12:16 PM Nov 11, 1996

LABOUR: ILO FOR BAN ALL "EXTREME FORMS OF CHILD LABOUR"

Geneva 11 Nov (Chakravarthi Raghavan) -- The International Labour Office has proposed adoption of a new international Convention to "forbid all extreme forms of child labour" and fill in the gaps in current international legal instruments dealing with children and their rights.

In a report, "Child Labour: Targeting the Intolerable", the ILO secretariat doubles the estimates of previous numbers of child labour, and says some 250 million children between the ages of 5 and 14 working in developing countries - with some 120 million working full-time and 130 million part-time.

An earlier ILO survey this year had put the number of child labour (between ages 10-24) at some 73 million in some 100 countries.

The new estimates, ILO officials said, includes children between 5-14 being covered in the surveys, as also improved methodology of estimations, using not only labour statistics, but also household and other surveys.

The report while focusing on child labour in the developing world, acknowledges existence of child labour also in many industrialized countries including Italy, Portugal, Spain, the United Kingdom and the United States. The problem is also seen as emerging in many East European and Asian countries that are in transition to a market economy.

Child labour in the US, ILO officials said, is found in sweat-shops in New York and other places, and has been the result of the Reagan era economics of deregulation. A similar situation is also found in the UK. Most of such labour is from migrant families. In Italy,Spain and Portugal such child labour is found in agriculture.

The report, is for next June's 86th session of the International Labour Conference, surveying the problem and including a questionnaire to governments on the proposals and suggestions for a new international instrument.

While this is part of a normal ILO process on subjects to be discussed at the Conference, the report being made public to the media at this time is clearly with an eye to the preparations for the Singapore Ministerial Conference of the WTO to be held in December.

The Child Labour issue has now shot to the top of the global agenda and consumer concerns in both developing and industrialized countries, says the ILO report surveying the problem of child labour and the unwillingness hitherto of governments to admit the existence of one. The rise to the top of the world agenda of the child labour is due to consumer concerns and corporations are reacting to consumer and other pressure in rich countries demanding corporate responsibility, the report says.

The ILO mentions in this connection undertakings by some world renowned manufacturers (Levi Strauss, Reebok, Sears and others) to look into conditions under which their products are made, and agreeing to establish a code of conduct to abolish child labour, and the campaigns of the International Federation of Football Associations (FIFA), the ICFTU and the International Textiles, Garment and Leather Workers Federation and the International Federation of Commercial, Clerical, Professional and Technical employees (FIET).

The report also speaks positively of actions of consumers, such as through the Rugmark label, to identify and distinguish products where child labour has been excluded, and the successful efforts to eliminate child labour from the garment industry in Bangladesh.

However, several local grassroots movements and social organizations in these countries have pointed to the fact that some of these movements originating in the industrial world have only managed to shift the child labour from garment, rugs or other such industries catering to an export market. The removal of child labour, without adequate measures to deal with such children, has in cases forced the children into other undesirable activities, including prostitution.

At a Washington meeting earlier this year, the head of the Asian bureau of the UNICEF, made a reference to this and underscored the need for activities to deal with the root cause -- poverty.

Asked about this, at a press conference to release the report, the ILO Director-General, Mr.Michel Hansenne had no clear answers to the problem, though he admitted to this side-effect.

Hansenne was not however persuaded that child labour eliminated from enterprises ending up in prostitution, and seemed to imply that other income-avenues were possible.

The report says that the worldwide anger against extreme forms of child labour needs to be translated into a programme for international cooperation in the field of economic and social policy.

"The situation of children cannot be improved without action to combat world poverty," says the report.

"Laws and schools are important, and necessary. But they will fail if they are not supported by a commitment and a programme of action to deal with the poverty of nations and communities. But they will fail if they are not supported by a commitment and a programme of action to deal with the poverty of nations and communities.

"The fight against child labour has to go hand in hand with a campaign to create full, freely chosen and productive employment and ensure that this goal is considered as an ethical, social, political and economic imperative of mankind. That is the challenge: for governments of developing countries to address the needs of the poorest of their poor, and for governments of rich countries to back up their insistence on observance of universal standards with a commensurate commitment for increased resources to attack world poverty."

The report earlier also refers to more powerful actions on legislative and trade fronts, and mentions the programs under generalized system of preferences -- the EU's GSP programs excluding goods produced by prison and slave labour and the US providing for labour standards and excluding child labour products. It also mentions the discussions at the international level to include basic labour standards in global competition rules.

The world situation on child labour, the ILO says, projects two conflicting images: one positive and optimistic about the long way the world has come in understanding the problem and the greater determination to bring about an end to it; the second of 'seething anger and lingering sadness' over many millions of children at work.

In terms of specific measures, the ILO report calls for:

* a new international convention to forbid all extreme forms of child labour to fill in the gaps of the present one (No 138), which has been ratified by only 49 countries. In the ILO's view, an obstacle to greater ratification has been the difficulty of Member states to apply in entirety, in the short term, the convention which is seen as too complex.

Those who have not ratified that Convention include the USA, UK and Portugal. Italy and Spain, mentioned in the report as having child labour problems, are parties to that Convention.

* For countries calling for an international Convention, as well as those who are signatories to all major ILO conventions on child and forced labour and the UN Convention on Rights of the Child, to rise to their commitments by adopting a time-bound programme of action for eliminating child labour.

Economic development, the ILO says, has been accelerating at as a high a rate as 8-12 percent in many Asian and Latin American countries, and even in many African countries. Governments should hence put a relatively quick end to child labour.

* Since children are so important, and those in perilous work need assistance urgently, national policy should give priority to abolishing the worst and intolerable forms of child labour such as slavery and slave-like practices, all forms of forced labour including debt bondage and child prostitution, and child work in hazardous occupations and industries.

* Special attention should be devoted to those children, including the very young and girls, subject to even greater exploitation and abuse because of their special vulnerabilities.

Many are put to work, particularly in rural areas, even at age 5 or 6, and more vulnerable to physical, chemical and other hazards at workplace. Girls -- often more hidden, denied access to education and suffering from detrimental cultural practices -- once sexually exploited, they can end up as social outcasts.

Therefore another area of action, says the ILO, is complete prohibition of work by young children - under 12 or 13 years - and the protection of girls.

* National programmes of action against forced and hazardous work should heed the admonition that the best can be the enemy of the good, and ensure that action against hazardous child labour in one sector does not drive it underground or lead to its resurgence in other sectors which are just as, or even more hazardous. Any action against child labour should have a strong rehabilitative content.

* As with health, prevention is cheaper and easier than cure. The task before the international community is immediate suppression of all extreme forms of child labour. Hence, provision of protection and rehabilitation schemes are absolutely essential. Short-term action should be conceived within the framework of a national policy giving primacy to preventive measures -- including provision of free, universal, compulsory education, community mobilization and other supportive measures.

* The most important actors to be involved in the fight need to be identified. There is a proliferation of government agencies: child labour is everybody's problem and nobody's. The laissez faire attitude of many governments should be replaced by one whereby a national authority with considerable power and influence should be designated with the mandate for eliminating child labour.

* Concerted action and international cooperation is needed in North America, Australia and Europe -- as well as in Africa, Asia and Latin America -- to suppress all extreme forms of child labour. The trafficking and commercial exploitation of children in hazardous and forced work and in prostitution and pornography cannot be stopped without it. These should be a crime in every country of the world. And a crime committed anywhere should be considered a crime everywhere.