Nearly one in five victims of trafficking around the world are children.
Open letter to founder Craig Newmark in Washington Post tells stories of young women sold for sex through ‘adult services’ ads The online classified advertising site, Craigslist, is facing accusations that it has become a hub for underage prostitution after two young women placed an advertisement in the Washington Post saying they were repeatedly sold through the site to men who “paid to rape” them.
[Note: Blindness is listed as one the consequences of Yemeni children working with pesticides in agriculture!] JAMAL AL-JABERI | SANA’A, YEMEN – Aug 11 2010 13:02 After their father died two years ago, Raseel and Anwar left their family to work in a car garage, joining the millions of Yemeni children forced into the impoverished country’s labour market. Eleven-year-old Raseel al-Khameri and his eight-year-old mute brother, Anwar, spend their days working in the garage in Sana’a in an attempt to sustain a needy family in the village of al-Akhmoor, 300km south of the capital. “I work day and night. You’ll find me here [in the workshop] anytime from 9am until 4am,” Raseel says shyly, as his small hands skilfully work with various car parts. With an innocent smile never leaving his face, little Anwar closely follows his older brother’s moves as he also tries to master the job. A study carried out in 2010 by the United States-based aid group CHF International revealed that out of Yemen’s 11-million children, five million are currently employed. Three-fifths of those do not receive an education while the remaining two million both study and work at the same time. CHF said that 40% of Yemeni children are drawn into the labour market between the ages of seven and 13. CHF said that 80% of […]
By Andrew Zajac, Chicago Tribune Washington Bureau 8:23 PM EDT, August 27, 2010/WASHINGTON Long before Austin “Jack” DeCoster became a central figure in one of the largest egg recalls in history, he had paid more than $10 million in fines and lawsuit settlements, his eggs were banned in one state and quarantined in another, and he was almost single-handedly responsible for new restrictions on child labor in his native Maine.
HARRISBURG, Pa., Sept. 23, 2010 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — A comprehensive overhaul of Pennsylvania’s Child Labor Law is needed to ensure safer working conditions for young people, Labor & Industry Executive Deputy Secretary Robert V. O’Brien testified today before the House of Representatives’ Labor Relations Committee. The House panel discussed two pieces of legislation: House Bill 19, sponsored by Rep. Jaret Gibbons; and House Bill 2515, sponsored by Rep. Thomas P. Murt. “The enforcement of child labor standards is an important department function,” O’Brien said. “The current law – which dates back to 1915 – is antiquated, confusing and has not evolved along with Pennsylvania’s occupational diversity. Updates are needed because the department’s ability to regulate the employment of minors has been constrained by deficiencies with the current law.
From: Uzbek-German Forum for Human Rights [mailto:cotton.harvest.uzbekistan@googlemail.com] Sent: Tuesday, October 12, 2010 4:40 PM Issue 5, October 12, 2010 Context: Forced Child labour is an endemic and widespread practice in the cotton industry of Uzbekistan. According to experts, between 1.5 and 2 million schoolchildren between ages 10-16 are forced by the local authorities to pick cotton each harvest season from September until the end of November. This practice has been in place and almost unchanged since the Stalin era. Observers claim that forced child labor is orchestrated by the Uzbek central government, which in turn, denies its responsibility for it.
1832 – The New England Association of Farmers, Mechanics and Other Workingmen officially condemns child labor. 1836 – Massachusetts creates the first state child labor law requiring factory children under 15 to go to school a minimum of 3 months per year. 1836 – Early trade unions at the National Trades’ Union Convention propose requiring state minimum age laws for factory work. 1842 – Massachusetts limits children to working 10 hours per day. Many states do the same but are not consistent in enforcing their laws. 1876 – The Working Men’s Party proposes prohibiting the employment of children younger than 14. 1881 – The American Federation of Labor at their first national convention calls for states to enact legislation barring children under 14 from wage labor. 1883 – The New York labor movement, under the leadership of Samuel Gompers, attempts to end child labor in the cigar industry by successfully sponsoring legislation that bans production in tenements, where many of young children work in the trade. 1889 – Florence Kelley publishes “Our Toiling Children,” which outlines the state of child labor and urges consumers to use their influence to improve working conditions. 1892 – The Democratic Party adopts a plank in their platform, which recommends banning factory employment for children under age 15. 1899 – The National Consumers’ League […]
34 workers under 18 died in the U.S. in 2008
In 2008, the number of 15- to 17-year-olds in the U.S. who worked: 2.3 million
Full text of the Convention on the Rights of the Child The Convention on the Rights of the Child was adopted and opened for signature, ratification and accession by General Assembly resolution 44/25 of 20 November 1989. It entered into force 2 September 1990, in accordance with article 49. Status of ratifications Preamble The States Parties to the present Convention, Considering that, in accordance with the principles proclaimed in the Charter of the United Nations, recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world, Bearing in mind that the peoples of the United Nations have, in the Charter, reaffirmed their faith in fundamental human rights and in the dignity and worth of the human person and have determined to promote social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom, Recognizing that the United Nations has, in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and in the International Covenants on Human Rights, proclaimed and agreed that everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth therein, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status, Recalling that, in the Universal Declaration of […]
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