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OPA News Release: [12/12/2003]
Contact Name: Lisa Gates (202) 693-4676
or Mike Biddle (202) 693-5051

U.S. Labor Secretary Elaine L. Chao to Highlight Initiatives to Combat Child Labor and the Spread of HIV/AIDS

Four-Day, Three-Country African Trip to Highlight Plight of Children

WASHINGTON—U.S. Secretary of Labor Elaine L. Chao will travel to the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Benin, and Ghana on a four-day trip to highlight the United States’ continuing commitments to end the worst forms of child labor including using children as soldiers and trafficking in children and to promote programs in the workplace to stop the spread of HIV/AIDS.

“The purpose of this trip is to highlight the plight of child soldiers, the worst form of child labor. The community of civilized nations must acknowledge the horror of this practice and all forms of abusive child labor and help eradicate its existence,” said Secretary Chao. “I will be launching several initiatives to help combat abusive child labor and tour a number of sites to visit the courageous children who are trying to reclaim and rebuild their lives.”

While she is in the DRC, Secretary Chao will meet with President Joseph Kabila in addition to American and DRC government officials and representatives of non-governmental organizations and private organizations involved in rehabilitating child soldiers. The Secretary’s visit is a follow-up to the International Conference on Child Soldiers that she hosted in Washington, D.C. earlier this year. In the Congo Secretary Chao will launch a $7 million Labor Department program to rescue and rehabilitate child soldiers. The program will be administered under the auspices of the International Labor Organization’s (ILO) International Program on the Elimination of Child Labor. During her stay, Secretary Chao will also visit a center that demobilizes child soldiers and helps reintegrate them into civil society.

Secretary Chao will then travel to Benin, where she will meet with the Minister of Family, Social Protection and Solidarity, Massiyatou Latoundji Lauriano. She will visit with American and Benin government officials and representatives of non-governmental organizations and private organizations involved in eliminating child trafficking. As Secretary Chao was director of the Peace Corps from 1991-1992, she will also meet with Peace Corp volunteers. Secretary Chao will launch a Department of Labor trafficking project and visit two centers that rehabilitate children who are victims of trafficking.

And finally, Secretary Chao will travel to Ghana to meet with Ghanian and American government officials and representatives of non-governmental organizations, private organizations involved in stopping the spread of HIV/AIDS through workplace initiatives. As in Benin, Secretary Chao will meet with Peace Corps volunteers. Secretary Chao will give the closing remarks at the two-day launch of the Labor Department’s HIV/AIDS Workplace Initiative.

Secretary Chao has a long commitment to these issues. In May of 2003, the Department of Labor sponsored the “Children in the Crossfire: Prevention and Rehabilitation of Child Soldiers” conference, which brought together 500 representatives from nations and agencies committed to ending the use of children as soldiers. (Secretary Chao’s address) (Children in the Crossfire Web Site).

There are an estimated 300,000 children around the world who are involved in armed conflicts. These children are brutalized and forced to serve as combatants, guards, spies, and even prostitutes. They are robbed of their innocence, placed in harm’s way on a daily basis and deprived of any hope for a normal life.

At the conference in May, Secretary Chao announced a new $13 million Labor Department global initiative to prevent and rehabilitate child soldiers (news release), including $7 million for the ILO’s International Program on the Elimination of Child Labor, $3 million for the International Rescue Committee in Uganda, and $3 million for a UNICEF project in Afghanistan.

Since 1995, the U.S. Department of Labor has received $313 million to fund international projects aimed at preventing and eliminating the worst forms of child labor in more than 60 countries. The department has already obligated $275 million of the money received. These projects are designed to remove children from hazardous work environments and exploitive conditions, to provide educational opportunities for child laborers and to conduct research and raise awareness about the child labor issue.

In June of 2003, Secretary Chao traveled to Geneva, Switzerland and addressed the 91^st Session of the International Labor Conference. In her address, she highlighted U.S. programs to help child laborers — particularly child soldiers — and President Bush’s commitment to people imperiled by HIV/AIDS (Secretary Chao’s address). The Secretary pointed out that these efforts met the challenge laid out in the International Labor Organization’s report Working Out of Poverty.

Today, 42 million people are living with HIV/AIDS. Some experts estimate that in Africa’s hardest hit countries, as many as 1 in 5 working-age adults are infected with HIV. It is one of the greatest social, labor and economic challenges of our time and has tragically taken the lives of more than 20 million people. AIDS has had a devastating effect on economic development and has deprived many workers of the most productive years of their lives, forcing many children to work to support their families.

Under the leadership of President George W. Bush, the United States has launched an unprecedented emergency relief effort to fight the global HIV/AIDS pandemic. President Bush has committed $15 billion over the next 5 years to help turn the tide against HIV in the most afflicted nations of Africa and the Caribbean. The goals of the initiative are to:

• Prevent 7 million new infections;
• Treat 2 million HIV-infected people; and
• Care for 10 million HIV-infected individuals and AIDS orphans.

As part of this effort, the Labor Department is fighting the HIV/AIDS pandemic with a variety of strategies to support employers and workers. The Department funds the HIV/AIDS Workplace Initiative, a regional element of which the Secretary will launch while she is in Ghana. Through the initiative, the Department provides technical assistance to develop non-discrimination policies towards those workers afflicted with HIV/AIDS. In addition, the Department is collaborating with government, labor and business leaders to encourage the development of supportive workplace environments.

The Labor Department has already provided $22.3 million for 21 HIV/AIDS projects in 25 countries.

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