[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 140 (Thursday, October 8, 1998)]
[House]
[Pages H10163-H10166]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
INTERNATIONAL CHILD LABOR RELIEF ACT OF 1998
Mr. GILMAN. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the
bill (H.R. 4506) to provide for United States support for developmental
alternatives for underage child workers, as amended.
The Clerk read as follows:
H.R. 4506
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of
the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ``International Child Labor
Relief Act of 1998''.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS.
The Congress finds the following:
(1) Article 32 of the United Nations Convention on the
Rights of the Child recognizes ``the right of the child to be
protected from economic exploitation and from performing any
work that is likely to be hazardous or to interfere with the
child's education or to be harmful to the child's health or
physical, mental, spiritual, moral or social development.''.
(2) Article 2 of Convention 138 of the International Labor
Organization, the Minimum Age Convention, states that the
minimum age for admission to employment or work ``shall not
be less than the age of completion of compulsory schooling
and, in any case, shall not be less than 15 years.''.
(3) Convention 29 of International Labor Organization, the
Forced Labor Convention, which has been in effect since 1930,
prohibits most forms of ``forced or compulsory labor'',
including all forced labor by people under the age of 18.
(4) Although it is among the most universally condemned of
all human rights abuses, child labor is widely practiced. The
International Labor Organization and the United Nations
Children's Fund (UNICEF) have estimated the total number of
child workers to be between 200,000,000 and 250,000,000. More
than 95 percent of those child workers live in developing
countries.
(5) The International Labor Organization has estimated that
13.2 percent of all children 10 to 14 years of age around the
world were economically active in 1995. According to UNICEF,
75 percent of the child laborers in the 10 to 14 age group
work 6 days a week or more, and 50 percent work 9 hours a day
or more. There are no reliable figures on workers under 10
years of age, though their numbers are known to be
significant. Reliable child labor statistics are not readily
available, in part because many governments in the developing
world are reluctant to document those activities, which are
often illegal under domestic laws, which violate
international standards, and which may be perceived as a
failure of internal public policy.
(6) Notwithstanding international and domestic
prohibitions, many children in developing countries are
forced to work as debt-bonded and slave laborers in hazardous
and exploitative industries. According to the United Nations
Working Group on Contemporary Forms of Slavery and the
International Labor Organization, there are tens of millions
of child slaves in the world today. Large numbers of those
slaves are involved in agricultural and domestic labor, the
sex industry, the carpet and textile industries, and
quarrying and brick making.
(7) In many countries, children lack either the legal
standing or the means to protect themselves from cruelty and
exploitation in the workplace.
(8) The employment of children often interferes with the
opportunities of such children for basic education.
Furthermore, where it coexists with high rates of adult
unemployment, the use of child labor likely denies gainful
employment to millions of adults.
(9) While child labor is a complex and multifaceted
phenomenon that is tied to issues of poverty, educational
opportunity, and culture, its most abusive and hazardous
forms are repugnant to basic human rights and must be
eliminated.
(10) Created in 1992, the International Labor
Organization's International Program on the Elimination of
Child Labor (IPEC) is the world's largest technical
cooperation program on child labor, involving more than 50
countries and over 1,000 action programs. Governments take
the initiative in seeking IPEC assistance, and demonstrate
their commitment to combating child labor by signing a
memorandum of understanding with IPEC, which serves as the
basis for a long term in-country program that is overseen by
a national steering committee comprised of representatives of
government, employers' and workers' organizations, and
relevant nongovernmental organizations. IPEC activities aim
at preventing child labor, withdrawing children from
hazardous work, and providing alternatives to child labor as
a transitional measure toward its elimination.
SEC. 3. UNITED STATES SUPPORT FOR DEVELOPMENTAL ALTERNATIVES
FOR UNDERAGE CHILD WORKERS.
For each of the fiscal years 1999 through 2001 there are
authorized to be appropriated for the Department of Labor
under the heading ``International Labor Affairs Bureau''
$30,000,000 for a United States contribution to the
International Labor Organization for the activities of the
International Program on the Elimination of Child Labor.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from New
York (Mr. Gilman) and the gentleman from Minnesota (Mr. Luther) each
will control 20 minutes.
The Chair recognizes the gentleman from New York (Mr. Gilman).
General Leave
Mr. GILMAN. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may
have 5 legislative days within which to revise and extend their remarks
on this measure.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the
gentleman from New York?
There was no objection.
Mr. GILMAN. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, I would like to express my support for the International
Child Labor Relief Act, H.R. 4506. I commend its chief sponsors, the
distinguished chairman of our Subcommittee on International Operations
and Human Rights, the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Smith), for his
tireless work in drawing attention to the growing epidemic of child
labor. It is one of the most universally condemned of all human rights
abuses.
The work that exploited children do is more often than not dirty,
demeaning, and dangerous. A large proportion of the estimated 250
million exploited children in the world are debt bonded or slave
laborers. Employment prevents a child from gaining a basic education,
and for children whose employment involves captivity, employment means
no education at all.
This legislation authorizes $90 million over the next 3 years to the
International Labor Organization for the activities of the
International Program on the Elimination of Child Labor, IPEC. Each of
the more than 50 countries participating in IPEC have signed a
memorandum of understanding that serves as a basis for its own long-
term efforts to address this problem.
There can be little doubt that the ongoing economic crisis in Asia
has forced governments and non-governmental groups alike to reevaluate
their programs and strategies to address this critically important
issue.
Most experts agree that governments can help to address this growing
humanitarian crisis by promoting free education to reduce the incidence
of child labor, but the revival of economic growth throughout Asia and
other affected market economies is no less essential to the long-term
solution to the exploitation of underage workers.
{time} 2115
Accordingly, Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support this
vitally important legislation to ensure that child labor issues are
given the attention they deserve in the Clinton administration and
among all the 174 members of the International Labor Organization.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. LUTHER. Mr. Speaker, I yield 5 minutes to the gentleman from
Virginia (Mr. Moran).
Mr. MORAN of Virginia. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the gentleman
from New York (Chairman Gilman) and the gentleman from Minnesota (Mr.
Luther) for being here tonight to outline why this bill is so
necessary.
Mr. Speaker, I would like to be home with my kids, and I know that
each of my colleagues would like to be as well. We will go home and we
will look at those kids and know that they are well
[[Page H10164]]
fed and clothed and housed and cared for and nurtured. But that is not
the case with hundreds of millions of children around the globe.
I would like to share a few of these children that this bill that
these gentlemen, along with the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Smith),
who was the principal sponsor on the Committee on International
Relations, have cared for who would not have been cared for, who will
not even be noticed, unless we provide this money.
Mr. Chairman, this is a picture of a girl shining shoes. She works in
a shoe shine stand in Ecuador. She cannot be more than 4 years old. She
represents the millions of children who work on the streets of the
world's cities. Children are sent on to the streets to work or to beg,
and while seeking work, they are easy prey.
They are given a job, like this girl, shining shoes. They must turn
over all the money they receive to an older child, who then gives them
a small portion as salary. The older child rakes in profits by
exploiting a small army of children. Frequently, though, the older
child is in a similar relationship with even older children who control
large groups of these children. Those who are beggars may be maimed to
make them look more helpless and miserable than other beggars.
And as the children grow older, they learn they can make more money
by theft or by exploiting children younger than themselves.
Here is another picture of the kind of child that this legislation
deals with. This is a little girl who works in Aligarth, India, a town
on the border of Nepal. This child is making tiny padlocks. The average
pay for the children in the metal industry is $6 a month. They work 60-
hour workweeks. They are recruited by middlemen, who are paid by the
contractor, who prefers children because they are so much easier to
control.
Although almost all metal factories claim to be family businesses to
skirt India's scant child labor regulations, there are virtually no
incidences of actual family metal shops in this part of India.
These children remove molten metal from molds near furnaces. They
work with furnaces at temperatures of 2,000 degrees. Burns are a
constant danger. Children also work electroplating, polishing and
applying chemicals to metal. This child is polishing padlocks on a
small grindstone. Fumes and metal dust are constantly inhaled by these
children, which causes tuberculosis and respiratory problems.
The last picture of children that this legislation will help this is
a little girl. This little girl is hammering rocks. Sometimes in other
parts of the world the entire family is working in bondage, perhaps to
pay the debt of a deceased relative. Children are required to work
alongside their parents to maximize production. They work up to 14
hours a day carrying rocks or breaking them into pieces. That is what
this young girl is doing. She lives in an area where gravel is scarce.
In order to make cement, rocks must be broken down to small stones.
In many rural areas, traditional class or caste systems perpetuate
bonded labor. Pledging one's labor and that of his children may be the
only resource that a father has and may be all that he can pledge as
security for a loan. Unfortunately, this same family may be uneducated,
illiterate. It is easy prey for a moneylender who may charge outrageous
interest rates.
That is why this bill does what it does. That is why the gentleman
from New York (Chairman Gilman); why the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr.
Smith), chairman of our subcommittee; why the gentleman from Minnesota
(Mr. Luther); why so many members of the Committee on International
Relations and of the body, and really of the staff, know that this bill
has to pass.
These are just a few of the horrors that exist as we speak. They have
to be eliminated. This bill is important. I am sorry it comes up so
late at night, but I appreciate the fact that the chairman has brought
it up, and I appreciate the time that has been given me by the
gentleman from Minnesota.
Mr. GILMAN. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Virginia (Mr.
Moran) for his very eloquent remarks.
Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman
from New Jersey (Mr. Smith), the distinguished chairman of our
Subcommittee on International Operations and Human Rights, who is the
original sponsor of this measure.
Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from
Virginia (Mr. Moran) for his kind words and for his work on this
important legislation. I also thank the gentleman from Minnesota (Mr.
Luther) and a number of other sponsors, including the gentleman from
California (Mr. Lantos), the ranking member of our Subcommittee on
International Operations and Human Rights; the gentlewoman from Florida
(Ms. Ros-Lehtinen); the gentleman from Vermont (Mr. Sanders); the
gentleman from Florida (Mr. Canady); the gentleman from Massachusetts
(Mr. Kennedy); the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Wolf); the gentleman
from Ohio (Mr. Kucinich); the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Diaz-Balart);
the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Moran) who already spoke; the
gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Souder); the gentleman from Pennsylvania
(Mr. Fox); the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Pitts), and others who
helped shape this legislation and worked so hard to bring it to the
floor today.
Mr. Speaker, international child labor is a cancer on our global
economy that defies an easy cure. In the words of the International
Labor Organization, and I quote, ``Few human rights abuses are so
unanimously condemned while being so widely practiced as child labor.''
Today somewhere between 200 and 250 million children under the age of
14 are being robbed of their youth for the profit of others. Many work
in hazardous industries such as mining, explosives, manufacturing, and
even deep-sea fishing. Others are forced into prostitution and other
forms of sexual exploitation.
The sheer magnitude of these statistics, 250 million kids, a
staggering number of kids, can blind us to the human misery that they
represent. Those of us who are parents should imagine our own kids in
those kinds of circumstances. Only then, I think, do we begin to get a
taste of the hopelessness caused by this exploitation.
While the problem is heartbreaking and immense, there are new reasons
for hope. Global public awareness of this problem is greater than it
has ever been. My subcommittee has held three exhaustive hearings on
the issue of child labor, and it involved representatives of the
administration, nongovernmental organization witnesses, labor and
manufacturing representatives, concerned celebrities such as Kathie Lee
Gifford, who I think offered some very useful insight to our committee,
and child victims themselves. Those who had actually been exploited
came before the committee and stood there and told us how they were
abused.
This year, the International Labor Conference issued proposed new
labor standards on what they call extreme forms of child labor, which
is expected to be adopted next June. Tonight it is increasingly
important that we seize this momentum.
Experts believe that the current international financial difficulties
that we see every day, just open up the paper about what is going on
over the world, may only worsen the problem unless we take some real
action.
One of the most promising weapons in the fight against child labor is
the International Program on the Elimination of Child Labor, or IPEC,
of the International Labor Organization. IPEC works within countries to
help develop and execute practical solutions to child labor abuse. IPEC
works only in countries whose governments have officially committed
themselves to developing national child labor policies in cooperation
with employers, workers, NGOs and other relevant parties.
Over the past 3 years, the United States' modest, and I mean this, it
is really modest, contributions to IPEC has been on the order of $1
million to $3 million. Yet even that minuscule amount of money has
resulted in discernible improvements. Remember, this bill will
authorize $90 million over 3 years for these kinds of programs. We are
talking about 1 to 3 million, and we even see some success there.
One U.S.-funded project in Bangladesh removed 10,000 children from
garment factories and placed them in schools. Another program in
Pakistan will remove 7,000 kids from the soccer ball industry. My kids
play soccer and
[[Page H10165]]
have played it all their lives and are on travel teams. It causes me
great concern, as it does all of us, that every soccer ball that we
pick up comes from Pakistan, made by some kid. That is horrible and has
to change. This modest program has begun to change that.
This program provides a social safety net for children and creates a
local monitoring mechanism to ensure that they do not return to factory
work. By stressing in-country program ownership and requiring local
industries to share the costs, IPEC plans for those efforts to become
self-sufficient. The old adage, give somebody a fish and they can eat;
teach them to fish, and they can eat for a lifetime. We try to help,
they try to help the countries to really become self-sufficient.
Let me remind my colleagues that when they are working at these
sweatshops, these kids are not going to school. So their prospects for
the future are greatly inhibited and retarded as a direct result of the
exploitation, and the prospects of breaking out of that become very
limited indeed.
Mr. Speaker, our country should be the global standard bearer for
human rights. On some things we are, and many other aspects we fall far
short. But at least we should be always striving for human rights and
human decency. We are blessed, clearly, with unparalleled prosperity.
However, to date our IPEC contributions total only about $8 million.
That is the aggregate, as compared to $65 million pledged by Germany
and $12.5 million by Spain. We must, I would submit, and we can, and
with this legislation we will, do better.
Notwithstanding international acclaim for its program, IPEC has not
had enough funding, and we have asked them and they have documented
that they are far short of the funding needed to meet all the requests
or even most of the requests that they have received from countries
seeking help.
This bill seeks $30 million, as I said, each year over 3 years, $90
million total over the next fiscal years. These are some of the things
that they have identified: The International Program on the Elimination
of Child Labor has identified the need for approximately 10 sectoral
programs in dangerous industries where child labor is prevalent, such
as mining, fireworks, agriculture, and brick making. Those programs
would require a minimum of $2 million for each sectoral program in each
participating country.
Based on the success of the U.S.-funded projects in Pakistan in the
sporting goods industry, IPEC would like to begin projects in other
exporting countries with strong links to the U.S. market. They would
like to address the surgical instrument industry in Pakistan, the
sporting goods industry in India, and other similar projects. As a
matter of fact, they gave us a list at our request of what their hopes
would be. Looking through it, they are working, preparatory as they
call it, in preparatory countries; nine African countries, five Arab
states, four in Asia, one in Central Europe and Eastern Europe, and
four in Latin America. That is what this money helps to do, to push the
envelope to get into those countries and hopefully help to mitigate the
suffering of those kids.
Let me conclude by saying in addition to the more than 30 countries
currently participating in IPEC, the total of what I just mentioned, 23
additional countries are seeking IPEC assistance. I would hope that we
would get an overwhelming support for this legislation. It is
bipartisan, and, as I mentioned earlier, my good friend the gentleman
from California (Mr. Lantos) is the principal cosponsor of this
legislation and has worked with us in the hearings. We stand arm in
arm, Democrat and Republican, trying to advance the cause for these
kids who are suffering and for their families.
Mr. Speaker, I do hope the body will adopt this legislation.
Mr. LUTHER. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from
California (Mr. Lantos), my good friend.
Mr. LANTOS. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Minnesota (Mr.
Luther), my friend, for yielding me this time.
Mr. Speaker, I want to pay tribute to my friend and colleague, the
gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Smith), the chairman of the Subcommittee
on International Operations and Human Rights, for taking the lead on
this most important item. I also want to express my appreciation to the
gentleman from New York (Chairman Gilman) who has done so much on this
most important issue.
Mr. Speaker, my colleagues have spoken eloquently on this matter, and
I do not want to take up much time, except to indicate that it is a
moral obligation on the part of all of us to move this legislation.
While doing so, allow me to mention that a parallel piece of
legislation introduced by me, the Young American Workers Bill of
Rights, is also before this body.
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It is extremely important for us to deal with child labor all over
the world, but we should not forget the issue of child labor here in
the United States. Scores of young children in the United States are
exploited by unconscionable means, and the Young Workers' Bill of
Rights will be an appropriate parallel legislation to this legislation
which deals with the exploitation of children across the globe.
Mr. LUTHER. Mr. Speaker, I yield 4 minutes to the gentleman from
American Samoa (Mr. Faleomavaega).
(Mr. FALEOMAVAEGA asked and was given permission to revise and extend
his remarks.)
Mr. FALEOMAVAEGA. Mr. Speaker, I, too, would like to echo the remarks
of my colleagues and to compliment the gentleman from New York (Mr.
Gilman), the chairman of the Committee on International Relations, for
bringing this legislation to the floor. I also want to commend my good
friend, the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Smith), the chairman of the
Subcommittee on International Operations and Human Rights.
With so many lists going around, Mr. Speaker, I do not know which
list to go on as far as the listing of the bills on suspension being
brought to the floor. I was caught by surprise in learning that this
legislation had been brought to the floor for consideration by the
Members.
Mr. Speaker, there are approximately 200 to 250 million children in
this world who are considered to be working not only under dire
circumstances but the fact that they are, as far as I am concerned, Mr.
Speaker, they are slave labor. I have held public hearings in the past,
Mr. Speaker, on this issue, but I again want to thank the gentleman
from New Jersey (Mr. Smith) for his initiative and his leadership in
doing this, not only to sensitize the Members of the Congress about
this very serious issue around the world, but the fact that we have now
proposed legislation to look into and to fully examine and to provide
some sense of sanity to this world and the fact that we have done this
so unfairly to these young people around the world.
I want to compliment the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Moran), who was
here earlier, who shared with us some of the pictures that were taken.
I suppose he may have done so himself when he visited some of these
countries around the world to see that these things are real and not
some abstract idea.
I also want to compliment the members of the Committee on
International Relations for their support and the fact that there is
true bipartisan support for this piece of legislation.
The sad part about this is, Mr. Speaker, that many of the major
companies doing business in some of these Third World countries use
children. Supposedly, we are assured that some of the major commodities
or products that are being imported to our country are not involved
with any children being employed to bring some of these products to our
country. But my question is: Who actually looking after this? Where is
the assurance to give us that these children are not involved as part
of the processing of bringing some of these commodities or products to
our country? I seriously question the fact that some of these companies
rally do live up to that standard or that requirement.
I know for a fact where many of these products that we receive here,
made with labor at 25 cents an hour, end up. When we buy a pair of
shoes for $125, I know for a fact that many of these children were
involved in that type of employment.
Mr. Speaker, again I commend my good friend from New York (Mr.
Gilman) for bringing this legislation, and I urge my colleagues to
support this bill.
[[Page H10166]]
Mr. GILMAN. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from
Pennsylvania (Mr. Fox), a member of our committee.
Mr. FOX of Pennsylvania. Mr. Speaker, I thank the chairman for
yielding me this time. I appreciate the opportunity to speak on behalf
of this legislation.
It is very important that we protect our children in developing
countries who have been forced to work as debt bound and slave laborers
in hazardous and exploitative industries. According to the United
Nations Working Group on Contemporary Forms of Slavery and the
international labor organizations, there are tens of millions of child
slaves in the world today. This must be ended, and this legislation
will take a positive step to stop this.
We know of many countries where children lack either the legal
standing or the means to protect themselves from cruelty and
exploitation in the workplace. The employment of children often
interferes with the opportunities for the youth's basic education, and
it coexists with high rates of adult unemployment where this use of
child labor denies gainful employment to millions of adults.
While child labor is a complex and multifaceted phenomenon, Mr.
Speaker, it is tied to issues of poverty, education opportunity, and
culture, and I commend the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Smith) for
this legislation; the gentleman from California (Mr. Lantos), and the
other cosponsors of the bill for moving it forward.
I am proud to be a cosponsor, and I look for colleagues on both sides
of the aisle to support this legislation to provide for United States
support for developmental alternatives to underage child workers, and
commend the sponsor again for his leadership and look forward to the
bill's passage here this evening.
Mr. LUTHER. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
I wish to also express my support for this legislation, and I commend
the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Smith) for bringing this before the
House. I likewise wish to commend the chairman of our committee, the
gentleman from New York (Mr. Gilman), for his leadership role. And I
also want to just thank the various colleagues for their excellent
presentations, very compelling presentations, here on the floor this
evening.
The problem of child labor is truly a global one, as has been pointed
out this evening. It impacts children on almost every continent and
deprives them of their opportunities for a normal and safe childhood.
It is one of the most intolerable forms of human rights abuses.
Children have no way of protecting themselves against forced labor and
dangerous and exploitative conditions. Recognizing this problem, I am
pleased that the President announced earlier this year a child labor
initiative.
This bill, as has been pointed out, will make the U.S. a leader in
the international effort to eliminate child labor, and the children of
the world need the United States to play a leadership role on this
issue. Mr. Speaker, I urge the adoption of this bill.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. GILMAN. Mr. Speaker, I have no further requests for time, and I
yield back the balance of my time.
Mr. LUTHER. Mr. Speaker, I have no further requests for time, and I
yield back the balance of my time.
The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Shimkus). The question is on the motion
offered by the gentleman from New York (Mr. Gilman) that the House
suspend the rules and pass the bill, H.R. 4506, as amended.
The question was taken; and (two-thirds having voted in favor
thereof) the rules were suspended and the bill, as amended, was passed.
A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.
____________________