12 June 2003: CRINMAIL 481 Contents: Special Edition on World Day Against Child Labour *********************************************************************************** - INTERNATIONAL LABOUR ORGANIZATION: ILO Marks World Day Against Child Labour 2003 [event] - TRAFFICKING: To End Worst Forms of Child Labour, Nations Must Fight Trafficking of Children [press release] - GLOBAL MARCH AGAINST CHILD LABOUR: 4 Years Later, Millions of Children Remain In Workplace and Out of School [press release] - ANTI-SLAVERY INTERNATIONAL: World Day Against Child Labour Draws Attention to Trafficked Children's Plight [press release] - WORST FORMS OF CHILD LABOUR: Finding the Right Tools for the Job: Lessons Learned on the Application of ILO Convention 182 on the Worst Forms of Child Labour [publication] - CHILD TRAFFICKING: Unbearable to the Human Heart: Child Trafficking and Action to Eliminate it [report] *********************************************************************************** Your submissions are welcome if you are working in the area of child rights. To contribute, email us at info@crin.org. Please note that we are unable to respond to emails addressed to crinmail_english@domeus.co.uk Adobe Acrobat is required for viewing some of the documents, and if required can be downloaded from www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep.html ************************************************************************************ NTERNATIONAL LABOUR ORGANIZATION: ILO Marks World Day Against Child Labour 2003 [event] [GENEVA 10 June 2003 (ILO News)] - Her Majesty Queen Rania of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan is to be the keynote speaker on Thursday, 12 June when the International Labour Organization (ILO) marks the second World Day Against Child Labour here. This year's event focuses on the trafficking of children, a criminal practice in which some 1.2 million children each year are compelled to perform various forms of unwanted work, ranging from hazardous or forced labour to commercial sexual exploitation. ILO Director-General Juan Somavia will introduce this year's event. Following the address by Queen Rania, Lyse Doucet, a BBC presenter and correspondent will moderate a programme highlighting anti-trafficking activities in four areas of the world: the Philippines, the "three border area" of Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay, the Mekong River area in Asia, and Africa. For the full press release, visit: http://www.ilo.org/public/english/bureau/inf/pr/2003/29.htm] To download a pdf version of facts on child labour, visit: www.ilo.org/public/english/bureau/inf/events/cl2003/factsonchild.pdf For more information, stories of trafficked children and other relevant ILO reports, visit: http://www.ilo.org/public/english/bureau/inf/events/cl2003/index.htm --------------------------------------------------- - TRAFFICKING: To End Worst Forms of Child Labour, Nations Must Fight Trafficking of Children [press release] [GENEVA / NEW YORK, 12 June 2003] ? UNICEF said today that efforts to end the worst forms of child labour would not succeed without effective cooperative efforts to fight the trafficking of children and women within and across national borders. On World Day Against Child Labour, UNICEF pointed to estimates that the global trade in human beings is beginning to rival the illicit trafficking of arms and drugs. "How can we put an end to the most abhorrent forms of child labour when the trafficking of children and women continues unabated?" asked Carol Bellamy, Executive Director of UNICEF. "Children are increasingly treated as commodities by organised crime networks, where the profit derives from these children being sold into servitude or forced labour. We can no longer simply look at the worst forms of child labour as a shame. We have to see it as one part of an inhuman and criminal trade that must be stopped." Trafficking in humans beings is beginning to rival the illegal trade in drugs and arms, with an estimated revenue of $12 billion a year, according to a 2003 International Labour Organization report. Bellamy said children are seen by traffickers as commodities since they are more easily manipulated, on high demand and can be exploited over a longer period. Hidden from view and often from legal protection, children are lured by promises of a good education or a "better job" and smuggled across borders. Far from home or in a foreign country, trafficked children - disoriented, without papers, and excluded from any protective environment - can be forced to endure prostitution, domestic servitude, early and involuntary marriage, or hazardous and punishing labour. [source: UNICEF. For the full press release, visit: http://www.unicef.org/newsline/2003/03pr50trafficking.htm] --------------------------------------------------- - GLOBAL MARCH AGAINST CHILD LABOUR: 4 Years Later, Millions of Children Remain In Workplace and Out of School [press release] [12 June 2003, Worldwide] - "Children should not work, instead they should have books in their hands. I know this because I had to start working at very young age. I used to envy other children when I saw them holding a bag and going to school," says Sail, a 16-year-old former stone quarry worker from India. A plea like this is still heard from millions of children today, even four years after the international community came to an unanimous adoption of ILO Convention 182 on the Worst Forms of Child Labour. ...The Global March Against Child Labour initiated building a worldwide movement of NGOs, trade unions, teachers and children in 1998 and created an unprecedented support of millions around the world. Without the presence of partners of the Global March in over 140 countries vigorously pushing the governments to ratify and implement the Convention, such tremendous momentum for the fight against child labour could not have been built and sustained. ...The World Day Against Child Labour today is also a reminder that there are still 246 million children toiling in child labour. 179 million children, mounting to 1 out of 8 children around the world, are in the worst forms of child labour that, 4 years ago, [the Global March] pledged to eliminate. For the full press release, visit: http://www.globalmarch.org/world-cl-day/press-release.php3 For more information, contact: International Secretariat Global March Against Child Labour L-6 Kalkaji, New Delhi 110 019 India Tel: 00 91 11 2622 4899; Fax: 00 91 11 2623 6818; E-mail: childhood@globalmarch.org Website: http://www.globalmarch.org/ --------------------------------------------------- - ANTI-SLAVERY INTERNATIONAL: World Day Against Child Labour Draws Attention to Trafficked Children's Plight [press release] [12 June 2003] - Trafficking happens in nearly all countries of the world, including the UK. As a result, more than 1.2 million children are living away from their homes and families with people who force them to work. The ILO (International Labour Organization), the UN body which regulates the world of work, has adopted June 12th as World Day Against Child Labour. This year the focus is on Child Trafficking, and the damage it can do to children, families, communities and ultimately whole countries. Anti-Slavery International, the world's oldest international human rights organisation, estimates that tens of thousands of children are trafficked each year in Africa alone. Under international law, trafficking is a crime. Through coercion, deception, and the threat or use of violence, people are forced into a range of exploitative work. Where children are concerned, it makes no difference if they leave voluntarily or are coerced - where there is movement of children in order to use them as unpaid, or minimally waged labour, there is trafficking. Trafficking is not a single action - rather, it is a series of events that takes place in the child's home community, at transit points and at final destinations. Whenever a child is relocated and exploited, it is trafficking. And those who contribute to it - recruiters, middlemen, document providers, transporters, corrupt officials, employers and service providers - are all traffickers. ...Since 1999 the fight against trafficking has been reinforced by the ILO's Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention (no. 182), which denounces child trafficking as a practice similar to slavery. Altogether the ILO estimates that 8.4 million children are in slavery, trafficking, debt bondage and other forms of forced labour, forced recruitment for armed conflict, prostitution, pornography and other illicit activities. For more information, or full the full press release, contact: Beth Herzfeld Anti-Slavery International Tel: 00 44 020 7501 8934; Email b.herzfeld@antislavery.org Website: www.antislavery.org Monica Evans ILO Tel: 00 44 020 7828 6401 Ext 201; Email: evansm@ilo.org Website: www.ilo.org/london --------------------------------------------------- - WORST FORMS OF CHILD LABOUR: Finding the Right Tools for the Job: Lessons Learned on the Application of ILO Convention 182 on the Worst Forms of Child Labour [publication] Recent years have witnessed growing concern with child labour; the prevention of which has, at least in rhetoric, shot to the top of childhood research and policy agendas, in both developing and industrialised countries. The most recent global commitment to the reduction of child labour was illustrated in the unanimous adoption of Convention 182 on the Worst Forms of Child Labour in 1999, by the 175 countries of the International Labour Organization (ILO). This paper describes lessons learned during three evaluation missions to Honduras, Bangladesh and Burkina Faso. It is aimed at key decision-makers and activists involved in the application of ILO Convention 182. These include ILO-IPEC staff, national labour ministry officials, other national government staff, donors, trade unions, employers and NGO staff working on child labour issues. For more information, contact: Save the Children UK 17 Grove Lane, London, SE5 8RD, United Kingdom Tel: 00 44 20 7703 5400; Fax: 00 44 20 7793 7626; Email: enquiries@scfuk.org.uk Website: www.savethechildren.org.uk http://www.crin.org/resources/infoDetail.asp?ID=3496&flag=report --------------------------------------------------- - CHILD TRAFFICKING: Unbearable to the Human Heart: Child Trafficking and Action to Eliminate it [report] The trafficking of human beings is unacceptable under any circumstances, but the trafficking of vulnerable children and young people is a violation of their rights to protection from exploitation, to play, to an education and to health, and to family life. Child trafficking is emerging as a global issue; nearly all countries are affected by this criminal violation of children's rights. For some countries, the trafficking of children occurs within national boundaries and remains an essentially national issue. For many, it crosses borders and regions. The victims, mostly separated from their families and communities, end up in prostitution and other exploitative forms of work, such as agriculture, mining, manufacturing, fishing, begging and domestic service. They are vulnerable to abuse and exploitation and traumatised by this accumulation of denied rights. As this report shows, child trafficking is a highly complex phenomenon with no simple answers. While more is known about the problem today, there remains a knowledge gap both in the analysis of the problem and in finding effective solutions. The pdf version of the report is available at: www.ilo.org/public/english/standards/ipec/publ/childtraf/unbearable.pdf For more information, contact: International Labour Organisation - International Programme for the Elimination of Child Labour Pulchowk, Lalitpur, PO Box 8971, Nepal Tel: 00 977 1 550691; Fax: 00 977 1 550714; Email: ilo@iloktm.org.np Website: www.ilo.org/kathmandu Visit: http://www.crin.org/resources/infoDetail.asp?ID=3497&flag=report ************************************************************************************* The CRINMAIL is an electronic mailing list of the Child Rights Information Network (CRIN). CRIN does not accredit, validate or substantiate any information posted by members to the CRINMAIL. The validity and accuracy of any information is the responsibility of the originator. -- The "child-rights" mailing list provides information on issues related to children's human rights. Archives of "child-rights" messages, as well as instructions on how to (un)subscribe to the list, can be found at: http://www.hrea.org/lists/child-rights/markup/maillist.php
[Reply to this message] [Start a new topic] [Date Index] [Thread Index] [Author Index] [Subject Index] [List Home Page] [HREA Home Page]