Introduction

^1. ILAB's child labor reports have been requested by the Appropriations Committees of the United States Congress. ILAB's earlier child labor reports are titled By the Sweat and Toil of Children (Volume I): The Use of Child Labor in U.S. Manufacturing and Mining Imports (1994); By the Sweat and Toil of Children (Volume II): The Use of Child Labor in U.S. Agricultural Imports & Forced and Bonded Child Labor (1995); The Apparel Industry and Codes of Conduct: A Solution to the International Child Labor Problem? (1995) [hereinafter Apparel Industry and Codes of Conduct]; and By the Sweat and Toil of Children (Volume IV): Consumer Labels and Child Labor [hereinafter By the Sweat and Toil of Children IV]. ILAB also published Forced Labor: The Prostitution of Children, proceedings of a symposium on the sexual exploitation of children held at the U.S. Department of Labor in 1995, and Report on Labor Practices in Burma (1998), which contains a chapter on child labor.

^2. This report has been prepared in accordance with the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education, and Related Agencies Appropriations Bill of 1998, P.L. 105-78; Senate Report No. 58, 105th Congress, First Session 25-26, 1997.

^3. In the 1998 State of the Union Address, President William J. Clinton announced a new initiative to fight "the most intolerable labor practice of all--abusive child labor" and asked other nations to join the United States in this effort. See President William J. Clinton, "State of the Union Address," (January 27, 1998) [hereinafter "State of the Union Address"]. United States Secretary of Labor Alexis M. Herman, in her statement to the Child Labor Committee at the June 1998 International Labor Conference, echoed the United States' dedication to eliminating the worst forms of child labor, calling on the world community to "take the struggle for the world's children to a new and higher level of commitment and action." See "Statement of U.S. Labor Secretary Alexis M. Herman," International Labor Conference, Child Labor Committee, Geneva (June 11, 1998) [hereinafter "Statement of U.S. Labor Secretary"].

^4. These 16 countries, which were visited by U.S. Department of Labor officials in February through June of 1998, are the following: Bangladesh, Brazil, Egypt, Guatemala, India, Kenya, Mexico, Nepal, Nicaragua, Pakistan, Peru, the Philippines, South Africa, Tanzania, Thailand, and Turkey.

^5. The ILO establishes and supervises the application of international labor standards--including child labor standards. ILO Convention No. 138 permits countries whose economy and educational facilities are insufficiently developed to initially specify a minimum working age of 14 (rather than 15), and reduce from 13 to 12 years the minimum age for light work. Convention No. 138 defines "light work" as work that is not likely to harm children's health or development, or prejudice their attendance at school. The convention prohibits all children under the age of 18 from undertaking hazardous work--that is, work that is likely to jeopardize their health, safety, or morals. See Appendix E for the full text of ILO Convention No. 138.

^6. Another widely recognized standard is the 1989 United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC). Article 32 of this convention establishes the right of a child to be protected from economic exploitation and from performing any work that is likely to be hazardous, interferes with his or her education, or is harmful to his or her health, or physical, mental, spiritual, moral, or social development. See Appendix F for the full text of the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

^7. United States Secretary of Labor Alexis M. Herman stated that she came to Geneva with "clear instructions directly from the President: to underline the United States' strong support for the negotiation of a new convention to end the worst forms of child labor." See "Statement of U.S. Labor Secretary."

^8. Child Labour: Targeting the Intolerable (Geneva: ILO, 1996) 4 [hereinafter Targeting the Intolerable].

^9. Electronic correspondence from Dita Reichenberg, UNICEF, to U.S. Department of Labor official (November 2, 1998).

^10. See generally "Child Labor: Issues and Directions for the World Bank," (Washington, D.C.: World Bank, 1997) and "Facts and Figures about the World Bank Group" (www.worldbank.org/html/extdr/faq/faqf98-001.htm).

^11. "Global March against Child Labor" (www.globalmarch.org).

^12. Targeting the Intolerable at 4.

^13. In 1994, former Indian Prime Minister Rao announced a national program to combat child labor and pledged to abolish all hazardous forms of child labor by the year 2000. See "Written Submission by the Embassy of India," Public Hearings on International Child Labor (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Labor, 1998) 3. Brazilian President Henrique Cardoso, in a June 1995 radio address, acknowledged that slave labor and child labor have not ended in Brazil and created an executive task force to crack down on forced labor. See Foreign Broadcast Information Service (FBIS) report dated June 27, 1995 containing translated text of speech [on file]. In 1996, former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto announced a government plan to eliminate child labor, noting that "our goal is to ease the conditions of child workers, and we fully understand our moral, political and legal responsibility to our people and to our children." See "Pakistan to End Child Labour, Bhutto Says," Reuters (August 20, 1996).

^14. See "State of the Union Address."

^15. "Até o final do ano, governo tira mais 130 mil crianças do trabalho" (Palmares: February 13, 1998) (www.radiobras.gov.br/discant/1998/discurso_1302_1.htm).

^16. "ILO Director-General Warns of 'Tragedy' of Child Labor in Africa: Ugandan President Pledges Support as Kampala Conference Opens," ILO press release (February 5, 1998).

^17. "President Nelson Mandela Sends Message in Support of the Global March against Child Labor" (Capetown: March 21, 1998) (www.globalmarch.org/about_the_march/speeches.htm).

^18. "Prime Minister's Statement on Global March against Child Labor" (Islamabad: March 1998) [on file].

^19. Kevin Sullivan, "A Generation's Future Goes Begging; Asia's Children Losing to Destitution," The Washington Post (September 7, 1998) A1.

^20. See Rawalpindi Resolution on Children of South Asia, SAARC (August 20-22, 1996) [on file]. This resolution was endorsed at the Ninth SAARC summit in May 1997. See Malé Declaration of the Ninth SAARC Summit, SAARC (May 12-14, 1997) Article 29 [on file]. In Article 27, members pledged to take effective measures to address the trafficking of women and children. SAARC members are Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka.

^21. Cartagena Declaration on the Eradication of Child Labor, First Iberoamerican Tripartite Ministerial Meeting on the Eradication of Child Labor, Cartagena, May 8-9, 1997. The Cartagena Declaration was signed by Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Chile, Ecuador, El Salvador, Spain, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Dominican Republic, Uruguay, and Venezuela.

^22. "Conference Calls for Abolition of Child Labour in Africa--Poverty is cited as the Fundamental Cause," ILO press release (February 7, 1998) (www.ilo.org/public/english/235press/pr/1998/6.htm). The conference was attended by delegates from Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Cote d'Ivoire, Egypt, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guinea, Kenya, Madagascar, Mali, Mauritius, Mozambique, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa, Tunisia, Tanzania, Zambia, Zimbabwe, and Uganda.

^23. For more information on codes of conduct and labeling initiatives relating to child labor, see Apparel Industry and Codes of Conduct and By the Sweat and Toil of Children IV.

^24. "Code of Labour Practice for Production of Goods Licensed by the Sydney Organising Committee for the Olympic Games and the Sydney Paralympic Organising Committee" (Sydney: SOCOG, 1997) [on file]. See also U.S. Embassy-Canberra, unclassified telegram no. 3275, September 3, 1998. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has also joined forces with the ILO to establish a working group to organize activities contributing to the elimination of poverty and child labor around the world. See Cooperation Agreement between the International Olympic Committee and the International Labour Organization, signed on January 19, 1998, Lausanne, Geneva.

^25. Ironically, those countries with more extensive data on child labor incidence can end up appearing to have a greater incidence of child labor than countries with little or no data. It is thus important to recognize governmental initiatives to gather more reliable data as a positive step in ongoing efforts to reduce child labor.

^26. Strategies for Eliminating Child Labour: Prevention, Removal and Rehabilitation (Oslo: International Conference on Child Labour, ILO/UNICEF, October 1997) 14 [hereinafter Strategies for Eliminating Child Labour].

^27. A. Bequele and W.E. Myers, First Things First in Child Labor: Eliminating Work Detrimental to Children (Geneva: ILO/UNICEF, 1995) 119.

^28. World Education Report, 1995 (Paris: UNESCO, 1995) 18-19.

^29. Strategies for Eliminating Child Labour at 15.

^30. Federal Register (vol. 63, no. 5, January 8, 1998) 1125.

^31. For a transcript of the hearing and a copy of all statements submitted for the record, see Public Hearings on International Child Labor, Volumes I and II (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Labor, February 13, 1998).

^32. See footnote 1 for a list of ILAB's previous international child labor reports.

This report was produced by the staff of the International Child Labor Program and is published by the U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of International Labor Affairs.
Acknowledgements.