Entries by Reid Maki

CHILD LABOR COALITION PRESS RELEASE: Child Labor Coalition decries shooting of 14-year-old education activist Malala Yousafzai in Pakistan

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For immediate release: October 12, 2012 Contact: Reid Maki, (202) 207-2820, reidm@nclnet.org Washington, DC—The 28 members of the Child Labor Coalition (CLC) today expressed their condemnation of the shooting attack on 14-year-old education activist Malala Yousafzai by Taliban forces on October 9 in Pakistan’s Swat Valley. Malala dared to be an advocate for the education of girls, a stance that made her a target for Taliban extremists who shot her twice—in the head and the neck. She clung to life as the world celebrated the first United Nations International Day of the Girl Child on October 11. “The idea that the Taliban would viciously attack a teenage girl to threaten other girls seeking an education is deplorable,” said American Federation of Teachers (AFT) Secretary-Treasurer Lorretta Johnson, a CLC co-chair. “The AFT condemns this cowardly act in the strongest of terms and applauds the people of Pakistan for rising up to proclaim that such barbarity is unacceptable in their country or anywhere in the world. The right to education is fundamental, and we stand with Malala and all those around the world who are working with us to make sure all children have equal access to high-quality public education.” Malala’s advocacy began at age 11, when she blogged about Taliban atrocities in Pakistan’s Swat Valley. She soon began blogging about the […]

Human Rights Watch: In Bangladesh, Tanneries Harm Workers, Poison Communities and Exploit Child Workers

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  October 9, 2012 [Human Rights Watch interviewed 10 children, some as young as 11, working in tanneries. Many children work 12 or even 14 hours a day, considerably more than the five-hour limit for adolescents in factory work established by Bangladeshi law.] Workers in many leather tanneries in the Hazaribagh neighborhood of Dhaka, the Bangladesh capital,  including children as young as 11, become ill because of exposure to hazardous chemicals and are injured in horrific workplace accidents, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. The tanneries, which export hundreds of millions of dollars in leather for luxury goods throughout the world, spew pollutants into surrounding communities. The 101-page report, “Toxic Tanneries: The Health Repercussions of Bangladesh’s Hazaribagh Leather,” documents an occupational health and safety crisis among tannery workers, both men and women, including skin diseases and respiratory illnesses caused by exposure to tanning chemicals, and limb amputations caused by accidents in dangerous tannery machinery. Residents of Hazaribagh slums complain of illnesses such as fevers, skin diseases, respiratory problems, and diarrhea, caused by the extreme tannery pollution of air, water, and soil. The government has not protected the right to health of the workers and residents, has consistently failed to enforce labor or environmental laws in Hazaribagh, and has ignored High Court orders to clean up these tanneries. “Hazaribagh’s tanneries flood […]

Human Rights Watch’s Zama Coursen-Neff on The Hidden Victims of Tobacco

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The smoking habits of the presidential candidates keep coming up: Barack Obama’s efforts to quit, Mitt Romney’s abstention. Romney signed a ban on smoking in bars, restaurants, and indoor workplaces in Massachusetts in 2004; President Obama signed a law in 2009 that broadly restricts marketing cigarettes to children. Far less attention, however, is being paid to the nicotine exposure of children who work alongside adults cultivating and harvesting tobacco. In eastern North Carolina I’ve interviewed children as young as 14 who worked in tobacco, and recent news reports describe children as young as nine and 10. Fifteen-year-old “Elena” is typical. She would get up at 3 a.m. to make lunches, she said, then go up and down the rows removing flowers from tobacco plants for 12 or more hours a day. “It smells of chemicals and it gives you a headache,” she told me. “Sometimes I feel like vomiting… We can’t get sick because then we can’t work.” With no paid sick days or job security, and frequent violations of minimum wage laws, Elena echoed the worries of many working teens I spoke with. “We have to go into the fields just to get our bills paid, not to get what we want,” said a 15-year-old worker. “As I child I knew not to ask [for things I wanted].” Total […]

Raise the Bar, Hershey! Campaign Welcomes Hershey’s Announcement to Source 100% Certified Cocoa by 2020

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[News from the Raise the Bar, Hershey! Campaign:] Coalition urges Hershey and all chocolate companies to go 100% Fair Trade The Raise the Bar, Hershey! Campaign (www.raisethebarhershey.org) welcomed today’s announcement from the Hershey Co. (HSY) that it will be certifying 100 percent of its cocoa by 2020 and urged the chocolate giant to go 100 percent Fair Trade with incremental benchmarks.  Hershey appeared to join its main rival Mars in announcing its target for certification with a 2020 deadline.  Many other smaller chocolate companies are already 100 percent certified, a number of them using Fair Trade certification, the most rigorous certification for identifying and remediating the Worst Forms of Child Labor. The Raise the Bar, Hershey! Campaign released the following joint statement: “The Raise the Bar, Hershey! campaign is pleased that Hershey is announcing 100 percent certification for its cocoa by 2020. To truly address child labor, Hershey needs to make sure it is certifying all of its cocoa Fair Trade, the only certification that adequately addresses the Worst Forms of Child Labor. Hershey should certify and label one of its top-selling, brand name bars Fair Trade within the next year, and should certify and label all of its chocolates Fair Trade by 2020.  We urge Hershey to reveal how the company plans to get to 100% certification by disclosing […]

Ivory Coast

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According to a Tulane University study, 40 per cent of the 820,000 children working in cocoa in Ivory Coast are not enrolled in school, and only about 5 per cent of the Ivorian children are paid for their work.

President Issues Child Soldier Waivers

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The White House Office of the Press Secretary For Immediate Release September 28, 2012 Presidential Memorandum — Presidential Determination with respect to the Child Soldiers Prevention Act of 2008 MEMORANDUM FOR THE SECRETARY OF STATE SUBJECT: Determination with Respect to the Child Soldiers Prevention Act of 2008 Pursuant to section 404 of the Child Soldiers Prevention Act of 2008 (CSPA) (title IV, Public Law 110-457), I hereby determine that it is in the national interest of the United States to waive the application of the prohibition in section 404(a) of the CSPA with respect to Libya, South Sudan, and Yemen; and further determine that it is in the national interest of the United States to waive in part the application of the prohibition in section 404(a) of the CSPA with respect to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, to allow for continued provision of International Military Education and Training funds and nonlethal Excess Defense Articles, and the issuance of licenses for direct commercial sales of U.S. origin defense articles; and I hereby waive such provisions accordingly. You are authorized and directed to submit this determination to the Congress, along with the accompanying Memorandum of Justification, and to publish the determination in the Federal Register. BARACK OBAMA

Changes to USDOL’s List of Goods Produced by Child Labor by Country (2012)

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Among the changes in this year’s 2012 update,  the U.S. Department of Labor’s List of Good Produced by Child Labor by Country:   Additions: [Product by country] Afghanistan                        Coal Bolivia                                   Bricks Bolivia                                   Corn Brazil                                     Beef Brazil                                     Cashews Cambodia                            Fish Dominican Rep.                Baked Goods Ghana                                   Fish India                                      Thread/Yarn Indonesia                            Fish Madagascar                        Stones Paraguay                             Bricks Paraguay                             Sugarcane Peru                                      Fish Philippines                          Fish Sierra Leone                       Cocoa Sierra Leone                       Coffee Sierra Leone                       Oil (Palm) South Sudan                      Cattle Suriname                             Gold Uganda                                 Fish Vietnam                               Bricks   New countries added to the 2012 list: South Sudan, Suriname, and Vietnam.   New goods added to the 2012 list: Baked goods, beef, fish, and thread/yarn.   To link to full report of the U.S. Department of Labor’s List of Goods Produced by Child Labor or Forced Labor (2012) go here .      

Philippines

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In the Philippines, an estimated 246,000 children experience abuse, violence and child labor living on the streets.

Rwanda: Northern Province Records High Levels of Child Labor

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By Bosco R. Asiimwe, 24 July 2012 [from AllAfrica.com] As the government moves to eliminate the use of underage children in exploitive and hazardous activities in the country, a new survey on child labour indicates that 40.6 per cent of people, who are actively engaged in agriculture in the Northern Province, are children. The ‘Child Labour in Agriculture’ household survey conducted by ICF international in January this year in the Northern Province, estimated 183,000 out of 214,000 people (ages 7 and older) involved in agricultural activities, were active in the previous seven days. Though more than 74, 000 adults in the province indicated that fewer children were engaged in child labour related activities, over the 90, 000 children asked, reported engaging in these illegal activities. About 51.2 per cent of child labourers are male. A big number of the victims [52.9 per cent] are aged between seven and 12 years while 28.2 per cent are between 13 and 15 years of age. Most children were engaged in household chores such as cooking, washing clothes and fetching water. Girls reported doing most chores [84.9 per cent] compared to 74.9 of boys. Overall, 13.5 per cent of children working in agriculture and attending school reported that their work interferes with their studies, at times forcing them to drop out of school.

Burma/Myanmar Releases 42 Child Soldiers, Vows to End Practice

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September 05, 2012 [from Voice of America] The Burmese military has released 42 child soldiers from its ranks, as part of efforts to end the recruitment of underage fighters in the Southeast Asian country. The state-run New Light of Myanmar newspaper says army officials handed the children over to their parents and guardians at a ceremony in Rangoon on Monday. The newspaper says Burmese officials also have vowed to rid the armed forces of all child soldiers within 18 months, in accordance with a United Nations agreement signed in June. The U.N. says at least eight other armed groups, apart from the government armed forces, recruit and use child soldiers in Burma, including several rebel and separatist groups. Since taking power last year, Burma’s nominally civilian government has undertaken several reforms, including easing media restrictions, allowing more freedom to opposition groups, and releasing hundreds of political prisoners. But rights groups and activists have said that, despite the political and economic reforms, there have been no significant changes in human rights abuses carried out by Burma’s military, particularly in rebel-dominated areas.