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Archived News Release--Caution:
information may be out of date.
For more information call: (202) 208-4843.
The Department of Labor's Bureau of International Labor
Affairs (ILAB) today announced the signing of an agreement with the
International Labor Organization (ILO) to support projects aimed at reducing
child labor. ILAB will fund a $2.1 million grant to the ILO's International
Program for the Elimination of Child Labor (IPEC) to fund programs in
Bangladesh, Thailand, Africa, and the Philippines. Funding for projects was
provided in the FY 1995 Labor Department Appropriations.
Jack Otero, the Deputy Under Secretary of ILAB, said:
"This agreement marks a major commitment by the Clinton administration to
combat the growing problem of child labor. Not only is it tragic that in many
parts of the globe children must forfeit their education in order to work, but
many of them work in brutal, slave-like conditions. This ILAB-ILO agreement
shows the high priority that these two organizations place on ending this
shameful practice."
The ILAB-ILO program in Bangladesh is aimed at removing
children from the workplace and placing them in schools. Under an agreement
negotiated with the support of ILAB and the American embassy in Bangladesh
between ILO, UNICEF, and the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters
Association (BGMEA), ILAB, through ILO, will provide technical and financial
assistance for the development of an inspection and verification system to
insure children are not in the garment factories.
The project in Thailand is aimed at strengthening existing
programs that seek to prevent children from being lured into exploitative child
labor, especially child prostitution. The ILAB-ILO project will bolster
existing educational opportunities for children at risk. This will be done by
working with rural school teachers, by improving skills training programs
developed by NGOs, and by enlarging programs that work with girls who are at
risk of being sold or lured into prostitution.
In the Philippines, ILAB's funding will be used to develop
and implement a nation-wide statistical survey on child labor.
The program in Africa will formulate measures and
activities to improve working conditions of children on plantations. Special
emphasis will be placed on examining low-cost measures that can reduce the
incidence of exploitative child labor.
ILAB and the ILO also are considering a proposal to reduce
bonded child labor in India, as well as a program to eliminate child labor in
Brazil's footwear industry.
The agreement was signed today by Deputy Under Secretary
Otero, and Anthony Freeman, Director of the ILO's Washington Office.
ILAB has been actively involved in international child
labor since 1993, when Congress directed the Secretary of Labor to conduct a
study identifying those foreign industries and host countries that utilize
child labor in the production of goods imported to the United States. In 1994,
ILAB's International Child Labor Study published its first report, "By the
Sweat and Toil of Children: The Use of Child Labor in American Imports," which
focused on children in the mining and manufacturing sector. The 1995 report, to
be published in September, examines the use of child labor in commercial
agriculture and children in conditions of forced and bonded labor.
Copies of "By the Sweat & Toil of Children (Volume I):
The Use of Child Labor in American Imports," are available by contacting the
International Child Labor Study, Bureau of International Labor Affairs, U.S.
Department of Labor, Room S- 1308, 200 Constitution Ave., N.W., Washington,
D.C. 20210; by phone, at (202) 208-4843; or by fax: (202) 219-4923. It also can
be accessed on the Internet, on the World Wide Web, Gopher, and FTP at the
following sites:
Archived News Release--Caution:
information may be out of date.
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