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Archive for category: Gold

You are here: Home1 / Child Labor - US2 / In Our Products3 / Gold

Large numbers of children are found in Afria, Asia, and South America mining for gold, often using toxic elements like mercury.

Report Traces Goods Made with Child Labor to 76 Countries

September 26, 2018/in Viewpoint, U.S. DOL, Gold /by CLC Member

Of the products we use, wear, or consume every day, how many are made with child labor? Perhaps quite a few. A new report from the US Department of Labor identifies 148 different consumer goods produced with child or forced labor around the world. The list includes clothing, beef, sugar, bricks, coffee, and other products originating from 76 countries.

Gold tops the list. The report found that in at least 21 countries, children help mine gold, climbing into unstable shafts, carrying and crushing heavy loads of ore, and often using toxic mercury to process the gold. My colleagues and I have seen how dangerous this work can be, documenting the risks child miners face in Ghana, Philippines, Tanzania, and Mali.

Tobacco produced with child labor originates from at least 16 countries, placing it in the report’s top five. Child tobacco workers often labor in extreme heat, are exposed to dangerous pesticides, and risk nicotine poisoning from handling tobacco plants. In our investigations, children in the United States, Indonesia, and Zimbabwe have described nausea, vomiting, headaches, and dizziness while working in tobacco fields.

Governments, companies, and consumers share responsibility to end child labor. Governments should monitor and enforce their labor laws and provide children with good-quality, free education.

For children old enough to work, both governments and companies should ensure their jobs do not risk anyone’s health or safety. Companies should also monitor their supply chains, report on their efforts, and when child labor is found, transition these children to school or safe alternatives.

… Read the rest
https://stopchildlabor.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/logo-enfold.png 0 0 CLC Member https://stopchildlabor.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/logo-enfold.png CLC Member2018-09-26 13:00:172018-09-25 18:12:34Report Traces Goods Made with Child Labor to 76 Countries

Child Labor Coalition joins calls for cleaner, more responsible jewelry supply chain

February 8, 2018/in Viewpoint, Recent News, Gold, Mining, Press Releases /by Reid Maki
Press Release
February 8, 2018

Contact: Reid Maki, Child Labor Coalition, (202) 207-2820, reidm@nclnet.org 

Washington, DC–The Child Labor Coalition (CLC) today joins nearly 30 NGOs and trade unions from around the world in calling on the jewelry industry to ensure responsible sourcing of precious metals and gems. One million children toil in mines, often extracting metals, including gold and silver, and gems like jade, emeralds, and diamonds. The work is extremely hazardous, putting children at risk of serious injury and death. Many child miners use toxic substances such as mercury that can cause severe damage to their developing neurological systems. Mining also causes profound ecological damage in many communities, polluting waterways and soil and endangering the health of communities.

“Consumers purchase nearly $300 billion in jewelry each year,” said Sally Greenberg, executive director of the National Consumers League (NCL) and co-chair of the CLC, whose 38 member organizations have worked to reduce child labor around the world for nearly three decades. “It’s time for jewelry companies to do more to provide consumers with jewelry that isn’t tainted with the scourges of child labor and forced labor. Existing mechanisms to clean up this supply chain have not gone far enough. It’s time for greater transparency. Jewelry companies must take responsibility for their supply chains.”

“The prevalence of child labor in the jewelry supply chains is a major concern,” said Reid Maki, NCL’s director of child labor advocacy and coordinator of the CLC. According to the U.S. Department of Labor, child labor is found in gold mining in 21 countries.

… Read the rest
https://stopchildlabor.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/logo-enfold.png 0 0 Reid Maki https://stopchildlabor.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/logo-enfold.png Reid Maki2018-02-08 17:26:492018-02-08 17:27:55Child Labor Coalition joins calls for cleaner, more responsible jewelry supply chain

Filipino children risk death to dive and dig for gold

December 20, 2015/in Viewpoint, Reports, Gold, Philippines /by CLC Member

By Deborah Andrews, CLC Contributing Writer

Deborah Andrews the real oneIn September 2015, Human Rights Watch released a report, “Phillipines: Children Risk Death to Dig and dive for Gold,” exposing the desperate working conditions of many of those involved in the Filipino gold mining industry. It is a worthy, informative and thought provoking read. In 2014, the Philippines produced 18 tons of gold. HRW researchers discovered that an estimated 70-80% came from small-scale mines, financed by local businessmen and operated without any basic machinery. These mines are worked by 200,000-300,000 people — many of them children aged 11-17, but some as young as 9 years old.

Most gold in the Philippines is underwater. To mine it, workers dive into narrow shafts often ten yards deep and only two feet wide. Using oxygen tubes to breathe, operated by a diesel compressor at the surface, workers can stay mining under water for 1-2 hours at a time. This is hazardous work. HRW researchers found that compressors frequently break due to mudslides; workers get extremely cold underwater; the diesel compressors can cause carbon monoxide poisoning; and a bacterium in the water causes a skin disease known as Romborombo that leaves skin irritated and infected.

Dry shafts can be 25 yards deep and have oxygen pumped into them by an air blower. Workers often work up to 24-hour shifts with only a short break above ground. There are frequent accidents. In 2014, two brothers suffocated, but the practice continues.

Disturbingly, HRW report authors discovered that mercury is widely used to process the gold. Mercury is a powerful neurotoxin, causing muscle spasms, brain damage, permanent disability, and even death. It is particularly harmful to children’s developing nervous systems. This unrestricted mercury use is now also contaminating the fish population, a vital food source – further endangering the people.

Read more

https://stopchildlabor.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/logo-enfold.png 0 0 CLC Member https://stopchildlabor.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/logo-enfold.png CLC Member2015-12-20 16:30:592016-01-21 08:34:47Filipino children risk death to dive and dig for gold

CLC Member Human Rights Watch Press Release: Tanzania — Hazardous Life of Child Gold Miners

August 28, 2013/in Gold, Mining, Press Releases /by Reid Maki

For Immediate Release

Tanzania: Hazardous Life of Child Gold Miners
Government, World Bank, Donors Should Address Child Labor in Mines

 

(Dar Es Salaam, August 28, 2013) – Children as young as eight-years-old are working in Tanzanian small-scale gold mines, with grave risks to their health and even their lives, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. The Tanzanian government should curb child labor in small-scale mining, including at informal, unlicensed mines, and the World Bank and donor countries should support these efforts.

The 96-page report, “Toxic Toil: Child Labor and Mercury Exposure in Tanzania’s Small-Scale Gold Mines,” describes how thousands of children work in licensed and unlicensed small-scale gold mines in Tanzania, Africa’s fourth-largest gold producer. They dig and drill in deep, unstable pits, work underground for shifts of up to 24 hours, and transport and crush heavy bags of gold ore. Children risk injury from pit collapses and accidents with tools, as well as long-term health damage from exposure to mercury, breathing dust, and carrying heavy loads. A 17-year-old boy who survived a pit accident told Human Rights Watch, “I thought I was dead, I was so frightened.”

“Tanzanian boys and girls are lured to the gold mines in the hopes of a better life, but find themselves stuck in a dead-end cycle of danger and despair,” said Janine Morna, children’s rights research fellow at Human Rights Watch. “Tanzania and donors need to get these children out of the mines and into school or vocational training.”… Read the rest

https://stopchildlabor.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/logo-enfold.png 0 0 Reid Maki https://stopchildlabor.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/logo-enfold.png Reid Maki2013-08-28 14:11:022013-08-28 14:16:05CLC Member Human Rights Watch Press Release: Tanzania — Hazardous Life of Child Gold Miners
Page 1 of 212

Child Soldiers

The countries identified by the US government in 2018 as using child soldiers: Burma, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Iran, Iraq, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Somalia, South Sudan, Syria and Yemen.  

Hazardous Labor

In 2012, more than half of child laborers—85 million—are in hazardous work (down from 171 million in 2000).   Source:ILO

Latin America and the Middle East

There are 13 million (8.8%) of children in child labor in Latin America and the Caribbean   ...and in the Middle East and North Africa there are 9.2 million (8.4%). Source: ILO

Child labor among girls is falling...

Child labor among girls fell by 40% between 2000 and 2012, compared to 25% for boys.   Source: ILO

The Philippines

The Philippines has 2.9 million child laborers but in its 2013 Findings on the Worst Forms of Child Labor, USDOL said the country was making "significant" progress in dealing with the problem.     [source: https://tinyurl.com/llxpt2o]

Child Domestic Servants

According to an ILO report in 2013, 10.5 million children work as domestic servants around the world.

Philippines

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

Child Mining

An estimated 1 million children perform hazardous work in mines around the world.

Child Trafficking

According to UNICEF, 1.2 million children are trafficked each year--many for purposes of sexual exploitation.

Ivory Coast

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.

Schooling and Conflict

In underdeveloped countries, every additional year of schooling reduces an adolescent boy’s risk of becoming involved in conflict by 20 percent. According to one study, a country that enrolls more than 87 percent of its children in school decreases its risk of conflict by nearly 75 percent.

The Philippines

According to the Philippine government, one in five Filipino children is involved in child labor--5.5 million in all.

Forced Labor

In June 2012, the ILO estimated that 21 million people had experienced forced labor over a 10-year period--5.5 million had been children.

Trafficking

The State Department estimates that 27 million people worldwide, most of them women and children, are victims of human trafficking, forced into labor or prostitution.

Child Labor & Brick Making

According to U.S. DOL/ILAB, bricks are produced by child labor in 15 countries: Afghanistan, Argentina, Bangladesh, Brazil, Burma, Cambodia, China, Ecuador, India, Nepal, North Korea, Pakistan, Peru, Uganda, and Colombia.

Gold

18 countries produce gold with child labor and many children are exposed to toxic substances like mercury during the process.

Cambodia

In Cambodia,  52 per cent of children aged between seven and 14 work—over 1.4 million children.

A 2005 survey by NCL found that 96% of those Americans surveyed would not let their own children work in the fields as hired farmworkers under 13--something allowed by current U.S. Child Labor law.

Remediation

Between 1995 and 2010, the U.S. Congress appropriated approximately $780 million to the U.S. Department of Labor to support global efforts to combat exploitive child labor.

India

India is home to one-fifth of the world's child population.

Progress in Two Areas

The ILO reports that in the four-year period ending in 2008, the number of child laborers among 5- to 14-year-olds fell 10 percent and the number children in hazardous work fell 31 percent.

Uncovered

The proportion of children who live in countries that have not yet ratified ILO Convention 182 (on the worst forms of child labor) or Convention 138 (on the minimum age): 1 in 3

Agriculture

6 in 10 child laborers work in agriculture, most commonly as unpaid workers on family farms

Sub-Saharan Africa

While many areas of the world are experiencing some progress in reducing child labor, Sub-Saharan Africa is seeing an increase in child labor activity.

Hazardous work

Levels of hazardous work seem to be dropping for girls but not for boys.

The World Wide Recession?

The number of youth, 15- to 17-years-old, who work increased 20 percent in the period 2004-2008, while child labor rates are believed to have fallen among young children, particularly girls.

Total Child Workers

The estimate of child laborers in the world: 168 million Source: ILO

Decline of Child Labor Slowing?

The ILO reports that while child labor around the world decreased 10 percent between 2000 and 2004, it only decreased 3 percent between 2004 and 2008.

Nutrition

Almost 55 million children under the age of 5 in India are underweight.

2000: Human Right's Watch Report Fingers to the Bone

Human Rights Watch publishes a report outlining the exploitation of children in US agriculture entitled “Fingers to the Bone: United States Failure to Protect Child Farmworkers.”

Trafficking - Africa

According to a UNICEF report in 2003, the number of 53 African countries with human trafficking problems: 49

Trafficking

Nearly one in five victims of trafficking around the world are children.

1995: Death of Iqbal Masih Child Labor Activist

Iqbal Masih, a former child slave in the carpet industry in Pakistan, is murdered for his international advocacy of child rights at the age of 13. His courage and determination continues to inspire children, activists, and officials.

1832: Association Condemns Child Labor

The New England Association of Farmers, Mechanics and Other Workingmen officially condemns child labor.

1836: Union Proposes Minimum Age Laws

Early trade unions at the National Trades' Union Convention propose requiring state minimum age laws for factory work.

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