Child trafficking is rampant in Southeast Asia, with hundreds of thousands of children caught up in this lucrative and shadowy business. In the Philippines, where poverty is high and jobs are scarce, and unscrupulous recruiters trick parents into selling their children into prostitution and slavery.

Child trafficking has become big business in the Philippines, where children are lured from villages across the archipelago with promises of high-paying jobs in and around the nation's capital, Manila.

But once there, most girls end up in the sex industry, and boys often end up working as virtual slaves on farms and in fish markets.

In Manila, U.N. Children's Fund child protection officer Victoria Juat says naive children and parents are lured by an old trick.

"Normally they are promised, words like, 'Okay you will be a house help, you will be a saleslady, you will be a cashier in this restaurant.' But no, it will be something else," said Victoria Juat. "Later they find out no, they will be brought to a brothel, they will be brought to karaoke bars and they will become something else."

The crime of trafficking children exists throughout Southeast Asia. According to the State Department, the largest number of victims trafficked annually in the world come from this region, often to feed the booming sex-tourism industry.

As early as the mid-1990s, UNICEF estimated that close to 200,000 foreign child labourers, 70 percent of them boys, had been lured into Thailand from Burma, Laos, Cambodia, and Southern China. Tens of thousands are trafficked within their own borders. UNICEF says as many as 35 percent of sex workers in the Mekong River nations are under the age of 17.

UNICEF also says Thailand is a regional hub through which trafficked children are diverted to other cities and countries in the region, including Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Japan.

Cecilia Flores Oebande, the president of Visayan Forum Foundation, a private organization in the Philippines that helps to rescue and care for trafficked children, says it is a lucrative business.

"It is, next to drugs and arms smuggling, it is the second most profitable business here in the Philippines," said Cecilia Flores Oebande.

Most of the children are brought to the capital by ship, the main mode of transport in this nation of more than 7,100 islands.

The Visayan Forum has teamed up with the Philippine coast guard, the government's Port Authority, and the country's largest shipping company, Aboitez, to keep a sharp eye on arriving boats in the main ports, looking for possible traffickers traveling with groups of children.

The organization has operations in four main ports serving Manila, and says it rescues between 20 and 60 children a week. But officials say thousands are never found.

Across the street from Manila's main North Harbor port, Visayan Forum runs an emergency shelter where rescued children stay for several days while social workers attempt to locate their parents.

Marina Ulleque is a social worker with the Visayan Forum. She meets the boats at Manila's busy international sea port and hands out cards with emergency numbers to possible child victims, telling they can get help.

She says her work has its dangers. The Visayan Forum has filed nine criminal cases against traffickers on behalf of 31 children during the past three years. No trafficker has been convicted, but Ms. Ulleque says those arrested will sometimes threaten workers from her organization.

"Sometimes they send their lawyers here and also they say, 'I am the relative of senator so-and-so and I am the friend of the station commander or the port police,' something like that, so we are being harassed," said Marina Ulleque.

One victim hoping for justice is 17-year-old Menchu, who has been staying for more than a year at a Visayan Forum safe house in Manila waiting for the case of the men who allegedly trafficked her to come to trial.

Menchu, who comes from a large, poor family on the southern Philippine island of Mindanao, was recruited along with a group of friends with promises of high-paying jobs in a Manila restaurant.

Menchu says that while on the boat, she and her friends saw two men approach their recruiter, and overheard them say the girls looked young and fresh.

The terrified girls told the ship's authorities, and the traffickers were arrested, but Menchu is still waiting for her day in court.

The president of Visayan Forum, Cecilia Flores Oebande, says urgent action must be taken to tackle the problem.

"This is urgent, every day," she said. "We are running out of time, because every day there are children being trafficked. We need to fast-track our action or else it's maybe too late for all of us."

Despite the efforts of local and international anti-trafficking groups, the problem is growing in Southeast Asia. Many experts say that the extreme poverty in the Philippines, Cambodia, Burma, Laos and Indonesia, combined with poor law enforcement and corruption, means that traffickers will continue to prey on the region's children.

http://www.politinfo.com/articles/article_2005_05_27_2029.html

Nearly 200 slum children from eight states gathered here for four days to discuss issues related to child rights, suggest solutions and share their experiences.

The fourth National Convention on the Rights of the Child, organised by Community Aid and Sponsorship Programme and Plan International (CASP-Plan) - two child focussed NGOs - was conducted May 23-26.

"We shall campaign against any ill that makes life a burden for children. We want the government and the media to help us in this campaign and work towards a society free of child abuse," Anu Singh Chauhan, a 13-year-old participant, said at a press conference Friday.

Chauhan, a Class 8 student of Rajkripa Higher Secondary School, New Delhi, said: "Child labour is a disease which spoils lives and kills a child's dreams. I will work towards its eradication by talking all my friends into attending school."

The convention resulted in children identifying an action plan to implement the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.

The recommendations made by the children included creating awareness, stringent punitive action and mobilisation of opinion on child labour, health, poverty, neglect of the girl child and alternative education.

"We want our friends from various strata of society to come forward and participate in the campaign. We have had well-off children helping us out or at least empathising with us in several cities like Mumbai and Pune," said 15-year-old Yogesh L. Medar of Mumbai.

A member of the Bal Adhikar Sangharsh Sangathan for the past three years, Medar was one of the two spokespersons at the press conference and deftly handled the media's questions.

"I spend around four hours a day at the sangathan where we discuss and implement solutions for several of the problems faced by slum children in Mumbai," he said.

The bal panchayat or children's council, as the event was referred to, was initiated in Delhi in 1996 by CASP-Plan, aimed at bringing together children aged 10-15 from slums in various parts of the country.

"We only helped them in running the entire show. Otherwise the event was organised and managed by children themselves. Even the media was invited and handled by children," CASP-Plan's Praven Sharma said.

India has an estimated 70-80 million child labourers, many of them bonded labourers, as a result of which they lose out on basic rights like education, health, food and sanitation.

Over 85 percent of the child labour is in the rural areas, in agricultural activities such as livestock rearing, forestry and fisheries.

On Dec 2, 1992, India ratified the UN's Convention on the Rights of the Child, which came into force in 1990. This ratification implies that India will ensure wide awareness about issues relating to children among government agencies, implementing agencies, the media, the judiciary, the public and children themselves.

http://news.webindia123.com/news/showdetails.asp?id=84066&n_
date=20050527&cat=India

An estimated eight million children are currently working in Pakistan, with almost two-thirds employed full-time, according to the annual report of the country's leading child rights society.

"The basic rights of the children - education, health and protection are being grossly violated in the form of child labour in a wide range of sectors that are often hazardous and difficult to access," Zarina Jillani, a child rights activist working with the Society for the Protection of the Rights of the Child (SPARC), told IRIN in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad.

The annual report of SPARC entitled, 'The State of Pakistan's Children 2004', released earlier this week, looks at the condition of children in five broad categories: education, health, child labour, violence against children and juvenile justice.

SPARC is the country's leading child rights body. Established in 1992, it has been publishing the annual reports since 1997. Through research, advocacy, awareness raising and training, the society works nationwide to improve conditions for young people.

The report points to a substantial increase in the number of working children in the country. According to the National Child Labour Survey conducted in 1996 by the Federal Bureau of Statistics (FBS), about 3.3 million children were economically active in the country.

The SPARC report added that poverty had a direct impact on child labour and called on Islamabad to do more to foster poverty alleviation.

Taking a critical look at government spending, the report said: "Pakistan spent 98 billion rupees (approximately US $1.6 billion) on poverty alleviation programmes from July to December in the financial year 2003-2004. After this much spending why has there been no discernable decrease in poverty in this country?"

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/IRIN/bfb79e
19dfa990939f44cc888dac3bed.htm

Ivory Coast's farmers have vowed to combat the use of child labour on the farms that produce 40 percent of the world's cocoa, mindful that without a national crackdown their beans will find no purchase in the US come July.

Importers of one-third of all the cocoa produced in the west African state, the US has imposed demands that the beans be certified as free of child labour, from picking and processing to packing.

The issue has earned such currency that US MPs Tom Harkin of Iowa and Eliot Engel of New York urged a boycott of chocolate made from African cocoa for St Valentine's Day in February to protest against child labour used in its production.

Harkin has sponsored numerous bills in congress to demand that trade preferences be denied to countries that fail to end child labour in agriculture.

"Certifying that all phases of cocoa production are free from child labour is a crucial element in ensuring the survival of our industry and the maintenance of our global dominance," said Moussa Bado, the organiser of a two-day conference on the industry's responsibilities. "We are the test card for these policies."

About 200 000 children work, mostly as pesticide sprayers, on the farms that have turned Ivory Coast into the main driver of the west African economy, according to a study by the International Labour Organisation.

These children, many of whom are of primary-school age, are among the 6 million of Ivory Coast's 17 million people who rely directly or indirectly on cocoa for their livelihood.

Efforts to curb the use of child labour on Ivory Coast's cocoa farms have waxed and waned over the past several years, though little concrete progress has been made.

The World Cocoa Foundation last year offered vocational training to 1 200 children aged between 12 and 16 to keep them from the fields, but there has been little impetus to expand the programme to serve other children.

Cocoa and coffee exports represent 40 percent of the export receipts for the country, and 20 percent of its gross national product, according to state figures.

Those receipts have become even more important to the economy in the three years since rebels failed in a bid to oust President Laurent Gbagbo, sparking a civil war.

"We are already facing a very difficult environment to sell our products and we cannot afford to let other factors prevent us from selling our cocoa," said Bado.

Among the options proposed by the Coffee and Cocoa Board to keep children from the fields was an apprenticeship programme for poorer families, said the its president, Lucien Tape Doh.

http://www.busrep.co.za/index.php?fArticleId=2534207&f
SectionId=613&fSetId=304

As many as one in eight Togolese children are sent away from home to work, a study of child labour in the West African state suggests.

They travel across borders, to as far away as Liberia, Cameroon or Gabon.

Sending very young children away to work is considered normal, interviews conducted by a charity in the worst affected areas showed.

Nonetheless, their parents concede that many come home ill, unhappy, and no richer than when they went away.

For an impoverished farming family it can sound very tempting - an offer from someone they know to take their son or daughter, and place them in a "good" family where they will earn their keep, and get some training or education.

These areas have always supplied migrant workers to richer parts of Togo and to neighbouring countries.

Children from poor families have always gone to stay with richer relatives, and helped around the house in exchange for board and lodging.

But what these families do not usually know is that the trade in housemaids and young farmhands is now big business.

Thousands of Togolese children and young teenagers are supplied to the labour markets in the capital, Lome, and to nearby Benin, Nigeria and Gabon.

Exploitation and rape

The development charity, Plan International, talked to families in the small towns and villages where the children come from; almost two thirds of families had had at least one son or daughter go away to work.

These were usually very poor families, generally with several children and often with parents who could neither read or write.

Girls - the majority of these working children - usually went by arrangement between their parents and an intermediary; boys often went without their parents' knowledge to get money or a bicycle, or just for the adventure.

One surprise is that children still go, despite the fact that other youngsters have come home sick, unhappy and often still destitute, the boys telling stories of exploitation on agricultural plantations, many girls pregnant as the result of rape, some even infected with Aids.

Plan is calling for free and compulsory education to keep children, especially girls, in school, community action to make parents aware of the dangers, and a greater willingness by the Togolese authorities to prosecute the traffickers.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/4578573.stm

U.S. chocolate makers are preparing a voluntary plan to end child labour on West African cocoa farms, hoping their efforts will prevent Congress from pushing for chocolate products to carry labels reading "no child slavery."

Facing pressure from lawmakers and nongovernmental organizations, the biggest chocolate companies have promised to have credible certification standards established by July 1.

"The members of Congress are quite aware of all the work that's going on. We are working with the government here and with governments overseas," said Susan Smith, a spokeswoman for the Chocolate Manufacturers Association.

"There are a lot of things that need to be improved and we understand that. Cocoa farmer families certainly need a lot more help, and we are working on that," she said.

Failing to meet the deadline could bring a political and public relations backlash for the industry, which took in some $15 billion in retail sales last year.

Not all industry watchdogs say putting labels on chocolate bars is the best solution.

"I think all of us are going to urge more efforts," said Kevin Bales, president of Free the Slaves, a nonprofit organization working to end slavery worldwide.

"Let's not beat them (industry) with sticks; let's hold out some carrots too," he said. Legislating labels could end up harming West Africans reliant on income from cocoa bean sales more than it harms the chocolate industry, he added.

The chocolate industry's darker side surfaced several years ago in reports that children were forced to harvest cocoa crops in West Africa. More than 40 percent of the world's cocoa beans come from Ivory Coast, a country struggling to end a civil war.

Chocolate makers like Barry Callebaut USA, Hershey Foods Corp., Nestle and Mars Inc. supply Americans with more than 3 billion pounds of chocolate per year.

HARKIN-ENGEL PROTOCOL

In 2001, U.S. Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA), Rep. Eliot Engel (D-NY) and leading chocolate manufacturers agreed to address the worst forms of child labour in the cocoa industry and proposed funding to create labels for chocolate products, guaranteeing that no forced child labour was used.

The so-called Harkin-Engel Protocol demands "a credible, mutually acceptable system of industry-wide, global standards along with independent monitoring, reporting and public certification."

In February this year, reacting to charges the industry was dragging its feet, Harkin said he was considering federal legislation to require mandatory labeling.

"The chocolate companies have the leverage and clout to stop this suffering. But if corporate responsibility is lacking, Congress will be obliged to act. I look forward to the day sometime soon that I will buy chocolate with a clear conscience," Harkin said in the statement.

Neither Harkin nor Engel were available for comment.

Smith said there was no need for a law requiring U.S. chocolate makers to guarantee their products are free from forced child labour. "We just don't think it's going to happen."

Darlene Adkins, coordinator of the child labour Coalition, said labels would be a huge endeavor and could curtail the flow of cocoa arriving in this country, most of which comes from Ivory Coast and neighboring Ghana.

"It could eventually mean higher prices on consumers. My hope is that the protocol will work and that we don't have to go there," she said.

Industry-proposed standards will pave the way for farm labor monitoring and independent verification across the West African cocoa region during the 2005/06 crop harvest, with the first certification report issued in early 2006, she added.

http://www.reuters.co.za/locales/c_newsArticle.jsp;:42960112:
e6f662a514bde130?type=topNews&localeKey=en_ZA&storyID=8618011

The District Development Committee (DDC) Chitwan singed an agreement on May 24 with the ILO to implement an Action Programme against child labour. The Action programme is a first pilot Project of its kind. It is an umbrella programme under the DDC aimed at strengthening the role and capacity of the DDC in eliminating the worst forms of child labour in Chitwan in close collaboration with civil society and employers’ and workers’ organisations. Binod Prakash Singh, local development officer DDC Chitwan and Lelya Tegmo Reddy Director of the ILO Office in Nepal signed the agreement in Kahtmandu.

The Action programme will directly benefit the children working in the worst forms of child labour and their families, through a decentralized model and by strengthening the implementation of the Local Self-Governance Act 1999. The Action programme will provide services to child domestic workers and rag pickers and prevent other children who are at risk. It will also provide skill development training and micro-credit support for410 families of working children and children at risk. In addition, the DDC will establish a child labour monitoring system as well as a database on the incidence of the child labour in the district.

The second Agreement signed between CAP- CRON and the ILO aims at facilitating the application of Article 55 of Children’s Act of 1992 concerning the Juvenile Justice Procedures and system on a pilot basis in six districts such as Morang, Makwanwanpur, Kaski, Rupandehi, Banke and Kanchanpur. The agreement was signed by Mahendra Prasain chairperson of CAP- CRONand Lelya Tegmo Reddy, ILO director.

http://www.gorkhapatra.org.np/pageloader.php?file=2005/05/26/topstories/main27

The Office of the Rights of the Child in the Presidency is three years late in submitting a progress report on children’s rights to the United Nations -- tainting South Africa’s image as a human rights champion.

Child rights activists have slammed the office for failing to submit the report, which was due in 2002 as part of South Africa’s ratification of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. The office drew further fire last week by claiming the report was finished and that it had received an extension allowing it to submit it this year.

“We have received no letter requesting an extension,” said Paulo David, secretary of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child in Geneva. “The committee takes these delays seriously. South Africa will have to produce evidence to show it received an extension.”

The UN committee monitors countries’ progress in implementing the convention, as well as changes in the situation of children internationally.

Activists in the field said the UN was particularly concerned about rising infant mortality rates in South Africa since the previous submission. In 1998, 45 out of 1 000 South African children died before their first birthday -- a figure that rose to 60 per 1 000 in 2000. HIV/Aids is thought to be the cause.

When submitting progress reports, each country must respond to UN recommendations in the previous report, in which they are given guidance on how to improve their performance.

“We are concerned because the non-governmental organisation committee must write an alternative report, focusing on implementation,” Carol Bower, executive director of ChildrenNOW, said. “Ideally the two reports should relate to each other, but our hands are tied.”

South Africa’s failure in respect of its international obligations means “there is no coherent summary of where the country is as far as children are concerned”, she said.

Andy Dawes, director of child, youth and family development at the Human Sciences Research Council, said the delay was unfortunate, as South Africa had a good reputation among developing countries for advancing children’s rights. “Our Bill of Rights is a clear example of a commitment to the rights and well-being of children, and we want to maintain that reputation.”

Dawes added that the world child rights community, including Unicef and the Save the Children Alliance, “are aware of the situation [in South Africa] and concerned about it”.

The delay is attributed to staff shortages in the child rights office and a leadership vacuum after the dismissal of former director Thoko Mkhwanazi-Xaluva.

The Democratic Alliance claims Mkhwanazi-Xaluva was initially suspended in 2003 and later dismissed on charges of forgery, irregular payments, general mismanagement and non-compliance with a memo of understanding between a state-owned enterprise and the child rights office.

“Mkhwanazi-Xaluva was later re-employed in the president’s office and has been suspended once again for serious misconduct including gross insubordination and bringing the Presidency into disrepute,” said Mike Waters, a DA spokesperson. He says the party will be calling for an inquiry into why she was -re-employed, after being found guilty of serious offences.

“The Office on the Rights of the Child has not had a consistent director since 2003, and this has affected its work. Producing the report only really gained momentum last year,” said the office’s current director, Mabel Rantla.

She added that South Africa tried to meet its international reporting obligations, but this was sometimes difficult. “We acknowledge the need to strengthen reporting systems.”

“If countries with fewer resources can get their reports in, South Africa has no excuse,” said London University law professor Geraldine van Beuren, who helped draft the UN convention.

http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=241468&area=/insight/monitor/

A Swiss-based non-governmental organization (NGO) known as Terre D'Homme is in the final stages of introducing a program in Russia, aimed at stopping the illegal flow of children into the country from other former Soviet nations. The group hopes the project will not only help improve the situation in Russia, but serve as a role model to other countries trying to combat child trafficking.

Sit at any traffic stoplight in Moscow and you are bound to see a mother carrying a swaddled child past car windows with her hand open, pleading for spare coins.

The more faint-hearted might be inclined to think that by handing over their hard-earned money they are helping the child. But more often than not, they are paying into the multi-billion-dollar illegal trade in child trafficking that is booming not only in Russia, but across the former Soviet Union.

In Russia more than 30,000 children and teenagers are reported missing every year. Many fall prey to traffickers. Another 5,000, living hand-to-mouth in the streets, are also an easy mark.

Numbers are inexact, hard to come by, and nearly impossible to confirm, but experts from Terre D'Homme say there is no doubt the problem is on the rise, especially in the former Soviet Republic of Moldova.

Terre D'Homme project director Natalia Chuard says the group plans to unveil the first two-year anti-trafficking project of its kind between Moldova and Russia. The pilot project, beginning this June, will focus initially on repatriating 100 Moldovan children recently found begging in the streets of Moscow for the benefit of criminal gangs.

She says the goal is to repatriate as many of them as possible and, through a combination of psychological and economic reintegration programs, ensure that they do not end up back in the vicious circle that is child trafficking.

"In two years time, we'll really be able to understand more on the phenomena and to provide correct answers and to prevent it," said Natalia Chuard. "And then we will be able to have quite good guidelines and collaboration here between Russia and Moldova that, at the end, those two countries, without any other kind of external support, they will be able to coordinate properly the identification and return of children back to the country of origin. [And] not only Moldova, that is the country we started with, but that could be other countries as well."

But Ms. Chuard says one of the biggest hindrances to the work at present is that across the former Soviet Union there are very few groups specializing in fighting child trafficking, and certainly not enough to combat the problem at the rate it is growing.

She also says there is a tremendous lack of legislation, and virtually no coordination between the government and non-governmental organizations and other bordering nations.

Olga Agapova is a psychologist at Coalition Angel, one of Russia's few NGOs working to fight child trafficking. Ms. Agapova agrees more coordination is needed at all levels.

Ms. Agapova says very often law enforcement bodies do one thing, while governmental departments and educational bodies do others. She says all these structures face the same issues and problems, but are subordinate to different bodies and end up working at cross-purposes in the dark.

As a result, she says many children end up bouncing from one place to another, before ending up back out on the streets, where they are subject to drugs, prostitution, theft, violence and forced labor in the form of sexual exploitation or begging.

The Commissioner for Children's Rights in Moscow, Alexei Golovan, tells VOA the Russian government must own up to the extent of the problem, before it can ever hope to fix it.

Mr. Golovan says protecting children from trafficking is not yet a major priority, either from the standpoint of the government or society. He also laments what he says is the near total lack of coverage about the problem in the Russian media.

A researcher at UNICEF's Moscow office, Gabriella Akimova, says there is some action being taken in Russia to combat the problem. But like so many experts working in the field, Ms. Akimova says the laws in Russia, as they stand right now, are far from sufficient.

"There has got to be within any law, or combination of legal provision mechanisms, there's got to be recognition of caring for the victims needs," she said. "And again, I believe that in the draft laws being drafted, there is an interest in trying to do that. Now, whether it will be implemented is another question."

http://www.politinfo.com/articles/article_2005_05_25_1901.html

Qatar will reportedly slap jail sentences of between three to ten years on anyone using child jockeys in camel races popular throughout the rich Gulf Arab region.

An official decree said violators of a ban on the use of under-18s in the sport will also risk fines of between 50,000 and 200,000 riyals (13,800 and 55,000 dollars).

The Qatari government in December banned the use of children in camel races and said it would instead use robots as jockeys.

Oil-rich Gulf Arab monarchies are trying to bring order to the national sport in the face of protests over the trafficking of young children from developing countries, mostly in Asia, as jockeys.

Human rights groups have raised the alarm over the exploitation of children by traffickers who pay impoverished parents a paltry sum or simply kidnap their victims.

The children, mostly from Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Pakistan, are then smuggled into the Gulf states.

They are often starved by employers to keep them light and maximize their racing potential. Mounting camels three times their height, the children -- some as young as six -- face the risk of being thrown off and trampled.

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20050524/wl_
mideast_afp/afplifestyleqatarcamel_050524185146

Tens of thousands of children are sent into near-slavery by desperate parents in West Africa's impoverished Togo and a wave of violence after disputed polls could exacerbate the problem, an aid group said on Tuesday.

In a report called "For the Price of a Bike", children's group Plan said lack of money, education and hope drove many parents in rural villages to send their offspring away to work.

Sometimes middlemen took the children, sometimes relatives and friends acted as traffickers and forced the youngsters to work for virtually no pay or passed them on to racketeers. Sometimes, the children themselves ran away to make money.

"These children are born into nothing and have nothing to give them hope for the future," Stefanie Conrad, country director of Plan Togo, told Reuters.

Plan, a non-governmental organisation that works in 45 developing countries, said 12 percent of children in Togo were being trafficked -- an estimate based on a 1997 study that found 313,000 children aged between five and 15 had been trafficked.

Already starved of international aid, former French colony Togo slipped further into chaos in February when authoritarian leader Gnassingbe Eyadema died after 38 years in power and the army named his son Faure Gnassingbe as president.

Gnassingbe stepped down under international pressure and elections were held last month. But the opposition accused the late ruler's son of winning the poll by fraud. Street clashes and a crackdown by security forces have sent thousands fleeing.

On Tuesday, the U.N. refugee agency said more than 33,000 people had taken refuge in neighbouring Benin and Ghana, with people still arriving. Many are also on the move inside Togo.

"People are moving to the villages in search of temporary protection from the violence. We have many children in the villages who are much more vulnerable to trafficking," Conrad said. Children on their own in refugee camps were also at risk.

BITTER MEMORIES

The children of poor subsistence farmers, farm labourers or small-scale traders are easy prey for traffickers. The problem is complicated by a traditional practice of sending children to richer, often city-dwelling relatives to improve their chances.

The most common destinations for children are Benin, Nigeria, Gabon, Liberia, Ivory Coast, Cameroon and Burkina Faso.

The report included testimonies from children like Hada, who was 16 when he went to Benin to earn money for a bicycle. He then moved to Nigeria and worked as a farm labourer for two years.

"I was afraid ... The boss never came ... The other one who came used to beat us with a stick. I was sad and felt very lonely," he was quoted as saying in the report.

Hada eventually bought a bicycle and set off for Togo with 60 other boys. One boy died on the trip but Hada made it home.

Plan called on Togo's government to create a legal framework to protect children and to push for wider birth registration.

The report said children were often traumatised and sick when they returned.

Many had been infected with AIDS after sexual abuse.

Mouniratou was 16 when she was sent to Gabon. She returned to Togo with a month-old baby and AIDS.

"I have bitter memories," she was quoted as saying. Her baby died aged seven months and Mouniratou died a month later.

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L24702878.htm

The International Labour Organization (ILO), under its International Program on the Elimination of Child Labour (IPEC), has instituted a scholarship programme for deprived girls in the Tolon/Kumbung and Savelugu/Nanton districts to complete their education to eliminate child labour in the Northern Region.

Under the programme, deprived girls are identified with support from Community Development Associations and with the collaboration of the Regional Advisory Information and Network Systems (RAINS), a Tamale-based NGO.

RAINS provides humanitarian and development services to deprived and needy communities. The girls are given full sponsorship including free school uniforms, exercise books, footwear and mathematical sets. Some 650 pupils from the two districts are benefiting from the ILO/IPEC support programme in some schools in the districts. Fifty girls had been withdrawn from operating as common careers "Kayayee" and are acquiring vocational skills.

Mr Emmanuel Otoo, ILO/IPEC Country Programme Coordinator (Ghana), said ILO/IPEC was withdrawing more than 2,000 girls from mines and quarries this year.

Mr Otoo said there was the need for district assemblies to factor in child labour issues in their District Medium Term Development Planning to ensure that the program continued after ILO/IPEC withdraws its support.

The group paid a courtesy call on Mr Eric Opoku-Nkansah, the Tolon/Kumbungu District Coordinating Director, who gave the assurance that the district would collaborate to ensure that child labour and trafficking was eliminated from the district.

http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/
artikel.php?ID=82183

A month-long labour dispute at a Mexican factory making costumes under the Barbie label, licensed by the US toy manufacturer Mattel, has led to allegations that workers as young as 13 were employed making the costumes sold throughout the US and Europe.

Mattel says it is investigating the allegations and admits that it has identified, through an internal audit, one 15-year-old working at the factory in Tepeji del Rio, north of Mexico City.

With most garment jobs fleeing to central America and Asia, those production plants remaining in Mexico are supposed to guarantee good employment laws.

The manufacturer, Rubie's of New York, which denies the use of child labour at the plant, has subsidiaries in the UK, France, Germany, Portugal, Spain and Japan. Rubie's makes costumes under licence for superhero dolls ranging from Batman and Superman to movie characters such as Harry Potter.

Teresita de Jesús Hernández is one of four 15-year-olds among the workers protesting daily in front of the Rubie's Mexican factory. She said she knew she was too young to work legally, but claims the factory manager told her to lie about her age.

"I'm here because I need the money for my family, since my father doesn't live with us anymore," said Teresita, whose pay slips and birth certificate show that she worked at the plant for more than a year.

Trade unionists say that 10 of the 65 workers involved in the dispute were aged 13-15 and that the company did not respect Mexican law - requiring permission and with overtime prohibited - when employing 14- and 15-year-olds.

Salvador Sánchez, a Mexico City lawyer representing Rubie's, said he had copies of the girls' birth certificates showing they were not under age.

"From the US, we're not going to fool around with under-age workers", said J.C. Clausen, a production manager at Rubie's in New York. He said the labour dispute was caused by a feud between vying unions. "If we want to pay less, we'll send work to India or China."

Mattel requires suppliers and licensees to respect workers' right to free association and to employ only workers who are at least 16.

http://news.moneycentral.msn.com/provider/providerarticle.asp?
feed=FT&Date=20050522&ID=4834680

We have to break the wall of silence! The Lebanese family has always been a solid entity and a guarantee for the unity of our society. But, we cannot go on denying the existence of child abuse in Lebanon."

This sound message was delivered by Social Affairs Ministry director general Neama Kanan, representing Minister Dr. Mohammad Jawad Khalife, at the first national conference on child maltreatment, organized by the Higher Council for Childhood (HCC) on Saturday.

This workshop gathered a large group of social organizations, research institutes and ministries to pave the way for a long-term national plan of action for the prevention of child abuse and neglect in Lebanon.

"The purpose of the meeting is to establish a strong base for the vital coordination between the public sector and civil society," said HCC secretary general Dr. Elie Mikhael.

"Lebanese authorities are seriously committed to initiating the international agreements they have ratified on Children's Rights," said Mikhael.

But, the issue of child abuse in Lebanon has yet to be seriously addressed on the national level, and there are still no official records to indicate the severity of the problem. Public awareness is lacking and there are no mechanisms in place for detecting and addressing child abuse cases.

As a first step, UNICEF is currently carrying out a study to assess the extent and nature of child maltreatment in Lebanon.

According to HCC coordinator Dr. Bernard Gerbaka the aim of the study is "to build a solid data base and gather comprehensive information on institutions dealing with children that are victims of violence."

Local NGOs have traditionally played a vital role in providing care as well as financial and material support for abused children. Dr Gerbaka explained "it is now crucial to build a network facilitating communication and exchange of expertise and knowledge among professionals, academics, social workers and authorities."

During the workshop, five specialized steering committees were created to help establish a dynamic strategy.

Having identified the current legal framework as insufficient to protect children from violence, a legal committee was established to review the laws concerning children.

The need to create new labor and civil laws in line with international conventions was also recognized.
Dr. Ghassan Rabah, a judge and elected president of the legal committee, urged the government "to replace juvenile prisons with rehabilitation centers."

He also called for the establishment of a separate, trained police unit to handle child cases. A research and detection committee was also created to expose the problem of child abuse and the reasons behind its occurrence. The role of this committee will be to coordinate with research institutions to establish local and national observatories to set up better surveillance and monitoring of all layers of Lebanese society.

One of the HCC's objectives is to design a "child protection system" and improve the way child abuse cases are handled.

The creation of a hotline is now in progress to make it easier for children to report cases of abuse, and children are actively participating in making this initiative a reality.

"We cannot come up with any good strategies without listening to what the young have to say," said Mikhael.

Accordingly, 20 young people between the ages of 12 and 18 attended the workshop to voice their opinions and share their experiences. Developing the skills of the relevant professionals was also identified as an essential factor for success in dealing with child abuse.

Therefore, a programs and training committee was created to facilitate the development of necessary skills and the empowerment of social workers.

A committee was also set up to more carefully study the sexual abuse of children. A similar committee has been tasked with investigating their maltreatment and neglect.

These two committees will work on launching awareness campaigns in schools, homes and the media.

They will also discuss ways to incorporate the protection of children from violence into the curricula of Lebanon's schools.

"Awareness amongst the youth of sexual abuse and harassment starts with proper sexual education in schools and at home," insisted Mireille Maalouf, a social worker from the Lebanese Union for the protection of children.

Several local NGOs agreed the issue of sexual abuse is still taboo in Lebanon and many people are still reluctant to talk about it or to even admit its existence.

Mireille reported witnessing a policeman refuse to listen to a mother's allegations that her son was being sexually abused by his father: "The policeman said it was impossible for a father to carry out such a hideous act."

Conference participants said the establishment of these committees is an important step toward the realization of a concrete action plan, but their continued existence will depend on a serious commitment by both the government and civil society to work together on the issue.

http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1&categ_id=1&article_id=15302

Nepal is to face scrutiny by the United Nations over its children's human rights record.

A UN committee on the human rights of children is scheduled to examine a report submitted by the government late last week. According to the UN committee, the government data refers only to child deaths caused by dearth of medical treatment. It ignores deaths due to armed conflict and food supplies.

A nine-year-old girl and six rebels, including three women militia, were killed in a clash between security forces and the Maoists in Nepal on Thursday morning.

The girl is said to have been a sentry for the rebels, reporting on the approach of the Royal Nepalese Army.

Security forces seized two guns, two pressure cooker bombs and some Maoist documents from the scene of the clash.

According to Royal Nepalese Army mid-West Division, the rebels attacked a patrolling security team.

In another incident, the rebels shot dead a secondary school teacher in the village of Rabiopi last Wednesday. He was shot in the head.

The press statement released by the Royal Nepalese Army (RNA) states that area committee in-charge of the rebel outfit "Jogindra" has been killed in Rautahat.

According to the estimates by human rights organizations, from May 1996 to February 2005, at least 305 children died in armed conflict. According to a report titled "Nepal: The Maoists' Conflict and Impact on the Rights of the Child" by the Asian Center for Human Rights, which is based in New Delhi, security forces were responsible for the deaths of more than 165 children, while Maoists killed 138.

The conflict continues to affect schooling, especially after early 2004 when the rebels began recruiting school children for their "child militia." Forced ideological indoctrination, weapons training and using students to promote the Maoist political cause has forced children to leave their villages in large numbers.

The inability of the democratic forces to unite against the rebels is one reason for the continuation of political uncertainty.

The Maoist insurgency is Nepal's major threat to security and law and order. The conflict, with over 1,000 deaths every year, is now more intense than ever, resulting in increased military spending and moves towards militarization.

http://english.ohmynews.com/articleview/article_view.asp?at_
code=256730&no=227369&rel_no=1

The electronic and print media should strive for achieving standards of excellence in terms of accuracy and sensitivity, when reporting on issues involving child labour. This was the consensus among participants in a one-day capacity building workshop on ‘Activating the media in combating child labour’ organized by the ministry of information and broadcasting and International Labour Organization (ILO).

The objective reporting to highlight the issue of child labour would play a pivotal role in reducing and finally eliminating incidence of child labour in the country.

According to a handout issued by the Press Information Department here on Wednesday, project coordinator Sabha Mohsin, Journalist for Democracy and Human Rights Shafqat Munir and ILO’s Taseer Alizai said the workshop had been organized to brief the print and electronic media on issues of child labour in order to get their active and meaningful support to combat the issue.

They said Article 11 of the Constitution clearly prohibits all forms of forced labour and trafficking of human beings and child labour. They emphasized the need of a comprehensive enforcement mechanism so that provisions of the constitution could be implemented to eradicate the child labour from the country.

The participants discussed in depth the alarming growth of child labour, mainly due to poverty, and discussed various ways and means to create awareness among public about the issue.

The workshop was attended by journalists from electronic and print media, representatives of the government departments, ILO and NGOs.

http://www.dawn.com/2005/05/19/nat31.htm

THE International Labour Organisation (ILO) will soon launch an HIV/AIDS and Child Labour programme in Zambia to address problems facing children and uplift their welfare.

ILO International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour (IPEC) chief technical advisor Yuki Nose said ILO needed to discuss certain issues with Government before the programmes could be implemented.

Ms Nose said ILO wanted to include HIV/AIDS in fighting child labour because the country had not been spared the pandemic adding that the programme was already working in Uganda.

Speaking during Lusaka District Development Coordinating Committee (DDCC) meeting at the civic centre yesterday, Ms Nose said ILO would like Zambia to be a model in combating HIV/AIDS and child labour in Africa and the rest of the world.

She said ILO had identified four districts where the programme would initially be implemented and would identify the children to benefit from the project and train them to be trainers of trainers in fighting child labour and the HIV/AIDS.

The districts are Livingstone, Kapiri Mposhi, Luanshya and Lusaka.

Ms Nose said ILO’s main objective was to withdraw children being abused and ensured they were given equal education opportunities and trained in life survival skills like carpentry.

Lusaka district commissioner Elijah Chisanga urged the department of social welfare to work with ILO in executing the programme saying there was need to create an enabling environment in rehabilitating children.

Mr Chisanga said the programme had come at the time when the problem of street children had reached an alarming state and that experts on that programme would be able to advise what should be done to contain the problem.

Meanwhile, Mr Chisanga has challenged Lusaka City Council (LCC) town clerk to convene a meeting with the business community in Kamwala trading centre to find ways of improving the state of the roads.

He said the roads in the area were so bad that it was almost impossible to drive through.

•Government has directed non-governmental organisation (NGOs) in the country to merge and apply integrated approaches that would support activities to help street children.

Youth, Sport and Child Development Minister Gladys Nyirongo said there was need for NGOs dealing with child-related issues to team up and work in order to achieve common goals.

Reverend Nyirongo, who was speaking to journalists after a consultative meeting with various NGOs held at the Kitwe district commissioner’s office, said if NGOs would properly positioned themselves and target issues on the ground, it would assist address the problem of street children.

http://www.times.co.zm/news/viewnews.cgi?category=6&id=1116535804

Reported sexual assaults of children have surged 70% over the past decade in Japan, according to a newspaper poll published on Thursday.

Police received 2 607 reports of rape or other sexual assaults on children aged 15 or younger in 2004, the Mainichi Shimbun said. It compared with 1 503 cases in a similar compilation done by police for 1994.

Of the 2004 total, 232 were rape cases, the daily said.

The Mainichi survey covered 46 of Japan's 47 prefectures as one province refused to give the number due to privacy reasons, it said.

The surge in the number was believed to be partly because victims had become less likely to bear crimes silently, the paper said, adding the real figure was still believed to be higher.

Japan has gradually been stepping up enforcement of laws to protect children from sexual exploitation after a string of bad publicity in a country where the age of consent is 13.

In March, 60 Japanese travel agents signed a code of conduct to forbid involvement of children in sex tours in Southeast Asia. At home, Japan has tried to curtail visa loopholes used in the sexual trafficking of women and girls.

http://www.news24.com/News24/World/News/0,6119,2-10-1462_1703916,00.html

An integrated approach to child survival designed to deliver a package of lifesaving health services for children in hard to reach communities has shown remarkable results, UNICEF Executive Director Ann M. Veneman announced today at the World Health Assembly.

After three years of increasing coverage in basic health interventions, UNICEF estimates that child deaths will have dropped by an average of 20 per cent across the 16 districts where the programme was fully implemented, and by 10 per cent where it was partially applied.

“The early results of this initiative are remarkable,” said UNICEF Executive Director Ann M. Veneman, speaking at the plenary session of the World Health Assembly here.  “They have exceeded expectations, and shown us just what can be achieved over a short period of time through sound science using an integrated approach.”

The programme, called Accelerated Child Survival and Development (ACSD), was initiated in around 100 districts within 11 countries in West Africa beginning in 2002. 

ACSD takes the most effective health interventions for children, newborns and pregnant women and bundles them in an integrated, cost-effective package. The package includes immunizing children and pregnant women, delivering life-saving micronutrients, encouraging breastfeeding, supplying oral re-hydration salts for diarrhoea and bed nets for protecting children and women from malaria.  The various interventions are widely embraced and in use around the world; the new approach packages and delivers them in more effective ways.

Funded by the Canadian government and initiated by UNICEF, the ACSD model involved the expertise and partnership of multiple players on the ground, including governments and health ministries, WHO, the World Bank, numerous non-governmental groups, local community leaders, and others.  The model relies on the involvement of everyone who has a role in women's and children's health.

How It Works

One of the essential facets of ACSD is its focus on extending health coverage to underserved communities, using community outreach efforts to deliver services closer to where people actually live.  Outreach services are also accompanied by programs to educate families in home-based healthcare practices for their children.

UNICEF said close and continuous monitoring of the actual uptake of “tracer” interventions, such as bed net use, has contributed significantly to the success of the programme.  Continuous measurement allows project managers to identify and fix bottlenecks such as inadequate access, low demand, or insufficient compliance.

“Performance contracts” negotiated at the local level with each partner involved in the programme – from health ministries to small grassroots NGOs – has helped ensure follow-through; the contracts explicitly stated what each partner was accountable for. 

UNICEF said another important reason for the effectiveness of the initiative is that rather than attempt to develop a new  structure, it works within the existing efforts of governments to upgrade their own health systems and approaches.

ACSD was implemented most intensely in 16 districts in Senegal, Mali, Ghana and Benin, where the under-five mortality rate dropped an estimated 25, 21, 17 and 16 per cent.

The programme focused on districts that were the hardest to reach, often with the highest mortality rates, and proved that significant progress is possible against the odds.

In Ghana, for instance, ACSD projects were implemented in the upper east region. The use of insecticide treated bed nets (ITN's) rose from under 5 per cent to over 75 per cent in those areas.  In parts of Mali and Senegal, a similar project increased bednet use to over 80 per cent. The rates of death and disease began to turn down, while in the rest of the country they either stagnated or deteriorated. 

The project originated with a $30 million donation from the Government of Canada, which asked only that UNICEF develop an innovative project that would reduce child mortality by at least 15 percent and cost less than $1,000 per life saved.  In areas where ACSD was fully implemented, child mortality is estimated to have improved by 20 percent for an added cost of about $500 per life saved – exceeding both objectives.

“We are grateful to Canada for its leadership and support, as well as to the governments in West Africa whose commitment made these results possible,” Veneman said.

Plan to Expand

Every year nearly 11 million children under age five die from preventable causes, with nearly 5 million of those deaths occurring in sub-Saharan Africa.  In order to reach the Millennium Development Goal of a two-thirds reduction in child mortality by 2015, three million child deaths per year will need to be averted in sub-Saharan Africa.

After studying what has worked in the pilot programme, UNICEF has set the goal of expanding ACSD to cover many more African children. 
 
 “We believe that we can reach 60 percent of children across sub-Saharan Africa by 2009 with these integrated community-based interventions,” Veneman said. “This will mean saving the lives of an additional 1 million children every year in that region alone.” 

Statistical Note:   UNICEF's estimates for child mortality reduction are based on an internationally agreed, peer-reviewed model that uses standard efficacy rates for individual interventions and observed coverage rates of those interventions.

http://www.unicef.org/media/media_26952.html

SCOTCH whisky giants Chivas Regal and Johnnie Walker were yesterday accused of cashing in on the sleazy sex trade in Thailand. The global brands are raking in cash from sales in brothels and their brands are even used to advertise the sex clubs.

Campaigners have warned bosses the sex industry in Thailand is fuelling child prostitution and lining the pockets of Asian crime barons.

The warning comes days after Chivas Regal boasted of record growth in Asia.

But their slogan 'This is the Chivas life' features in giant billboard adverts for licensed brothels.

One in Bangkok, bearing an image of Marilyn Monroe with a rose clinched between her teeth, encourages punters to head for the Pasaya 'party massage' parlour.

Another advert for the same sex club shows a hostess naked from behindThe Pasaya, run by owner Khun Jum, is a landmark on the notorious Ratchadapisek, one of Bangkok's major thoroughfares and known for its 'mega-brothels'.

Inside the club, girls - many of whom look younger than 16 - gyrate naked on tables for cash and offer 'extras' for just a few pounds.

Typically punters have 20 to 30 girls to choose from each night.

The system in Bangkok is that the customer picks out a girl in the bar area, pays a one-hour fee of 600 baht (about £8.50) for a 'massage', then negotiates the extras with the girl in an upstairs room.

Empty boxes of Chivas are put out with the rubbish every morning, showing the popularity of the brand with Pasaya punters. Chivas and Johnnie Walker are the most popular whiskies in Asia and earn their owners - Chivas Brothers and Diageo - tens of millions of pounds profit every year.

Campaigners believe the tie-up between the brothels and the booze brands attracts wealthy western sex tourists.

Chris Beddoe, director of anti-child-prostitution pressure group ECPAT UK, said: 'Multinational companies should not be selling their products within bars and saunas where sex is sold.

'They should be paying closer attention to where their products are and ensure they are not supporting the sex industry.

'These brothels are forcing young women and girls into prostitution and no globally successful firm which claims to have a social conscience should be encouraging that.'

ECPAT is also appealing to the conscience of western holiday firms who unwittingly provide cheap deals for sex tourists.

Chris added: 'We have asked the major holiday companies to be aware of their responsibilities to Thai women and children.

'We have asked that they do not promote districts where there is a risk that children are being exploited for sex. It is our hope that if these areas are less accessible, the problem can be brought under control.'

The campaigners' call comes in the week that Chivas Regal was voted the only whisky 'superbrand' in a Reader's Digest survey of rich Asian consumersBosses have seen an annual world-wide sales growth for the brand of 12 per cent last year, selling 3.3 million nine-litre cases.

A Chivas Brothers spokeswoman said: 'In common with other international spirit brands, Chivas Regal does provide legally licensed bars and outlets selling its brands with point-of--sale material for display. This may have led to some confusion.'

A Johnnie Walker spokeswoman said: 'We sell to our wholesalers in good faith and all of our activities, wherever we operate, are within the letter of the law locally.

'But once the wholesalers have our products and promotional materials, we do not have control over how they are used.

'While most outlets are operating legitimately, there may be some outlets where materials are being used inappropriately.'

Unicef spokeswoman Kathryn Irwin said: 'In south-east Asia, at least one million children are thought to be working in the sex industry where they are exploited at the hands of adults, both the brothel owners and customers.'

SNP deputy leader Nicola Sturgeon, said: 'I would hope neither company is doing anything that could be seen to be condoning or encouraging child prostitution.

'If so, I am sure they would both want to take action to rectify this situation.'

Independent MSP Campbell Martin said: 'The flashy advertising hoardings they are putting their names to make it look as though these clubs are mainstream and acceptable.

'They are clearly not

http://www.sundaymail.co.uk/news/tm_objectid=15517806&method=
full&siteid=86024&headline=scotch-and-vice-name_page.html

A landmark survey on violence against children in China shows abuse is more widespread than previously believed and has a lasting effect on mental health.

China has implemented an urban one-child policy for the past quarter of a century, leading to a popular perception that an only child is more likely to be indulged than abused.

But the survey of more than 3,500 adolescents undertaken by the All-China Women's Federation, Peking University and UNICEF showed more than 50 percent of males taking part and one-third of females had been hit or kicked as children.

"Child maltreatment is an existing problem in China ... One or two children in average school classes may be victims of serious child abuse," the report said.

It also found a clear association between child abuse and mental health, and a higher likelihood of alcohol use and violent behaviour among those who were maltreated as children.

"Violence and abuse against children is much more prevalent across the world than we expect," said Anupama Rao Singh, UNICEF's Asia-Pacific director, when asked if the rates of abuse in China were surprising.

She said China was typical of many other parts of the world, where physical punishment was accepted as a mode of discipline.

"We need to recognise that much of the violence reported in the study relates to disciplinary measures," she said.

Physical punishment in schools was also an issue, the survey found, as was bullying.

Singh said China was recruiting public figures to raise public awareness of child abuse and was looking at ways to work both directly with parents and provide a safer environment in schools.

Last month, a student was caught on camera being beaten by her peers at a school in the southern city of Shenzhen, the China Daily reported, an incident that triggered concern about rising school violence.

"Protection of the mental health of young Chinese people is a major priority for this new century," the study said.

"This research strongly suggests that national programmes to raise community awareness and prevent child maltreatment are necessary and urgent."

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/PEK242681.htm

The International Labour Organisation has described the practice of children working in Cambodia's salt fields as "one of the worst forms of child labour", and the Cambodian government has signed up to stop it. So why is the practice continuing?

Work in the salt fields is harsh and unpleasant, even for the adults involved. But it is particularly hard for children.

"It is very difficult work, but I have to do it for the money," Roh, a 16-year-old salt carrier, told BBC World Service's One Planet programme.

Child labour is commonplace throughout Cambodia, in industries such as manufacturing, construction and the restaurant trade.

In total the Cambodian government estimates that 1.5 million children are working in Cambodia - about a quarter of the child population.

However it is their work in the salt fields that is causing particular concern.

The work involves distilling salt from sea water into smaller pools. The heat is intense and the pools reflect the sunlight.

Roh carries salt for four hours in the morning, and then for another three hours in the afternoon.

When he was younger he attended school for two years - but now, he says, he does not have time.

"I was worried that my parents worked so hard, so [now] I help them," he said.

"My father is old, and he is not strong enough to do all the heavy lifting. So I have to help him."

Roh's seven brothers and sisters also work in the salt fields - and they are far from alone.

Fourteen-year-old Chaii Soph Heap has worked in the fields for three years. In addition to his job, he attends school for one hour each day.

His family are comparatively wealthy - his father, Chi Vannaranna, owns his own land.

But Chi Vannaranna argues that he could still not afford for his children to stop working.

"The children help me in the salt fields because it provides them with a skill, and it helps the family to get an income," he told One Planet.

"I still send my sons to school, because their education is very important too.

"The work is hard, and it's hot, but the children understand that they have to help the family.

"If my family were rich, I wouldn't ask my sons to work there. I have to force myself to let the children work in the salt fields."

Against nature

MP Joseph, who heads the International Labour Organisation's programme for the elimination of child labour in Cambodia, explained that 80% of child labour occurred in rural areas, predominantly in agriculture, but also fishing, brick-making and, of course, the salt fields.

All these sectors are important for Cambodia's economy.

The United Nations' Minimum Age Convention states that the youngest age for "light work" should be 13, while for ordinary forms of child labour it is 15.

Salt field work is exceptionally harsh, and would not be tolerated in the West - leading to accusations that different rules are being applied in poorer countries.

The ILO favours a gradual approach to the elimination of child labour, introducing "non-formal education" - a few hours of schooling a week.

In theory schooling in Cambodia is free, but in practice this is not the case, as transport, books and paper all have to be paid for.

Added to that is the fact that if a child is attending school, they cannot earn money.

Mr Joseph admits this is a problem.

"Personally, if it were possible, I think every child should go to school - there can be no compromise on that," he said.

"It's not a child's place to work. You don't see puppies working for dogs, you don't see lion cubs working to feed the lions. Why should human beings send their children to work?

"I think it's against nature. It's contrary to humanity. But then, in a situation where children are already working, the transition may take time."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4541623.stm

The disclosure that some 300 African boys disappeared from London schools in just three months has sparked fresh fears about the fate of vulnerable children promised a “better life” in Britain.

It is thought many of the “missing” youngsters would have been sent to the UK to live with distant relatives or friends of friends by parents wanting them to benefit from an education in this country.

But while such arrangements are often innocent and work well for the children, there are concerns that some are being brought here to be exploited working as domestic servants or prostitutes, or used for benefit fraud.

In the very worst cases they are abused by those who are supposed to be looking after them.

Victoria Climbie's parents, anxious for her to escape the poverty of the Ivory Coast, entrusted her to the care of her great aunt, who brought her to Europe.

The eight-year-old finally died in London in February 2000, tortured by that great-aunt, Marie Therese Kouao, and her boyfriend Carl Manning.

The apparent disappearance of the young African boys came to light as a result of the investigation into the murder of a child – named Adam by police – whose torso was found in the River Thames in September 2001.

To try to identify the body, the victim of a suspected ritualistic killing having been brought from Nigeria, Metropolitan Police officers asked every education authority in London how many black boys aged between four and seven had gone missing.

In one three-month period between July and September 2001, some 300 children were found to have disappeared.

There was nothing to suggest they had been murdered, and police were told that in the vast majority of the cases the children had returned to their home countries.

But Interpol was unable to confirm that any of them were in Africa as claimed, and because Britain no longer has embarkation controls there were no records in that area.

NSPCC child protection policy adviser Chris Atkinson believes the 300 boys who had apparently disappeared could turn out to represent a new trend in child trafficking.

“There have been general concerns that children are being brought in for benefit fraud, sexual exploitation or in the case of ‘Adam' something much worse,” Ms Atkinson says.

“It is always very difficult to pin this whole issue down because of the way the children disappear, but the missing boys could potentially be a new trafficking trend.”

Barbara Hutchinson, deputy chief executive of the British Association for Adoption and Fostering (BAAF), believes the discovery of such a large number of missing children does not represent an uncommon situation.

“I find it horrifying but not surprising,” she said.

“I would be very surprised if the situation was not repeated across the country.”

She said that in the cases where children were being exploited, it was often without the knowledge of their parents, who believed they were going to Britain to get a good education.

“Like Victoria Climbie's parents, they think their child will get a better life, so they agree to let them go with someone who is part of their extended family, or a friend – known as private fostering,” Ms Hutchinson said.

“But actually when the child gets there it's very different.

“We suspect that many children are brought in specifically to be exploited working as domestic servants, to be used in benefit fraud or to be sexually trafficked.”

Social workers say exploited children have been told that if they say anything their parents or siblings would be killed, according to June Thoburn, Professor of social work at the University of East Anglia.

BAAF has heard of children as young as seven being kept at home to do household jobs.

Ms Hutchinson said children might be moved around – and “disappear” – because the authorities were catching up with their carers over a benefit scam, or because the youngsters had never got proper immigration clearance.

In other cases the children might be distressed at having lost their own culture and family, and become difficult to handle.

“The people they are living with may feel they can't cope and they pass the child on to someone else,” Ms Hutchinson said.

“Many of those children get moved around to a number of families and that's how parents sometimes lose touch with them.”

Ms Hutchinson said she did not believe private fostering was necessarily a bad way of caring for children.

“But the amazing thing is that it is not regulated in the way that other forms of childcare are,” she added. “We find it incredible.”

Childminders have to be registered with the local authority, inspected and approved and then checked regularly.

The only obligation for private foster carers is for them and the birth parents to notify the local authority they are caring for a youngster, but many people are not aware of this, according to Ms Hutchinson.

Officials will then carry out “very, very basic checks” but do not have to approved the carer.

If they have “very strong reasons” they can disqualify them from taking on such a role but that only happens in a “minute” number of cases.

Ms Hutchinson said a number of reviews and inquiries in recent years had recommended private foster carers should be registered, but it had never happened.

The main arguments against such a move are that it would represent a “nanny state”, or that it would just drive private foster carers underground.

“But it's already underground, as is demonstrated by these 300 children who have disappeared.”

BAAF has welcomed new Government moves requiring local authorities to raise awareness that such carers must tell them what they are doing, but believed more measures were needed.

Prof Thoburn said experts had no idea how big the problem of child trafficking was in Britain.

“I personally doubt if it is very large but actually it doesn't have to be very large, it's still a disgrace to us that we allow it to happen at all,” she said.

But she is worried that introducing registration for private foster carers will not solve the problem.

“If you're bringing children into the country in order to exploit or abuse them you're not going reveal yourself or send the child to school.”

http://news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=4552282

POVERTY is not an excuse to exploit your children.

This was the assertion of a United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) official to parents as he expressed alarm over the seemingly unchecked problem of child-trafficking in the Philippines.

"We realize there is a situation of poverty [in the country]," UNICEF senior program officer Colin Davis said during an international conference on children's rights.

"But we must reach out to parents and tell them that even if you are poor, that is not an excuse to have your children trafficked or to allow them to fall into pornography," Davis said.

If not being forced into prostitution, children are made to pose nude for pornographic materials or Web sites.

"Parents think that by taking photographs of their children naked, they are not harming them. But they are taking away their childhood," Davis said.

He said child-trafficking was one of the three biggest problems affecting Filipino children, the others being malnutrition and lack of education.

Child-trafficking in the Philippines is as bad as in Thailand and Cambodia, he said.

"Children are being trafficked from provinces to cities, from cities to overseas. This is not something we can just stand back from and ignore," he said.

In a report, UNICEF said one of every three children or women forced into prostitution were in -- or came from -- Asia.

UNICEF presented the report during the Regional Conference of National Bodies and Lead Government Agencies for Children in Asia and the Pacific held at the Edsa Shangri-La Hotel in Mandaluyong City on Friday.

The three-day conference was aimed at establishing Asia-Pacific Childnet, an information network.

The network would facilitate the exchange of experiences, ideas and policies for the protection of children's rights between member-countries.

The network shall also monitor the implementation of the Convention of the Rights of the Child adopted by the United Nations (UN-CRC) in 1989.

To achieve this, the group plans to set up a Web site where member-countries can upload their laws, ideas, policies and experiences on children's rights.

This would also facilitate regular communication between countries.

There shall also be a regular conference every two years with Thailand offering to be the next host country.

Davis said Childnet could help solve the problem of child-trafficking in Asia.

Philippine Council for the Welfare of Children director Lina Laigo said, "The network will strengthen national bodies in implementing children's rights."

So what can the Philippines, itself confronted by rampant violations of children's rights, contribute to the network?

Laigo said the country could share its experience in setting up a council to coordinate the various agencies promoting children's rights.

http://news.inq7.net/nation/index.php?index=1&story_id=37120

Not far from scenes of war and conflict, which arise from the civil unrest that currently divides Côte d’Ivoire, children in Abobo primary school in the capital city of Abidjan are learning about peace.

Pupils in a class taught by Florence Abo Kossia have just written words of peace on their slates. ‘Forgiveness’, ‘reconciliation’, and ‘peace’ are just a few. The pupils eagerly await their teacher’s approval.

Armed conflict is not the only affliction that has ravaged Côte d’Ivoire in recent times. The pupils’ books are open to a lesson about locusts, a common plague with effects almost as deadly as the war.

“What is the most important thing for the crops when the locusts come?” the teacher, Ms. Abo Kossia, asks. Hands shoot up. “Protection,” answers a dewy-eyed 10-year-old in a blue gingham school dress.

The talk of protection brings the class to the theme of the rights of the child. “What is the most important thing for a child?” the teacher asks. A bold little boy volunteers the first answer: “The right to have fun.”

A new programme to teach peace

With their country bitterly divided by war, children in many classrooms in the south of Côte d’Ivoire are being now taught about peace and reconciliation through a new educational programme.

Working with the Ministry of Education, UNICEF and partners introduced a new curriculum late last year seeking to promote peace by instilling peace within the children’s minds. The curriculum also teaches that protection, peace and tolerance are not just words.

“Because of this war in Côte d’Ivoire, we thought that if people were taking up arms, it’s because they had no sense of peace. We, as teachers, are in charge of the children and we must promote this culture of peace so they can grow up and flourish,” said Ms. Abo Kossia.

“They are still little. But they are the citizens of tomorrow and maybe even the [future] president of the republic is in my class right now. If the president doesn’t know about peace, how can he run his country?”

Reconciliation: Not just a slogan

Teachers have already seen the fruits of peace education among their students. Not long ago, the ethnic divisions that fuelled Côte d’Ivoire’s civil war spilled over into the classroom. Children from neighbouring countries Burkina Faso, Mali and Guinea tended to stick together, speaking only in their own local languages, and isolate themselves from their Ivorian classmates. They were taunted and teased about being foreigners.

“Now, it is really amazing to see how they have come together. They play nicely and all speak French together. They even tell their parents about reconciliation,” remarked Ms. Abo Kossia.

“Through the Peace and Tolerance curriculum, we have been able to reach thousands of children who otherwise only know messages of hate and distrust. This curriculum allows us to counteract those messages in every lesson in the classroom,” explained the UNICEF Representative in Côte d’Ivoire, Youssouf Oomar. “This way we’re hoping that reconciliation and peace are not just slogans on their classroom walls.”

Delays in implementation for the northern region

To date the curriculum has only been implemented in the south. In the northern region, which has been hit especially hard by the conflict, education has been at a standstill. Schools have been closed down and some 72,000 students are currently unable to take their final exams this year.

Some older students who have lost vital years of schooling have taken desperate measures.

“The students do anything. They sell things and some are even forced into prostitution to be able to come to school,” said 16-year-old student Sarah Kulibali. “There is no one else to look after their needs and pay for school fees. This is all because of the war.”

Earlier this year, former UNICEF Executive Director Carol Bellamy, along with UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Jan Egeland, sent an urgent letter on behalf of the students to President Laurent Gbagbo. The letter asked the President to intervene and ensure that the exams be held. In addition, Ms. Bellamy and Mr. Egeland emphasized the importance of education as a tool for tolerance and reconciliation.

One encouraging achievement is the signing of the Pretoria Peace Accord, brokered in April by South Africa’s President Thabo Mbeki. The Peace Accord paved the way for elections to be held in October, which will allow the exiled Ivorian opposition leader Alassane Outtara to stand as a candidate.

It is expected that, with a peaceful resolution to the Ivorian crisis, the exams will finally be conducted, and the new curriculum will be rolled out in the north as well.

http://unicef.org/infobycountry/cotedivoire_26938.html

Authorities in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh have launched an inquiry into claims a woman was attacked for trying to stop child marriages.

Social worker Shakuntala Verma had one hand severed and the other badly wounded in the attack on Tuesday.

State officials said she was trying to stop child marriages in Bhangarh village, 270km (170 miles) west of the state capital, Bhopal.

The practice is illegal but some rural children are still forcibly married.

Wednesday is Akha Teej, an auspicious Hindu day traditionally used in some rural areas as a date for child marriages.

Public awareness

A senior civil servant in Madhya Pradesh, P Ahuja, said the attack may have happened because villagers became irate over Ms Verma's comments on child marriages.

She had reportedly been in the village for four days campaigning against the practice.

However, Chief Minister Babulal Gaur would not be drawn on the link between the attack and child marriages.

He said of the practice: "It is not possible to stop it. Have we been able to end alcoholism or untouchability? If Gandhi could not succeed in this, how can Babulal Gaur?"

District police chief, RN Borna, told the AFP agency the attack was carried out by the brother of a would-be child bride.

Ms Verma is being treated in hospital in the city of Indore.

Child marriages - girls under 18 and boys under 21 - are illegal in India.

Authorities in many rural areas have taken steps to prevent marriages on Akha Teej.

In the western state of Rajasthan, there has been a big public awareness campaign.

The parents of the children, the owner of the building where the marriage takes place and the priest conducting the ceremony can be arrested if a case is detected, activists say.

The number of child marriages is down this year following tough police measures, Indian television reported.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/4536579.stm

Burma's military government is at the head of the pack of Asian regimes perpetuating the use of forced labour, a new global report reveals.

The victims of Rangoon's junta range from villagers forced to work on agricultural land confiscated by the military to those compelled to ''provide compulsory cash contributions, in addition to their labour,'' the report released Wednesday by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) states.

''Forty-five persons from each village (in the western Rakhine State) had to work on gravel provision or bridge construction projects each day,'' adds the report, 'A global alliance against forced labour.'

The forms of forced labour that prevails mostly in the rural parts of that South-east Asian country also include men, women, children and the elderly being compelled by the army to porter for them, perform sentry duty and build and repair roads, according to the report. ''If villagers refuse to comply with orders, they can be subject to threats, imprisonment and violence.''

Such record of abuse by the junta is unparalleled in the world, officials from the Geneva-based U.N. labour agency said during the launch of the 87-page report, the second of its kind in four years.

''This widespread use of forced labour is not only tolerated by the legislation but also organised by the military in areas populated by the country's ethnic minorities,'' Tim De Meyer, a specialist of international labour standards at the South-east Asia office of ILO, told IPS.

By contrast, two other Asian countries where there is state involvement in forced labour - China and Vietnam - are displaying interest towards reform, De Meyer said, pointing to shifts in Beijing's attitude towards the country's notorious Reeducation through Labour (RETL) system.

''We do see progress on the reeducation camps. (The issue) is on the country's national agenda,'' added De Meyer. ''Vietnam is also another example (of change), shifting from saying there were no forced labour camps to trying to understand the problem.''

The ILO report estimated that close to 260,000 people were forced into China's RETL system in 2004, of which half were there due to drug addiction problems and the rest for offences ranging from theft to prostitution.

These labour camps in communist-ruled China and Vietnam were created by their respective regimes to detain citizens who were perceived as those in need of political indoctrination.

''The people detained would spend from one to three years in them, but they were forced into labour activity that was problematic,'' said De Meyer.

However, such state-sanctioned forced labour, which affects about 1.9 million people, is only part of a more worrying picture of this form of abuse pervasive across Asia. The ILO's report sheds light on other violations that stem from bonded labour, victims trafficked into the region's sex industry and those forced into domestic work.

In all, there are an estimated 9.5 million victims of forced labour in the Asia-Pacific region, which equals to three-fourths of the global total of 12.3 million people, the report states.

The majority of the abusers, nearly 80 percent, are private individuals seeking to profit from the large slice of the coerced men, women and children forced to work in agricultural sectors of the region.

Those living off the sweat of trafficked victims, for instance, rake in an annual profit of nearly 9.7 billion U.S. dollars, according to the ILO.

The majority of the victims are women and girls, largely due to the estimated 1.4 million people in Asia and the Pacific who are victims of trafficking. They include the estimated 600,000 people forced into the sex trade in the region.

''In the Mekong region (in South-east Asia), we have seen trafficking (that goes beyond) physical constraints to the use of subtle means,'' Thetis Mangahas, a migration and human trafficking expert at the ILO's South-east Asia office, told reporters. ''Migrant workers are the most vulnerable.''

In South Asia, on the other hand, the report drew attention to the prevalence of bonded labour in the agriculture sector, brick kilns and mines, among others.

''(In Nepal) the number of persons affected by bonded labour in agriculture alone has been estimated by independent analysts at some 200,000,'' added the ILO report.

India's carpet-weaving industry is, likewise, guilty, since it has a ''high proportion of children working in conditions of severe bondage.''

The ILO deems any work derived from force or fraud instead of choices or incentive as forced labour. Yet as it realised four years after releasing its first forced labour global report, greater awareness about this scourge in the region has not translated to concrete action.

''There have been very few prosecutions of exploiters of forced labour anywhere,'' the report asserts. ''The offence of forced labour is often not identified as such in existing criminal laws.''

The case of Burma, in fact, reflects this situation. It is among the countries that have ratified the two international conventions to stamp out forced labour, yet it remains a major violator of this illegal form of work.

http://www.ipsnews.net/interna.asp?idnews=28633

At least 12.3 million people worldwide work as slaves or in other forms of forced labor, the International Labor Organization, the labor arm of the United Nations, said in a report issued yesterday.

In the first estimates of overall forced labor ever made by an international organization, the report said that 2.5 million people were in forced labor as a result of cross-border trafficking, with 1.2 million of them in the sex trade.

The report, "A Global Alliance Against Forced Labor," estimated that profits from trafficked forced labor totaled $32 billion a year, or $13,000 per trafficked worker. Profits from forced commercial sexual exploitation totaled $27.8 billion annually, or $23,000 per worker.

"Forced labor represents the underside of globalization and denies people their basic rights and dignity," said Juan Somavia, the director general of the International Labor Organization.

Lee Swepston, one of the report's authors, said it was hard to determine whether the overall use of forced labor was increasing or decreasing since this was the agency's first estimate of the overall numbers.

But he said that trafficking of workers was definitely on the upswing because international travel had grown easier, borders had been eased in many countries, especially in Europe, and many women were migrating, with traffickers preying on them in particular.

"The 12.3 million figure is a minimum," Mr. Swepston also said. "It's a low figure intentionally. We think it's probably higher. This is what we can be confident of."

According to the report, 9.5 million of the forced laborers are in Asia, most of them forced into bonded labor because of debts, especially in Pakistan and India. About two-thirds of forced labor in Asia is imposed by private parties - families, farmers or companies. About one-tenth of Asia's forced labor is commercial sexual exploitation and one-fifth is imposed by the state in a few countries, most notably China and Myanmar, formerly Burma.

People can be forced into such labor in many ways - because of debts, through physical violence, by the confiscation of identity papers, by threatening to turn illegal immigrants over to the authorities.
"The victims are drawn from lower castes in parts of Asia, indigenous peoples in Latin America, the descendants of slaves or forest-dwellers in Africa," the report says. "New forms of coercion often linked to indebtedness are being detected in a range of sectors and industries, such as brick making, mining, rice mills and domestic work."

The report estimated that there were 360,000 forced laborers in industrialized nations and 210,000 in the former Communist countries of Europe. In the industrialized countries, the report said, three-quarters of the forced laborers are in the sex trade, while the others are in work like apparel sweatshops.

The report said there were 1.3 million forced laborers in Latin America and the Caribbean, 660,000 in sub-Saharan Africa and 260,000 in the Middle East and North Africa.

Ninety-eight percent of forced laborers working in sexual activities are women and girls, the report said, while women and girls account for 56 percent of nonsexual forced labor.

To reduce trafficking, the report calls for stepped-up law enforcement in both sending and destination countries. It also urges agencies that seek to reduce poverty, like the World Bank, to make a priority of intervening in practices that foster bonded labor. The report also says countries may have to rethink labor, land, tenancy and migration policies that have produced forced labor.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/12/international/12labor.html

A new report by the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) on core labour standards in Nigeria, which coincides with Nigeria's trade policy review at the WTO this week, shows serious shortcomings in the application and enforcement of all eight core labour standards.

This is particularly with regard to the lack of trade union rights of workers including the right to strike, discrimination and child labour.

In October 2004, the President of the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) was arrested during a general strike despite the fact that the action was an entirely legitimate exercise of the collective rights of the trade union movement.

Though released, he is still facing criminal charges in an Abuja High Court while police have raided his house and office on several occasions.

A new Trade Union Amendment Act, which was adopted recently, fails to address adequately problems identified in the report according to the ICFTU. The new Act is aimed at curbing the right to strike and at weakening the Nigerian Labour Congress.

The Act, the report argues, was presented without adequate consultations through the tripartite labour review.

The ICFTU and the NLC argue that there is need for a much stronger commitment to social dialogue by the Federal Government of Nigeria in order to achieve a culture of constructive engagement of labour over policies and governance issues.

Employment and wage discrimination

Discrimination in employment and wages is persistent in Nigeria.

Surveys show a wage gap between men and women and a highly segregated labour market.

Few women are employed in the formal economy due to social discrimination in education and training and to a gender-based division of labour in the formal economy.

Moreover, the Minimum Wage Act excludes many workers, in particular those groups where women are disproportionately represented such as part-time workers and seasonal agricultural workers.

Child labour is widespread in Nigeria, and it was estimated in 2003 by the ILO and the government that 15-million children are working, of which up to 40% is at risk of being trafficked for forced labour, forced prostitution and armed conflict.

Some 6-million children do not attend school and 2-million work more than 15 hours per day.

Many children are also trafficked into Nigeria for the purpose of forced labour.

Several child slave camps exist in the Western States of Nigeria, where children are used as slaves in mining and on rubber plantations.

http://www.engineeringnews.co.za/eng/news/breaking/?show=67089

The Global Action Week 2005, which was organized by Global Campaign for Education (GCE) and ended on April 30, sent two important messages. Millions of people not only protested leaders' failure to achieve the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) of getting equal number of girls as boys into school by 2005, but also stressed that the goal of giving every child a quality primary education is also at risk.

In Asia, hundreds of thousands of cut-out-friends were made. Millions of young people joined the Send my Friend to School Campaign. Meetings were held with parliamentarians and administrators.
The week was also marked by a wide range of activities from seminars to conferences, village gatherings to drawing competitions, and children's rallies to audience with political leaders.

While India witnessed mass rallies, seminars and civil society organizations collecting signatures from parliamentarians in support of education for all, Nepal saw youth theatre groups staging performances to stress their demand.

Similarly, in Bangladesh, children, youth and teachers took out rallies and civil society groups collected signatures from opinion leaders. In Pakistan people gathered in various cities to press their demand for free and quality education to children.

Says GCE president Kailash Satyarthi, "This year the purpose has been to focus on the inter-linkage between education and poverty and on mobilization around the MDGs."

The attempt has been to look at education and beyond. He explains, "Education is integral to all the MDGs. It's a cross cutting issue. Unless the goals related to education are achieved, it's impossible to achieve other goals." Quoting an example, he adds that education is synonymous with knowledge and empowerment without which the goal on HIV/AIDS can't be achieved. "If we don't achieve the goals related to education, we are going to miss everything else."

Satyarthi attributes the state of affairs to the lack of global political will. He adds, "The global community is not keeping its commitment." He admits that in fact there is already delay in bringing up the question.

The reasons are obvious. He says, "For example, In India, no sense of urgency is shown by politicians. The government is committed to spending 6 per cent of its gross domestic product on education. Right now it's below 3 per cent. Even now there is no mechanism on how to spend it and it's not being fully utilized. There has to be a comprehensive, holistic mechanism of mobilization and spending. The states are either not getting the money or not spending it. There is no sense of urgency. There is not time bound, action plan."

So, what is the CSOs' role? Satyarthi explains, "CSOs' role is both direct and indirect. They should undertake more aggressive campaigning. Campaigns lead to mass mobilization. Otherwise it remains a debate within the development club alone. CSOs' role is to pressure governments and also help them in a qualitative manner. The critical relationship is necessary. Governments too should cooperate. CSOs should also work as watchdogs."

Of course, CSOs shouldn't stop there, he says. "When nothing is happening and the government does not fulfill its own commitments, it's necessary to set examples. They should set examples to prove that it is possible." CSOs can't do all the work by themselves, though. He hastens to add, "There is a limit to it. CSOs' work cannot be a substitute for the governments' work.''

He adds, "More importantly, education is a question of rights and not charity. People should demand that the state discharge its responsibility. We need to look at education in the context of child rights with linkages to poverty and child labour."

The work is long drawn out. The action week may have ended, but the work has just begun. Satyarthi explains, "We have sought commitments from political leaders and now we need to follow up to try to make them fulfill those commitments. Besides, reports and learning will be shared. And the next year's week will build on this year's week the way this year's week was built on the work of all the previous years."

http://www.millenniumcampaign.org/site/apps/nl/content3.asp?c=
grKVL2NLE&b=190470&ct=787041

Eleven-year-old Mahmoud al-Obaidi walks seven km every morning to get to work at a carpentry factory in Baghdad so he can save his bus fares. Al-Obaidi is the only male in his family of four, as his father disappeared five years ago and he works to support his family. On average he spends nearly 10 hours a day in the factory earning a living.

"I didn't have a choice. Work was the only option. I cannot deny that I would like to be at a school, learning like other children. But I know the responsibility that I have to carry," al-Obaidi told IRIN, as he walked to work. The boy is only one of thousands of Iraqi children forced by poverty to work at an early age.

More than a million youngsters work often enduring hazardous conditions, as well as being vulnerable to sexual abuse and violence, according to a report released at the end of 2004. The report was based on a nationwide survey in which 19,610 Iraqis participated.

The project was a joint effort between the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and several Iraqi ministries, including the Ministry of Health (MoH), Ministry of Public Works and Social Affairs (MoPWSA) and the Ministry of Education (MoE).

Nearly 250 students aged between nine and 14 dropped out of school to begin work between January and March, according to a report by the MoE. Officials say that number is likely to increase following the downturn in the country's economic fortunes in the post-Saddam era.

"Our children are leaving schools and they represent the future of Iraq. If the government guarantees a better life for their families for sure they won't have to work and for this reason urgent action should be taken by the new Iraqi government," a senior official at the MoE, Khalid Youssef, told IRIN.

CHILDREN WORKING TO SURVIVE

The main reason for child labour in Iraq is poverty. Nearly 25 percent of the country's population lives below the poverty line, according to the interim government.
There is also a strong culture of child labour in Iraq. Even with free schools and universities in the country, many families won't allow youngsters to attend school, saying that it is important for them to go out and work as early as possible according to experts.

"I believe that we marry and have children to alleviate our lives from work. My father made me work at the age of nine and I sent my children to work when they were 10. There is nothing wrong with that, especially for families who do not have good financial support like mine," Omar Adnan, a father of three, told IRIN.

Most street children in the capital work and can be seen selling cigarettes, newspapers and other small household items. Markets and industry also employ large numbers of children who are usually forced undertake dangerous, arduous jobs for low pay, enduring long hours, according to the Ministry of Industry (MoI) and Ministry of Trade (MoT).

STATISTICS

According to the 2004 survey, nearly 1,300,000 children, aged between eight and 16 were working. This represents 6.1 percent of the country's population.
In addition, the survey revealed long working hours, with 27 percent of children working for more than eight hours daily.

Those who start working at an early stage were found to be mainly from the rural areas, the survey said, because of more harsh economic conditions there. "The lack of security and political uncertainties have left economic activities stunted and social safety nets disrupted, while unemployment and poverty have deepened. Under these circumstances, more children and youths have been driven to work or beg on the streets, or toil at various labour sites, often under hazardous conditions, in order to supplement dwindling family incomes," a spokeswoman for UNICEF, Ban Dhayi, told IRIN from the Jordanian capital, Amman.

Some of these children and youths are the sole breadwinners of the family due to the death, disability or unemployment of their parents, Dhayi added. "Working children were already researched and documented in northern Iraq and were seen in southern and central Iraq before the war, but the socio/economic circumstances of Iraq following the war in 2003 are seen to have pushed more children to the streets and worksites," the UNICEF official said.

Many children also make a living through drugs and prostitution, perceived to be easier ways of earning money, according to the Iraqi Red Crescent Society (IRCS). "Children should be in schools and not on the streets or working in dangerous places where no one will take responsibility for them," a spokeswoman for the IRCS, Firdous al-Abadi, told IRIN.

HAZARDOUS WORK

Nearly nine percent of child workers had been injured, according to the UNICEF 2004 survey and nearly 58 percent of working children interviewed had suffered violence.

Doctors in the capital said they treat at least one child injured at work every day, most hurt by exposure to dangerous chemicals. Dr Haydar al-Yassin, at the Yarmouk hospital, the largest emergency facility in the country, told IRIN that it is common for employers to lie about how the injuries were sustained, so they don't have to take responsibility. "Children work in hazardous environments and there is no law to protect them. Sometimes the child dies in hospital due to the injuries. Last week we had a case where a child's entire body was burned after a gas cooking cylinder exploded in a kitchen at a local restaurant," al-Yassin explained. The MoH also reported that sick children only seek medical help after becoming seriously ill.

In addition, a January 2005 study by the MoH, in partnership with the MoPWSA, found that nearly 55 percent of children, who work in rural areas, suffer from skin diseases. Those in workshops and large industries also showed high incidences of respiratory problems following exposure to harmful chemicals and gases.

GOVERNMENT ACTION

Projects to prevent the abuse of working children and to promote more schooling have been implemented. In April, the government banned shopkeepers and industry from employing children under the age of 14. Those who do not obey the law may be subjected to huge fines.

The penalty varies from US $100 to $300 but persistent offenders may be closed down. Whether the law will be implemented remains to be seen. In addition, youngsters found working in these industries may receive a payment of $50 and continued support from the government, so that they do not have to go back to work and can return to their studies.

"Our ministry has had success and hundreds of children have returned to schools and left work where they were being abused and were receiving poor salaries," minister of public work and social affairs, Leila Abdul-Lattef, told IRIN. The MoPWSA also supported the opening of Mercy House in Baghdad, a place where the poorest children and most disadvantaged members of Iraqi society are offered assistance. Street children, who beg or are forced to work, receive support at the centre, which offers education and protection from abuse and violence. The MoPWSA has also asked the new Iraqi government to ensure children are protected under the new constitution.

"The abuse on the streets against children's rights is frequent and we will continue our work to change this and bring security and a better future for each Iraqi child," Abdul-Lattef added.

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/IRIN/427d7283036b65f3ca9fb51e39a48b6b.htm

Ivory Coast, the world's top cocoa grower, has started a pilot project to eradicate child labour on cocoa plantations and hopes to meet a July deadline to win international approval of its plans, officials said.
"We have started the pilot phase of the project to eradicate the worst forms of child labour on cocoa plantations in Ivory Coast," Marie-Louise Acquah, a commodities adviser to the West African country's prime minister, said on Wednesday.

"We hope to be able to provide the first results in a few months to the NGOs (non-governmental organisations) and American lobbyists who are behind this action," said Acquah. The first phase of the pilot project -- which for the time being is limited to one region -- involves ascertaining whether children work as labourers, and then trying to persuade farmers not to use them. Then the aim is to get the children into schools or training programmes.

Images of child abuse on West African cocoa plantations triggered an international outcry in 2000. Members of the global chocolate and cocoa industry signed an accord in late 2001 committing to the introduction of a certification system by July 2005 enabling customers to choose chocolate produced without abusive labour practices. If that is not achieved, politicians promise to draft laws requiring U.S. chocolate makers to put a "no child slavery" label on their goods after guaranteeing no forced child labour was used.

Acquah said the aim was to protect producers should the U.S. Congress move to block cocoa exports over the child labour issue.

HIGH STAKES

Ivory Coast exports more than 400,000 tonnes of cocoa to the United States each year, a quarter of its total production, providing U.S. chocolate makers with two-thirds of their cocoa.
"The stakes are high for us and we want to succeed because thousands of jobs and billions of CFA francs are at risk," Acquah said.

Fofana N'djore, national coordinator of Ivory Coast's pilot project, said it had been due to start last October but a simmering civil war had delayed implementation. Rebels tried to oust President Laurent Gbagbo in September 2002 and seized the north of the country. A series of peace deals failed to end the on-off conflict and some 10,000 U.N. and French troops now patrol a buffer zone between the two sides. N'djore said the pilot project started in March in Oume, 250 km (155 miles) northwest of Abidjan, which produces between 30,000-35,000 tonnes of beans each year. The project will eventually be extended to other regions.

A 2003 U.S. State Department report said there were about 109,000 children working in dangerous conditions in Ivory Coast, where around 40 percent of the world's cocoa is produced. Hazards include the risk of injury from machetes and harmful pesticides sprayed without protection.

"The phenomenon of child labour is real and a rapid solution must be found to this problem before it gets worse," said Anh Ly of West Africa Cocoa/Agriculture Project, part of the International Labour Organisation.
West Africa provides 70 percent of the world's cocoa grown on small family farms under 12 acres (5 hectares). Many African farmers would consider child labour normal. "Some countries like Ivory Coast are very far behind...and that is worrying but we hope they will make up the delay because countries like Ghana have already published their first report ...and in May will publish a second," Ly said.

"Our objective is to be able to certify Ivorian cocoa with "No Child Labour" and we will do everything to succeed in this even if it takes time, because we have to change mindsets and find alternative solutions to guarantee a workforce that is available for cocoa production," said Acquah.

http://aolsvc.news.aol.com/special4/article.adp?id=20050504190109990016

In a major step to provide protection and support to children involved in camel racing, the UAE Ministry of Interior and UNICEF today signed an agreement to provide some $2.7 million to help in return and re-integration of child camel jockeys in their home communities.

The agreement will complement ongoing efforts from the UAE government to exclude all underage children in camel racing, and to strengthen measures to prevent the exploitation and abuse of children brought in from other countries, including from South Asia and Africa.

A joint meeting held 7-8 May by the Ministry, UNICEF, and IOM with delegates from governments and non-governmental groups from Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sudan and Mauritania reviewed steps needed to remove children from camel racing and assist their home countries in return and rehabilitation of the children.

Preliminary figures provided by the UAE’s Ministry of Interior indicate that around 3,000 children are currently involved in camel racing, of whom around 2,800 are aged under 10 years old. With UNICEF’s technical assistance, the UAE’s Ministry of Interior plans to review these figures in a survey of camel jockeys.

“We applaud these bold initiatives by the UAE, on the one hand cracking down on the import and employment of children as camel jockeys, and on the other hand working with the countries from which the children came to ensure a safe return to the children’s families. We hope that the UAE’s programme will serve as a model to other countries in the region, as a means of ending all forms of exploitation of children”, said Thomas McDermott, UNICEF’s Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa.

http://www.unicef.org/media/media_26692.html

http://www.hrw.org/photos/2005/darfur/drawings/

The prevalence of worker abuses in Paraguay requires tighter employment legislation and tougher enforcement measures, according to a new report.

Legal inconsistencies and enforcement failures are leading to the widespread abuse of workers’ rights in Paraguay, according to a new report by the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions.

The report, released last week to coincide with the World Trade Organisation’s country-review of Paraguay, cites union rights, child labour and discrimination among its chief concerns.

Union concerns
Although Paraguay is a signatory to the International Labour Organisation’s eight main employment conventions, several important legal discrepancies still exist, the ICTFU report states. Chief among these are Paraguay’s laws governing union rights. In Paraguayan law, for example, a trade union cannot be established without the support of at least 300 workers.

Other restrictions include a ban on workers being members of more than one union and the obligation for union office holders to be employees in the enterprise they represent.

“Workers have a right to collective bargaining, but in practice many workers are excluded from the right, either due to the legal restrictions … or because a large section of the workforce is involved in subcontracted or informal employment due to the government’s failure to protect these workers,” the report says.

The ICFTU echoes other labour rights activists in calling on the Paraguayan government to move ahead with a stalled bill that would rectify the country’s anomalies in union law. Proposals in the bill, which was prepared in 2000, include a lowering of minimum union membership to 50 workers and a relaxation on restrictions to strike.

At present, strikes are only permissible in Paraguay if they are for the “direct and exclusive” protection of employees’ employment interests.

Child labour and discrimination
Paraguayan law prohibits the employment of minors under the age of 12, but the ICFTU finds that child labour remains an extensive problem. An estimated one in seven (14%) of Paraguay’s school-aged children are involved in paid or unpaid employment. Of these 250,000 working children, two in five do not attend school.

“Almost half of them [child labourers] are employed in agriculture, mainly on family farms, and many children are employed in vending and domestic work,” the report states.

Employment discrimination is also found to be extensive, particularly against women. In spite of Paraguay’s ratification of equal remuneration legislation (ILO Convention 100), the most recent statistics from the UN indicate that Paraguayan women earn 44% less than their male counterparts.

Racial discrimination is also reported to be commonplace, especially against Paraguay’s 80,000 indigenous people, most of whom are employed in low wage jobs.

Recommendations
In addition to calling on the Paraguayan government to take forward the stalled employment bill, the trade union movement highlights other legal situations that require resolution. Included in the list is forced labour for non-convicted prison detainees or military conscripts.

The report places emphasis on the enforcement of existing labour statutes. Regulations against child labour and the trafficking of women are two cases in point. The ICFTU calls for “serious efforts” to prevent debt bondage, which is especially prevalent on private ranches in the southern Chaco region of the country.

The ICFTU sees non-legislative measures as potentially effective mechanisms for improving working conditions in Paraguay. The introduction of training and education, for example, would increase the participation of women and indigenous people in higher skilled and higher wage jobs.

As a final recommendation, the trade union umbrella group suggests the ILO increase its work with the Paraguayan government and provide a report to the WTO General Council at the next trade policy review.

Minutes from the WTO’s recent trade review meeting will be available in mid-June.

http://www.ethicalcorp.com/content.asp?ContentID=3674

Due to difficult living circumstances, many Yemeni families push their children to labour markets to help them secure additional incomes for covering the requirements of life. This explains the reason behind increasing numbers of children engaged in labour markets, especially in the recent years.

Some studies estimate the number of children involved in labour market at about 400 thousands from both genders. A large number of them practice hard jobs in areas of construction, trade, blacksmith and agriculture. Others work on street sidewalks as street vendors, washing cars and such like jobs.

A study including one thousand children prepared by a Swedish organisation concerned with child care working in Yemen, revealed that 42% of children in labour markets work every day for periods ranging between 11 to 17 hours and 40% of them work for 6 to 10 hours a day. This situation is in violation of labour law issued in 1995. The article 45 of the law allows children to work what is defined of professions at a rate not exceeding seven hours a day or 42 hours a week and also prevents employment of children for more than four hours consecutively.

Concerning the jobs practiced by children, the study revealed that 28% of children work as peddlers therefore 25% of them are exposed to diseases resulting from weather changes, while about 7% of them are exposed to contagious diseases and more than 50% are liable to ethical abuses.

Another academic study had estimated the number of children working on the streets at 13 to 15 thousand, selling newspapers, water, household appliances, recording cassettes, fruits and vegetables as well as cleaning cars. The study prepared by Dr Rajih Al-Sheikh, the minister of industry and trade also indicated that 41% of those children sell agricultural and fish products on roads and are exposed to pursuit of municipality men.

Around 30 specialists in the area of childhood representing government ministries and institutions and civil society organisations have discussed at a workshop in Sana’a the national work plan aimed at curbing child labour.

That workshop is considered the first of a series of workshops to be held in eight governorates aimed at ensuring wider participation of various government and people parties concerned with children in order to enrich the national plan on fighting child labour in Yemen.

Participants in the workshop have emphasized importance of role of the state institutions and establishments in fighting this phenomenon and ending the worst forms of child labour. The participants have also agreed on the necessity of knowing the phenomenon with all of its characteristics, geographical concentration and expansion. They have also focused on studying it at sectoral and national level besides the study of other social factors affecting the child labour.

The participants also confirmed the partnership of the ministry of education in preparation and implementation of the national plan for fighting child labour, as student truancy from schools to labour markets are considered one of the tributaries of the problem of child labour and increase in number of working children.

The participants in the workshop have also deemed the phenomenon of child labour as not only a Yemeni one but also rather many of the developing and even developed countries are suffering from it. Pointing out that poverty is the major feeder of the growing of the phenomenon of child labour in Yemen.

The workshop has also reviewed the position of working children in Yemen and the government efforts for curbing it. In this regard, Dr Abdullah Basaheel, director of International Labour Organisation in Yemen said existing cooperation between the organisation and the government of Yemen for fighting work of children was continuous.

For this purpose, there would be a national workshop to transfer the recommendations to be reached by the eight workshops in governorates, starting from this workshop. Another workshop would also be held for the donors in order to define funding and its means for the implementation of the national strategy for fighting child labour through projects adopted by the strategy according to recommendations of the workshops.

It is to be indicated that this workshop, organized by the unit of fighting child labour at the ministry of social affairs and labour in collaboration with International Labour Organisation and the International Program for Fighting Child Labour, is considered the first of a series of workshops to be held for the same purpose, i.e. tackling this aggravating phenomenon among the children of Yemen.

The study considered that poverty was the main cause of the child labour phenomenon and it is the reason behind families depriving their children of attending schools or continuing their education because of their families’ incapability of bearing the costs of schooling.

The Yemeni government endeavours to curb this phenomenon and protect children against exploitation they are exposed to by employers. The aim is also to protect them against dangerous jobs and the worst forms of labour. The government endeavour is done through drawing a strategy to which all government institutions, civil society organisations and private organisations are contributing to.

That strategy is meant to include all aspects related the phenomenon of child labour and is expected to be easily implemented as it is springing from reality with participation of the society forces.

http://yementimes.com/article.shtml?i=840&p=business&a=1

Eleven children comprising eight boys and three girls have been reunited with their families after they were rescued from child traffickers.

The girls between 13 and 15 years were forced into early marriages by the agents.

One of them, Nafisah Mahama Yiri, 15, a class-six pupil at Kulungugu who was taken out of the classroom about two weeks ago, was forced to marry a 54-year-old man in La Cote d'Ivoire who already had three wives and 14 children, some much older than her.

The boys, however, were engaged as farm labourers.

These were some of the stories shared by the victims at an open forum organized by the Ghana NGO Coalition on the Rights of the Child (GNCRC) in collaboration with Bawku East Women Development Association, in Bawku.

The forum, which was preceded by a float through some principal streets in town, was to draw public attention to the harmful effects on child trafficking.

The National Coordinator of GNCRC, Mrs Susan Sabaa, said child trafficking made the victims vulnerable to dangerous life styles such as drug addiction, prostitution and armed robbery. She said the practice militated against the human resource development of the country and called on Government to address the issue.

"We need a society which is protective of its children to ensure that the society is building its future for itself, "she noted.

Mrs Sabaa noted that policies on the protection of the child were inadequate, adding, "Until government enact laws to safeguard the child's welfare, its signatory to the child's rights convention would only be a gimmick."

The acting Bawku Municipal Chief Executive, Mr. Abdul-Rahman Gumah, said last year 281 children were victims of child trafficking in the Municipality.

"The consequences of these figures are obvious and since we cannot relinquish our children's future into the destructive hands of traffickers, we need to stop them," he emphasized.

Mr Gumah said the Assembly would assert its political will by enacting byelaws against child trafficking and called on the security agencies to help implement it.

The Coordinator of BEWDA, Mr Abubakar Shaibu, said broken homes, irresponsible parenting, large family sizes, and forced early marriages, were some of the contributory factors to child trafficking.

http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/artikel.php?ID=80670

http://europa.eu.int/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=IP/05/542&format=
HTML&aged=0&language=EN&guiLanguage=en

The Children's Human Rights Centre of Albania - CRCA, the major child rights organisation in Albania, announced today the establishment of the very first professional help-line for children in Albania. The centre called "Tirana Child Helpline" and will be open officially in early May 2005.

The centre will combine a 24 hour phone service to children with a multi-disciplinary team of child abuse experts of doctors, lawyers, psychologists and social workers, which will serve daily to children who come to visit the centre. Tirana Child Helpline at the first year of the activity will cover 1/3 of all children in Albania, while during the second and third year the phone service will become national.

"At the present CRCA is negotiating with relevant authorities for a toll-free number - said Altin Hazizaj, Director of CRCA - and by early May the Tirana Child Helpline will open its doors to children and child abuse experts in the country. CRCA has always been the major organisation dealing with child abuse issue in Albania, and this new service just shows our commitment to children and the Albanian public."

Meanwhile child friendly offices are just at the final stages of design. The Centre will also serve to a wider audience of parents, NGO's, Government, since part of the programme is also the policy and legislative change, training on child abuse and capacity building for the Government and NGO's. Meanwhile a new team of CRCA experts is dealing with the publicity and awareness materials of the Tirana Child Helpline.

http://see.oneworld.net/article/view/110602/1/

In Iran, the legal working age starts from 15, but it is common to see much younger children roaming the streets selling gum, flowers and fortune poems.

While the government says it has been trying to help them, some welfare groups are calling on authorities to do more.

What nine-year-old Ali knows about life he has learned on the streets of Tehran selling razors to any takers, earning what amounts to three or four US dollars a day for his parents.

"I don't go to school. I work," said Ali.

Iranian law prohibits children under the age of 15 from working in most cases.

The country has also joined various international treaties including the International Labour Organization's convention on Worst forms of Child Labour.

The government says it is hard to estimate the number of kids who work illegally.

But some non-governmental organisations say there are at least 35,000 street children in the capital alone, keeping many of them out of school and in some cases getting them into crime, drugs, and unsafe working conditions.

Said child's rights advocate Mahsa Taiyar, "We must have special investigators whom we can send into homes and other places to ensure that no underaged child is working and that employers are not breaking the rules."

The House of Children is trying to tackle the challenge by taking kids off the streets of Tehran.

Volunteers at this NGO are giving about 400 children healthcare and an education.

Organisers here are calling on the government for more help; they want a bigger building, better equipment, and better medical facilities.

Said Eshrat Gholipour of House of Children, "If NGOs don't step in, depending on the government's efforts alone won't be enough. A lot of people are also aware that the problem of street children is not limited to Iran; it's a world-wide phenomenon."

Government authorities here say they are doing their best to support NGOs.

They also say they help families who come to them by providing financial aid or jobs.

But the government also says many kids and families who don't ask for help, don't accept government services even when offered to them.

Yasamin says she works because her father makes what amounts to only few dollars a day.

Every evening, she breaks blocks of sugar with her mother, but she is setting her sights on someday becoming a teacher.

"I hope to learn as much as possible, then teach others in my own country," Yasamin said.

Even though Yasamin is under 15, by law she is allowed to work because she does so for her parents -- another challenge NGOs like the House of Children face.

But beyond calls for tougher laws, more enforcement and government efficiency, children's rights advocates say at the root of child labour, certain other problems must be tackled.

They say some families' culture needs to develop and the economy must improve, so that earning extra money now doesn't deny kids the right to play and pursue their dreams.

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/middleeast/view/145409/1/.html

As the new school year began this week, the latest targets in Nepal's bloody Maoist insurgency are private schools that the rebels have threatened to bomb if they defy a call to close. This prompted a strong United Nations rebuke, which stated unequivocally that an attack on education and educational institutions is an attack on the next generation of Nepalis.

''To bomb schools is a senseless and cruel act against the children of Nepal,'' said Suomi Sakai, representative of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) in Nepal.

''When schools are scarce and more than half a million children are not in school in the first place, to wantonly destroy schools only helps push its children back into ignorance,'' said Sakai in a statement released late Tuesday.

According to UNICEF figures there are about 591,000 children between the ages of six to 10 years old not enrolled in school. Out of this number 63 percent or 374,000 of them are girls. The Himalayan kingdom has 1.79 million illiterate youth -- between the ages of 15 to 24 -- and 70 percent of them are females.

''Nepal does not have enough schools for all its children. The private schools play a major part in helping ensure more children get to learn to read, write and count,'' Sakai added. "To attack education and educational institutions is to attack the future of the next generation of Nepalis. The children of Nepal deserve better from the adults who made the decision to attack schools.''

Last Friday, three empty private schools in rebel-held western Nepal were bombed as warnings. On Sunday, Maoist rebels bombed a school in the south-western town of Nepalgunj after the operator defied the threat to remain shut.

The Maoists want the private schools closed, accusing their operators of being driven by profits.

UNICEF, however, hit out at the Maoists saying all children have the right to go to school and their parents also have the right to choose the school.

''Destroying or closing down private schools - and thus forcing many more children into an already over-burdened public-school system - will not help improve the quality of education in public schools,'' said Sakai.

Nepal has 8,500 private schools where 1.5 million students are enrolled.

''I send my daughter to a private school because it provides a better education that I never received myself in a government school,'' said Ramila Shrestha, a schoolteacher, who sees education as the only guarantor to a rewarding career for her daughter.

''First, not all the private schools are expensive. Second, it is shocking that the Maoists should resort to bombings to decide what I should do with my child,'' she told IPS.

The Maoists began their fight to replace Nepal's constitutional monarchy with a kingless communist republic in 1996. Nearly 11,000 people have died in the violence since then.

The London-based rights group Amnesty International accuses the 10,000 strong Maoists of kidnapping and torture. Meanwhile, the International Crisis Group in Brussels says Nepal's monarch King Gyanendra runs ''a non-party state that has decimated democracy and kills people at will.''

Gyanendra dismissed the government and imposed emergency rule on Feb. 1 in what he said was a move to tackle the Maoists. According to the New York-based Human Rights Watch, over 600 rights activists, journalists, lawyers, students and political activists remain detained since the king suspended most civil liberties in the country.

For private schools, the road ahead looks rocky.

While the Maoists have been extremely harsh against schools that have defied their call to shut, the government has not been benign either. It has warned the schools that their failure to start the new academic session would be read as defiance of the authorities, and succumbing to Maoist pressure tactics.

On Tuesday, it announced compensations to schools that were destroyed by the Maoists in the past few weeks. But human casualties are clearly irreversible.

''Whom do you listen to?'' asked a school principal in Nepalgunj, a western town, where all private schools remain closed after the Maoists bombed one of them last week. ''It's a no- win situation. We can only hope commonsense will prevail and people realise that it's in everybody's interest to keep schools out of conflict.''

Out of desperation, the schools have appealed to the international community for help.

The Private and Boarding School Organisation, Nepal (PABSON) has sent letters to embassies in the capital Kathmandu asking them to help defuse the government-Maoist standoff.

PABSON said the Maoist student wing, the All Nepal National Free Students Union (Revolutionary), had been bombarding schools with threatening e-mails and telephone calls telling them to close unless they met a series of demands.

Among the Maoist demands are that the children of top government officials be excluded from private schools and forced into state schools, and an end to the teaching of Sanskrit, the priestly language the rebels link to Hinduism's high castes.

http://ipsnews.net/new_nota.asp?idnews=28397

Sarfraz, at 10, is too big to ride racing camels any more. After six years in bonded labour at stables and tracks on the wealthier side of the Arabian Sea, he was deported to Karachi. He has brought two ugly, ridged scars with him. They are testament to a terrifying career, the bites inflicted by angry dromedaries.

The camel-racing circuit may be the epitome of high life for wealthy sheikhs to show off champion camels, but it provides a bleak existence for its child jockeys. Sarfaz is among 340 small boys who have found their way back to Pakistan and the shelter of the rehabilitation centre in Karachi, funded by the United Arab Emirates (UAE), which has recently banned this brutal form of child labour.

The younger and lighter riders are, the faster camels can run, and the optimum weight is about 33lb. "Children are given too little food," Sarfaz told the Pakistani senator Tariq Azeem at the opening of the clinic. "When there are no camel races, we are used for hard labour."

A typical working day for these imported Asian children lasts 18 hours. Since the UAE banned underage jockeys on 31 March, young riders are being repatriated to Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, India, Yemen and Sudan.

But many jockeys still small enough to race have been whisked into hiding across the UAE frontiers so their minders can evade fines of 20,000 dirhams (£2,860) or imprisonment. Clandestine races are reportedly being staged on remote desert flats. Though gambling is outlawed, lavish prize money is awarded by corporate or tribal sponsors, and underground bets are no secret.

Officials believe at least 2,000 child camel-jockeys from Pakistan remain in the UAE, but children's rights groups put the number far higher and fear that, under the new ban, prices paid for compliant youngsters will climb, thereby fuelling the black market.

At least 16,000 camels race at 17 official tracks in the UAE, and many more run in Qatar, Oman, and Saudi Arabia. To avoid scrutiny at airports, where Pakistani children will be required to carry passports, overland routes for human trafficking are opening on pilgrimage treks from Baluchistan through Iran.

For the newly liberated camel-jockeys, most who were either kidnapped or sold by poor families to smugglers, happy childhoods will not instantly resume. In Karachi, hundreds of boys are being examined by doctors who will treat spinal injuries or lance septic saddle sores.

In many cases, the inner thighs have been rubbed raw, and vulnerable genitals with no support have suffered damage. Other boys were thrown off mounts three times their size and dragged along the tracks or trampled.

The boys have to be DNA- tested before they can be returned to their families. Usually sold between the ages of three and five, many no longer recognise their relatives after years away from home and cannot even identify which region of Pakistan they come from.

Most are believed to from the poor regions of Upper Sindh or the southern Punjab, but now speak Arabic. Family members also must undergo DNA screening before they can claim a boy. There is a risk unscrupulous strangers will pose as long-lost aunts or uncles to exploit these unwanted youths as a source of cheap labour or as rent-boys. Senator Azeem said that many parents were in prison, so most returned boys are homeless and need clean lodgings, medical treatment, food and education.

Ansar Burney, a children's rights advocate who toured Qatar, Oman and the United Arab Emirates this month, came back shaken by the wretched living conditions of the Asian child jockeys. He called their cramped quarters "private jails". The tin shacks with no electricity are unbearable in desert temperatures which reach 52C. He says he saw daily abuse and sporadic torture.

Last month, in recognition of the sport's inhumane aspects, Qatari sheikhs introduced a prototype robot jockey named Kamel. The Swiss-made mechanical boy weighs 60lbs and requires an outrider in a car to operate its joystick.

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/asia/story.jsp?story=634019

Retailers have accused the Queensland Government of playing 'big brother' in new legislation covering what sorts of jobs children can take from what age.

The new laws set a minimum working age of 13, although 11-year-olds will be allowed to perform some forms of supervised work such as deliveries and charitable collections.

The changes include a ban on children under the age of 18 working in areas such as adult entertainment and a limit on the hours worked during school terms.

The legislation was prompted by a Children's Commission report that found young workers were more likely to be exploited, underpaid, harassed or discriminated against.

But Pat McKendry from the Queensland Retailers Association says the Government has got it wrong.

"What they have to establish is what is the need for this," he said. "You can't refer to exceptions, you cannot refer to the minority and say we'll have a blanket rule to cover every contingency.

"That's just not going to work. Why would you want to interfere with the labour market in such a way? Why would you want to take the choices away from young people and their parents?

"I think it's going to cause a lot of disruption and a lot of resentment."

The Queensland Council of Unions (QCU) says while the minimum working age of 13 is too low, the State Government has listened to the community in its decision.

QCU spokeswoman Grace Grace says people who choose to work so young will be helped by the new safeguards.

"That is, making sure that the employers keep a register, that it doesn't interfere with the young person's studies and their schooling, and that these registers are there to be checked for any exploitation, health and safety, those sorts of things - hopefully, we can review that after a couple of years it's been in place," she said.

The Commissioner for Children and Young People has welcomed the legislation, which is due to be introduced to Parliament this year.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200505/s1357713.htm