in the future," the statement said.

It said girls were often at a disadvantage as they often had to do household chores after farm work.

MOCHUDI- The Kgatleng District Child Welfare Committee has yet to award the winner of last years June 16 commemoration exhibition the P1500 prize due to financial constraints.

To make matters worse, the committee, which is under the Department of Social and Community Development is complaining that the P21 000 it has been allocated this years commemoration of the Day of the African Child is inadequate.

It is concerned that the inadequate budget would limit the commemoration. Committee members attending the commemoration preparatory meeting were advised to volunteer as the budget does not cover subsistence allowances.

Members were also advised to act fairly and distribute promotional materials with accountability.
Schools in the district were also advised to hold mini commemorations, while the districts event would be at Rasesa Primary School.

The committee also resolved to spend about P10 000 on promotional materials in recognition that after settling last years debts, there would be a P19 000 balance to use for this years commemoration.
Considering that last year the committee ran short of funds and even failed to pay prizes for exhibitors, it resolved to hold the celebrations on a rotational basis on the three education clusters of Kgatleng West, Mochudi and Mmadinoto.

Kgatleng West hosts this years activities. Apart from June 16 celebrations, members also agreed that there were many other disturbing issues affecting children that the committee could focus on.

Thus, it would be ideal to hold annual activities tackling issues like adoption, child abuse and foster care.
Since most committee members conversant with its activities were transferred to other districts, it was resolved that new members be orientated and a date for evaluation of this years activity was set to avoid last year omission to evaluate.

Members were asked to be organized and have a multi-sectoral approach towards the committee instead of viewing it as an item of the social work department, adding that it was up to members to make the committee to stand up to its name and fight all problems affecting children in the district.

The Day of the African Child is an annual event and this year it would be celebrated under the theme Combat Child Trafficking.

The theme addresses an issue that has not been well documented in Botswana hence knowledge on it is very limited.

According to a savingram from department of social services, in the context of child labour, A child has been trafficked if the child has been moved within a country, or across borders, whether by force or not, with purpose of labour exploitation.

This is especially the case where the childs movement has rendered the child more vulnerable, facilitating the labour exploitation.

Labour exploitation means 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.

At worst, it would include working in slave-like conditions or the child being subjected to commercial sexual exploitation or another worst form of the child labour.

Under international law and in the context of child labour, child trafficking is a crime involving the movement of children for the purpose of their labour exploitation.

Children could be rendered vulnerable by the fact that they do not have close relatives at their destination, do not have money or means to return home, cannot speak the language, is disadvantaged by their legal status, suffers a lack of access to basic services (such as education and health care) or do not know the environment, states the document.

http://www.gov.bw/cgi-bin/news.cgi?d=20070605&i=Council_committee
_decries_inadequate_budgets

A code of conduct regulating the working conditions of children in the country will be launched later this month, an official said on Monday.

National Programme Manager of ILO's International Programme for the Elimination of Child Labour Nihaya Dabdoub said the organisation has been cooperating over the recent months with the Chamber of Industry and Chamber of Commerce to draw up a guideline for employers.

"The code will present employers with clear guidelines on what is expected of them in the workplace and push them to respect ILO conventions and recommendations," said Dabdoub.

"We have worked closely with both chambers in outlining the protection needs of children and eventually employers will have to reinforce and adopt these codes," she added.

Although the country's Labour Law provides protection for working children, Dabdoub said the code of conduct is designed to get employers to confront the issue.

The code pinpoints areas of concern, such as health and safety hazards and long working hours.

Dabdoub said it also presents employers with recommendations on how to turn down fathers seeking employment for their children.

She noted, however, that this unfortunately will rely on the "moral commitment" of employers, more than legal enforcement.

Thousands of children across the country presently work long hours in dangerous and unhealthy environments.

According to the law, children between 16 -18 years of age are not permitted to work more than a six-hour day, with employers liable to a JD500 fine if caught in violation.

But the reality is that the law is seldom applied, said Dabdoub. "Hundreds of children work more than 12 hours a day and no regulations are enforced."

The law also prohibits businesses from employing children under the age of 16 years.

Dabdoub said the lack of law enforcement and the shortage of labour inspectors are major stumbling block to addressing the issue of child labour.

According to a recent Ministry of Labour study, 13 per cent of working children in the country are subjected to forced labour, with over 16 per cent earning a meagre JD10-50 a month.

Most of the children surveyed were found to be school dropouts aged between 9-17 and working an average of a 60-65 hour week to help supplement their families' income.

http://www.menafn.com/qn_news_story_s.asp?StoryId=1093155412

The route to peace in today’s world lies through a renewed understanding of its foundations in democracy, social justice, and law. Shirin Ebadi, Iranian human-rights lawyer and Nobel laureate, writes exclusively for openDemocracy.


One of the important tasks of the 21st century is redefining social concepts. I would like to start by redefining the word "peace". The main question here is whether peace means the absence of war. In other words, if a country is not involved in a war, do the people of that country live in an environment of peace?
Definitely no. This definition of peace belongs to a few centuries ago. In the 21st century, peace has to be defined otherwise. For example the devastating situation of Aids patients in the world, specifically in African countries, is even more dangerous than guns and bullets.

A report by Unicef finds that the number of children under 14 years of age who are suffering from Aids in 2006 is 2.1 million (see Children and AIDS: A stocktaking report, January 2007). Many of these children will lose their lives although their country may not be engaged in any armed conflict.

Defining peace
In some fifty poor countries (such as Chad, Guinea Bissau, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Afghanistan and Somalia), as many as one out of every six children dies before reaching the age of 5. The cause of death is malnutrition and not having access to healthcare, vaccination, clean and drinkable water. These children do not lose their lives not to bombs, they die of extreme poverty. This is why we need a new definition of peace. Peace means serenity. One can only feel serene if one's human rights are not violated and one's integrity is protected. Obviously a human being who does not have access to education due to extreme poverty, or who has been sentenced to imprisonment for expressing his/her opinion does not enjoy serenity and does not live in peace. The same is true of a person who has lost his/her home and lives on the streets.

Peace can only be permanent if it is based on two principles - democracy and social justice.
In authoritarian societies, whether religious or political, where the votes of people don't count, where any opposition voice is silenced with imprisonment and/or bullets, peace cannot be permanent. This is the principle of peace as democracy.

In society where a big class distinction exists, peace cannot be established or made permanent either. We can only be happy if our neighbours are not suffering from hunger. How can we hope to establish worldwide peace when 75% of the wealth of the world is in the hands of 1% of the population of the world? This is the principle of peace as social justice.

A report by the International Labour Organisation published in 2004 found that 126 million of the children of the world are engaged in performing dangerous work (see ILO, Global Child Labour Trends, 2000-04). Such violations of social justice must be addressed both at the international and the national levels.
History proves that a society where a big gap exists between the rich and the poor will not be peaceful or secure. In the United States, the richest 1% of the population by 2004 owned more than 16% of the nation's wealth (before capital gains), and as much as 65% of their compatriots. In India, millions of people are born homeless and spend their lives in that condition: they live on the streets, get married on the streets, and die on the streets. Meanwhile, a small proportion of the country's population has access to the most expensive and luxurious homes.

Expanding democracy
Democracy should be redefined too. In its classical meaning, democracy means the government of the majority. But a majority that wins in free elections does not have the right to govern as it wishes. Many dictatorships in the world have (like Hitler's) been elected democratically, meaning by the majority of the vote of the people.. Therefore, winning elections does not guarantee democracy. The majority that gains power through free elections should observe the framework of democracy. Now what is the framework of democracy?

The framework of democracy is human-rights law. That is, the majority that has won power can act only within the framework of the laws of human rights and cannot violate such laws. No majority in power can use religion as an excuse to oppress half of the population of society, in other words women. The oppression that women in Iran are suffering at present is an example of such an excuse. No majority in power should have the right to prevent freedom of speech with the pretext of ideology, as happens in Cuba and China. No majority in power should have the right to limit political freedom, as happens in the United States of America, which restricts - openly or in secret - the activities of (for example) communist parties.
In light of the above, governments do not gain their legitimacy through the votes of people and ballot-boxes alone. They gain their legitimacy through the votes of people and respect for human rights. Excuses for the violation of human rights such as cultural relativism, religion and ideology are not acceptable. Human rights have been derived from religions and civilisations across the world and can be applied to any civilisation and culture.

The use of a teenager in the murder of baby Jordan-Leigh Norton was "exploitation, and the worst form of child labour", it was contended in papers before the Cape High Court on Monday.

The papers were filed by Susannah Cowen, on behalf of the Community Law Centre (CLC) of the University of Cape Town, which took up the plight of Bonginkosi Sigenu, the youngest of the five people convicted of the murder.

Sigenu is in the dock with Dina Rodrigues and Sipho Mfazwe, Mongezi Bobotyane and Zanethemba Gwada.

Cowen initially sought to join Sigenu's counsel, Caryl Verrier, as a "friend of the court", but in Monday's proceedings abandoned her mission and left her papers for Verrier to use for the benefit of Sigenu.

The documents were handed to the court on Monday, and now form part of the record.

Cowen contended that South Africa was obliged by international law to eliminate child labour.

She said the CLC did not wish to underplay the culpability of a child offender, but the court had to recognise that Sigenu had been instigated and secured by adults, and was offered a reward for his involvement. This had to be taken into account.

She said Sigenu was only 16 at the time of the murder, which meant that a life sentence, as prescribed for premeditated murder, could not be applied to him.

Also, the presence of adult influence was a strong mitigating factor for him, she said.

Because documentation needed by the defence team, such as probation and corrective supervision reports, was not yet complete, the case was postponed to June 18.

Spectators packed into the spacious upper gallery of the court room to follow the case on Monday.

Shortly before Judge Basheer Waglay entered the court with his two assessors, someone in the gallery said loudly to Rodrigues down in the dock: "Good morning, Dina."

She ignored the greeting and conversed with her attorney.

Monday's proceedings started almost an hour late as the defence and prosecution teams discussed their problems with the judge in chambers.

When the proceedings commenced, Waglay said no one had any control over the delay.

He said he expected all parties to be ready when the case resumed. -- Sapa

President John Agyekum Kufuor arrived in Geneva, Switzerland, late Sunday afternoon, to address the 96th International Labour Conference, which officially opens on Monday.

More than 3,000 Government, Worker and Employment leaders from across the world are attending the annual meeting of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) to deliberate on issues ranging from decent work and development to child labour in agriculture, fishing, equality of work, forced labour and promotion of sustainable enterprises.

President Kufuor is accompanied by the Foreign Minister, Nana Addo Dankwah Akufo-Addo, the Minister of Manpower, Youth and Employment, Mr. Boniface Abubakar Saddique, Ghana's Ambassador to Switzerland, Mr. Kwadwo Baah-Doudu, and other senior Government Officials.

From there, he is scheduled to travel to Paris to hold bilateral talks with the recently elected French President, Mr Nicolas Sarkozy.

Relations between Ghana and France has seen significant improvement since 2001 with France supporting a number of development programmes in Ghana, including the building of some major bridges in the Northern parts of the country at a cost of 11 million Euros, public sector reforms, the National Identification (ID) project and urban infrastructure.

President Kufuor is also billed alongside five other African Heads of State, to attend the 2007 Berlin, Group of Eight Industrialized Nations (G-8) Summit, that gets underway from 6-8, June.

South African President Thabo Mbeki, newly Nigerian sworn-in President Umaru Musah Yar'dua, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, President Abdoulaye Wade of Senegal and Algerian President Abdul Aziz Bouteflika, are the other African leaders invited to the summit.

FEZ, Morocco, 1 June 2007 – Morocco is committed to the achievement of quality education, protection and a decent life for its children. During an official visit to the Kingdom, Her Majesty Queen Rania of Jordan today witnessed examples of innovative projects being implemented here.

Accompanied by Her Royal Highness Princess Lalla Salma of Morocco, Queen Rania – in her capacity as UNICEF’s first Eminent Advocate for Children – visited the Fkih Mohamed Tahiri School in Fez, which offers former child labourers the opportunity to acquire formal education and to integrate with other children.
The school is part of a model programme initiated by Her Royal Highness Princess Lalla Meryem, President of the National Observatory for Children’s Rights (ONDE). Known as the Prevention and Elimination of Child Labour Programme, it is supported by the International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour (IPEC) and UNICEF.

From carpet weaver to schoolgirl

Former carpet weaver Khadija, 10, has been attending the school in Fez for the past three years.
“When I was five, I started to work in carpet weaving to help my family,” she recounted to Queen Rania and Princess Lalla Salma, both sitting by her side. Khadija went on to explain that her impoverished family includes three other children who are still employed in the craft industry, as well as her father and step-mother.

“I like school and I am very glad to have left the workshop, where I worked more than 11 hours a day,” she said. “Our maalma [supervisor] struck me with a stick every time she noticed that I was slow.”
Like the majority of girls her age employed in carpet weaving, Khadija was paid $8 per month for making a large carpet with the help of seven other girls.

Providing non-formal education
The child labour programme has transformed Khadija’s life and those of 700 other children under the age of 12 in Fez. But not every Moroccan child has had the same chance. Hundreds of thousands of children continue to  be exploited in the informal sector. According to figures from the 2000 national employment survey, 11 per cent of children between the ages of 7 and 14 work. This translates into 600,000 children, more than half of whom have never gone to school.

Following their stop at the Fkih Mohamed Tahiri School, the Queen and Princess Lalla Salma visited the Red Crescent Centre for non-formal education – another programme supported by IPEC and UNICEF – which serves girls over 12 who are employed.

Fadila, 15, joined the Red Crescent Centre three years ago. “I started weaving carpets when I was seven years old,” she said. “I have seven brothers and sisters who still work.” Fadila’s supervisor allows her to come to the non-formal education centre twice a week. Rubbing her work-roughened hands, she proudly said that she can now write and read Arabic and French.

Over 1,300 children reached
The Prevention and Elimination of Child Labour Programme in Fez was established as a result of studies conducted in 1997 in cooperation with the Moroccan League for Child Protection, the United Nations Population Fund and UNICEF.

The programme began by studying the scope of child labour in Morocco, particularly among young girls in domestic work. The investigation also revealed the exploitation of children in the craft industry, highlighting the dangerous nature of the work and its physical impact on children.

ONDE and the Wilaya (an administrative regional structure) supported UNICEF Morocco – in collaboration with the Delegation of the Ministry of Handcrafts and Tourism – developing a plan of action to convince professional associations, employers and families to withdraw children below the age of 12 from work. The plan aimed, as well, to stop the recruitment of children by employers and allow those 12 and over to both earn and learn.

Other key partners included the Ministries of Health, Education and Labour, civil society organizations and children themselves.

In 2002, a multi-sector committee was formed to further develop the plan. In 2003, the International Labour Organization/IPEC signed on. In its first five years, the child labour programme has reached a total of 1,313 children.

Combating poverty and exclusion
In recent years, the government and civil society in Morocco have taken several other measures to combat child labour, including the harmonization of national legislation with international norms and standards. The new labour code forbids employment of children under 15 and strengthens sanctions against those who employ children, while the penal code introduces new sanction against child exploitation.

The silence surrounding the issue of girls employed as domestic workers was broken in 2001, thanks to a public awareness campaign launched under the patronage of Princess Lalla Meryem. A law prohibiting the use of young maids under 15 is now being considered, and several agreements between ONDE and public and private partners offer income-generating activities to reward families who withdrew their daughters from domestic labour.

Later in her visit today, Queen Rania saw yet another project focused on combating poverty and social and economic exclusion – the Mohamed V Foundation for Solidarity, established in 1999 by His Majesty King Mohamed VI. At a model education centre for underprivileged young girls, Dar Al Fatat, she was introduced to the mission of the foundation.

Queen Rania also visited a student hostel, Dar Taliba, which benefits from Mohamed V Foundation funding. The hostel focuses on supporting secondary and university female students from rural areas who would otherwise be unable to complete their education.

Child trafficking is not a criminalised act in Swaziland, hence it was difficult to come up with proven statistics.

But the Save the Children organisation, in a rapid study conducted to ascertain the gravity of the issue has focused on illegal cross - border migration of children as opposed to child trafficking.

Defining child trafficking, the organisation borrowed from the Palermo Protocol, which defines it as ‘the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of a child for the purpose of exploitation’.

The study found that the existence of a significant cross-border migration of children was suspected, but unsubstantiated by reliable reporting.

“Government officials also lack awareness of what constitutes cross-border migration of children, but they acknowledged that it may be a problem. Anecdotal and unconfirmed reports indicated that Swaziland may be a source country for small numbers of children migrating across the border, for forced labour and sexual exploitation,” the study says.

It continued that Swaziland’s more than 70 000 orphans may be particularly vulnerable to cross- border migration, while Swazi girls may cross the border for domestic servitude in the homes of wealthy families, as well as commercial sexual exploitation. “It could be said therefore that Swazi children may be crossing the border in search of gainful employment.”

Factors perpetuating such a trade included poverty and cultural practices as major push factors, while the struggle for survival, search for a better life, lack of opportunities (educational and employment), the breakdown of family and support structures, all contributed to the children’s crossing the border in search for a better life.

Children prone to trafficking are those living a difficult life at home, school drop-outs, the unemployed, those who did not stay with their biological parents and those whose parents were poor and unemployed.
They are at most times lured into this by peers or people who are not complete strangers to them. They are also promised gainful employment, despite their poor educational backgrounds. Their agent (s) will be already be living or lived in the country where they are taken. They are normally prepared to do any kind of job, and in most cases they are coerced or abducted.

“Violence, intimidation and smuggling or illegal border crossing is used at the usually permeable borders between countries. In other cases, the traffickers collude with border officials as children are trafficked from country to country and transported to the traffickers destinations.

Upon arrival, they are forced into child labour and sexual exploitation, prostitution, or sold as wives in the mines. They are at times exploited in child sex tourism and servitude.

“To combat the illegal cross-border migration of children, the country must enact appropriate laws to prohibit all forms of migration for children and launch a public awareness campaign to educate the general public on the nature and dangers of cross-border migration of children,” it closes

The Maharashtra government has put the final touches on a plan to create a Child Rights Commission — the first of its kind in the country — amid a disquieting increase in incidents of child abuse in the state. The proposal is expected to be approved by the state cabinet in the coming days, and the Commission is likely to begin functioning in a few weeks.

A study conducted by the Centre and United Nations Children’s Fund early this year had established the growing rate of child abuse in the state.

The study revealed that the 53 per cent of the country’s children are sexually assaulted, and Maharashtra’s figures were consistent with the national percentage of 50.57. The figures were viewed with serious concern by the state government.

“All formalities have been completed,” said Harshvardhan Patil, minister for women and child development.
Maharashtra was also the first state to establish a Women’s Commission in the early 1990s. An official from the Women and Child Welfare Department said the current proposal met an urgent requirement. “The amendment to the Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act, and the introduction of Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005, were both related to children,” the official said.

“The formation of a Child Rights Commission was the need of the hour," the official said.

State officials contend that they have registered commendable success in controlling child labour in hazardous industries such as those associated with zari and leather. "We rescued nearly 2,400 children, after which employers voluntarily released some 23,000 children from hazardous industries," the official said. "That represents the release of up to 75 per cent children working in hazardous industries."

Vijay Satbir Singh, secretary, Women and Child Development Department, said the new commission will focus on critical children-related issues. “It will deal with health problems, child labour, child beggars, orphans, and domestic violence faced by children." Singh said the commission will help the government start day-care centres and effect better co-ordination with agencies working for child welfare.

Farida Lambe, a trustee of Pratham, an organisation that works to promote primary education, welcomed the creation of the commission but said that its administration should be in the right hands. That feeling was echoed by other activists. Lambe said malnutrition, sexual abuse, and right to education should be the priority areas of the commission.

Nina Teggarty talks to a former child soldier who has just launched his memoir of the Sierra Leone civil war.

What is it like to be a child soldier wielding an AK-47, high on drugs, and killing any enemy that comes near?

Ismael Beah - a former boy soldier who survived the Sierra Leone civil war - has just launched his memoir here in Britain.

And with an estimated 300,000 child soldiers across the world - he told More4 news that more could be done to stop them being drafted into war. And- on the day that Tony Blair does a triumphant visit of Sierra Leone, British intervention came far too late.

with Tony Blair due to visit Sierra Leone tomorrow- Nina Teggarty asked him what he things of the PM's trip. (VTR) times bestseller list

Ismael Beah described the moment when, as a 13-year-old, he was recruited by the army to kill rebel RFU soldiers. The army encouraged the boys to kill, by reminding them how their own families were brutally murdered by the rebels. It is a memoir deeply personal and deeply disturbing.

"I realised was that I needed to present the violence and give a strong sense of it but not so that it traumatised people.

"I did not write about the whole time running from war, two years in war- people wouldn't be able to read it and not be severely affected by it."

But is the issue of child soldiers still being ignored? Amnesty and other human rights organisations say tougher arms laws need to be enforced, to stop guns from falling into the hands of children.

The Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality will expand its Assistance To The Poor (ATTP) Programme in a quest to cover more poverty-stricken households in providing free basic services.

Delivering the budget speech for the 2007/08 financial year on Wednesday, Mayor Nondumiso Maphazi said they needed to increase the number of beneficiaries in this poverty alleviation initiative.
"This increase in the free services being offered to the poor is going to reduce the burden on our communities," she said.

As part of the ATTP initiative, Ms Maphazi explained that 102 084 households were receiving six kilolitres of water, free basic sanitation and refuse removal.
At least 89 004 households were also receiving 50 kilowatts of free electricity.

Part of the programme's expansion will include increasing benefits to the beneficiaries.
The mayor announced that with effect from 1 July this year, the free basic electricity would increase from 50 to 75 kilowatts and water from six kilolitres to eight kilolitres.
The mayor was tabling the municipality's R4, 6 billion budget.

She said while socio-economic development was the municipality's priority, infrastructure development and service delivery was also important.

More funds have been set aside for sustainable community development, she said.
These include R20 million for the automotive cluster, R8 million for the new billing system, and R50 million for the Addo Road Development project.

Ms Maphazi said R22 million would be used for the Chatty Reservoir project and R15 million for the construction of Ceoga Kop Reservoir.

Other expenditures are spread as follows:

• R40 million for the Winterhoek Park development,
• R14 million for the Kragga Kamma realignment,
• R7 million for the Redhouse-Chelsea Arterial,
• R7 million for the Beachfront development,
• R7 million for the Bucket Eradication Programme,
• R10m for eliminating shared toilets,
• R3,5 million for constructing a swimming pool in KwaNobuhle, almost R70 million for tarring gravel roads,
• R38 million for storm water improvements, and
• R17 million for informal housing electrification.

"These and all the other programmes and projects accommodated in the budget is testament to our mission to intensify the struggle against poverty together," said the mayor.

New York: Nike, the official supplier of footballs to the English Premier League, is to resume production of hand-stitched leather balls in Pakistan six months after stopping amid concerns over child labour.

The company has signed a contract with Silver Star, a leather processor in Sialkot. The move follows a tendering process that Nike says was designed to promote a broader modernization of the sector, which is centered on the city.

The case has highlighted the challenges facing brands in the clothing and footwear industry over how to respond to frequent breaches of codes on working conditions in supply chains.

Nike's decision in November to end production at Saga, its former supplier in Sialkot, followed what spokesman Alan Marks said was "a fundamental breach of trust" in its management over failures to remedy labor conditions.

Nike was the factory's main client and many of the estimated 3,000 workers there have lost their jobs. Saga was producing six million of the 40 million leather footballs produced in Pakistan annually.

Unlike the global clothing business, where contracts can be moved relatively rapidly between factories and companies, the quality and scale of the leather industry in Sialkot is unique, leaving Nike with shortfall in supply.

The contract with Silver Star requires the new supplier to use only registered full-time employees paid hourly wages to work on its premises, rather than piecework. It also stipulates that its workers must be able to form or join trade unions.

The terms of the tender also require Silver Star to pursue gradual mechanization of the football-making process. Nike says the use of hand-stitched balls is declining - creating future problems for Sialkot unless the industry modernizes.