[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.

                              {time}  2130

  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.

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