[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 83 (Wednesday, June 16, 2004)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6874-S6876]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     WORLD DAY AGAINST CHILD LABOR

  Mr. HARKIN. Mr. President, it is with a sense of sorrow that I rise 
today to speak about the practice of abusive and exploitative child 
labor, as well as to recognize World Day against Child Labor, which 
occurred on June 12. Unfortunately, hundreds of millions of children 
are still forced to work illegally for little or no pay. The 
International Labor Organization has set aside this day to give a voice 
to these helpless children who toil away in hazardous conditions.
  We should not only think about these children on June 12. We should 
think about this last vestige of slavery every day. I have remained 
steadfast in my commitment to eliminate abusive and exploitative child 
labor. It was in 1992 that I first introduced a bill to ban all 
products made by abusive and exploitative child labor from entering the 
U.S.
  Since I introduced that bill, we have made some progress in raising 
awareness about this scourge. In June of 1999, ILO Convention 182, 
concerning the Prohibition and Immediate Action for the Elimination of 
the Worst Forms of Child Labor, was adopted unanimously in the ILO and 
here in the U.S. Senate. This was the first time ever that an ILO 
convention was approved without one dissenting vote. In record time the 
Senate ratified ILO Convention 2 with a bipartisan, 96-0 vote.
  For the first time in history the world spoke with one voice in 
opposition to abusive and exploitative child labor. Countries from 
across the political, economic, and religious spectrum--from Jewish to 
Muslim, from Buddhists to Christians--came together to proclaim 
unequivocally that abusive and exploitative child labor is a practice 
which will not be tolerated and must be abolished.
  Gone is the argument that abusive and exploitative child labor is an 
acceptable practice because of a country's economic circumstances. Gone 
is the argument that abusive and exploitative child labor is acceptable 
because of cultural tradition. And gone is the argument that abusive 
and exploitative child labor is a necessary evil on the road to 
economic development. When this convention was approved, the United 
States and the international community as a whole laid those arguments 
to rest and laid the groundwork to begin the process of ending the 
scourge of abusive and exploitative child labor.
  As of today, 50 countries have ratified ILO Convention 182. In fact, 
since the ILO was established in 1919, never has one of it treaties 
been ratified so quickly by so many national governments.
  In May of 2000, the Senate enacted the Trade and Development Act of 
2000. This act included a provision I authored that requires more than 
100 nations that enjoy duty-free access to the American marketplace to 
implement their legal commitments to eliminate the worst forms of child 
labor in order to keep these trade privileges.
  In 2001, Congressman Engel and I, along with the chocolate industry, 
negotiated the Harkin-Engel Protocol. This plan addresses abusive and 
exploitative child labor within the cocoa and chocolate producing 
countries of West Africa. This agreement will for the first time make 
possible the ability to publicly certify that cocoa used in chocolate 
or related products has been grown and processed without abusive child 
labor. This historic agreement represents a true partnership between 
industry and government to stamp out abusive and exploitative child 
labor.
  In an effort to continue to raise awareness, last month the first 
Children's World Congress about Child Labor was held in Florence, 
Italy. The Congress was organized by the Global March and my good 
friend Kailash Satayarthi. At this conference child delegates from all 
across the world joined with the common purpose of discussing and 
raising awareness about the atrocities of abusive child labor. I would 
like to commend Kendra Halter, one of my constituents, from Iowa City, 
who was selected to participate as a U.S. delegate to the Congress.
  The child delegates participated in workshops and were allowed to 
question foreign leaders and government officials from various 
countries to include the United States. The Congress produced a 
declaration that stressed the need for governments to take direct 
action combating this issue by providing free quality education. The 
declaration also calls for parents and youth of all countries to get 
involved in the spreading of awareness of this scourge.
  In spite of all of these successes there is much more to be done. 
Currently, according to the ILO, there are 246 million child laborers 
in the world. 73 million of those are under the age of 10, and 
approximately 22 thousand children die in work related accidents every 
year. Abusive and exploitative child labor is prevalent in many parts 
of the world, including in our backyard.
  In the June 10 edition of the Washington Post, the issue of abusive 
child labor once again made the headlines. The article brings to light 
the troubled life of a child aged 14 and his family as they labor 
dangerously in the sugar

[[Page S6875]]

cane fields of El Salvador. The young boy has been working in the 
fields for more than half of his life. His four brothers and sisters 
are also forced to work with him, his youngest brother is nine. Their 
tiny bodies are gashed by machetes and burned by hazardous fertilizers. 
These children and hundreds more are denied an education and in turn 
will be destined to a life of poverty. This is not what should be 
happening in the 21st century.
  In fact, the Bush administration has recently finished negotiating a 
subregional free trade agreement with the Central American countries. 
El Salvador is one of six countries participating in the Central 
American Free Trade Agreement or CAFTA. In my view, we should not be 
negotiating free trade agreements with countries that do not enforce 
their own labor laws and international standards. Not only is it my 
view but it is U.S. law.
  Abusive and exploitative child labor should be a thing of the past. 
The United States should not continue to turn a blind eye to this 
scourge. It is time that we enforce our laws and international 
standards and ensure that countries are raising their standards on this 
issue. If we did our part to ensure that children were learning and not 
laboring, there would not be a need to have a day dedicated to end 
child labor.
  I ask unanimous consent to print in the Record declaration to which I 
referred.
  There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

                         Children's Declaration


       Children's World Congress on Child Labour--10-13 May 2004

       We are the Present, Our Voice Is the Future!
       We, the delegates of the Children's World Congress on Child 
     Labour, have come to the city of Florence, Italy, from all 
     different parts of the world, speaking different languages, 
     growing up with different cultures and backgrounds, because 
     we all know that child labour must be eliminated.
       Although our Congress has been successful, we are missing 
     some of our important delegates. These children were already 
     selected to participate in the Congress. But, these children 
     did not get visas necessary to come to Italy because the 
     Italian government thought them as a security risk. These 
     children who were not allowed to attend, felt very 
     discriminated. We all missed their ideas at the Congress, 
     because these children are from the regions where child 
     labour is most common. At the next Congress, we would like to 
     see them participate because their voice is their vision and 
     the world must hear it.
       Each country had a different selection process to choose 
     the delegates. All children who participated in the selection 
     process had either faced child labour in their own experience 
     or had learned about it and joined the fight against child 
     labour. With the passion and desire to solve this terrible 
     crime against 246 million children around the world, we were 
     all qualified to take part in this Congress. This is why the 
     discussions for the last 3 days have been very fruitful.
       What follows in our Declaration is the responsibility, of 
     all including the business sector and others who hold the 
     power to help us in our struggle.
       Before we even start to discuss about child labour, we must 
     appreciate that the only way the children can have their 
     rights is in the situation of peace. Peace is the most basic 
     human right. We have to ask ourselves why everyone is not 
     able to have something so fundamental. While living in peace, 
     every child has not only a better chance of getting their 
     rights, but also has a stronger potential to improve the 
     world for their generations and those to come.
       When we started discussing about child labour, we found 
     that many issues were common to all different parts of the 
     world. We heard personal stories from the children about; 
     child trafficking, sexual exploitation, working on fishing 
     boats, cleaning cars, selling things on street or in market, 
     pornography, collecting garbage, transportation and shipping, 
     brick making and demolishing, the making of medical utensils 
     and other dangerous materials, drug trafficking, domestic 
     servants, bounded labourers, farming, mining, weaving 
     carpets, child soldiers, working in factories and sweatshops. 
     These children are misused everyday and have no one to speak 
     for them.
       While most people and governments are aware these problems 
     exist, they are hidden or just ignored. This does not change 
     the fact they all are very dangerous to the physical and 
     mental well being of a child. These forms of child labour 
     must be stopped.
       Most of the children have expressed that they are losing 
     faith in the governments because of their empty promises. 
     They have made many promises to end child labour through 
     education and better social services. But they do not act. 
     Their promises are not met with real commitment or resources.
       While the governments put an enormous amount of money to 
     weapons and war, there are still children who cannot read or 
     write. They have no homes to live in or food to eat. The 
     government must take the needs of children as a priority. 
     They must provide all that is necessary to live while still 
     protecting our rights.
       As it is a responsibility of governments to protect our 
     rights, end child labour, and provide free, equal education 
     or good quality, we have many demands for the governments. 
     When we speak about the governments, we talk not only about 
     the role of national governments but also other governmental 
     bodies at international and regional levels that are 
     responsible for protecting our rights.
       First and most importantly, governments must listen to 
     children. The governments make the issues of the children a 
     priority and include the children in the decision-making that 
     affects our lives. Governments must also provide 
     opportunities for children to participate and express their 
     opinions because they are the future as well as the present 
     and their opinion should be valued
       Governments must criminalise child labour but should never 
     criminalise the children. The children are victims of child 
     labour. They must create and carry out laws that strictly 
     punish the adults who have abused children for their own 
     interest. Governments must support the children if they want 
     to bring the cases of them being used as child labourers to 
     court, by providing a free attorney. Children should be able 
     to turn in the people who have abused them without fear of 
     getting trouble. Instead, these children should be rescued 
     and rehabilitated.
       Governments must fight against trafficking of children. 
     They must enforce the laws they already have. But today's 
     laws may not be enough so they must make more effective ones. 
     The governments in countries where trafficking happens must 
     work together to have laws which can criminalise the 
     traffickers.
       Governments must provide compulsory education of quality at 
     free of cost. Schools must provide skilled teachers who are 
     qualified. There should be a mechanism to check that the 
     teachers are doing their job well and these laws to provide 
     education for all children are enforced. The teachers must 
     get paid better. Education must also be provided equally to 
     all children regardless of gender, race, economic status, 
     religion, places of birth, citizenships, caste, disability, 
     indigenousness or languages.
       Every country has to make sure the issue of child labour is 
     taught in every school.
       Governments should encourage adults to work. Adults should 
     work so they have enough money not to put their children to 
     work. The rights of adults as workers have to be respected. 
     Adult workers always have to be allowed to unionise in their 
     workplace, because the union can help protect them from 
     dangerous working conditions and provide them the minimum 
     wage. It is important that adults are protected as workers so 
     that the children do not have to work.
       Governments must establish a National Plan of Action to end 
     child labour. These plans should be made together with 
     children.
       Governments must make sure that overseas development aid 
     (ODA) goes directly to its purpose and does not end up in the 
     wrong hands.
       Governments must make a system to put some trademarks for 
     the products that are not made by child labourers.
       Governments, not only should they work with other 
     governments, they should also work with civil society and 
     trade unions to be at most effective. In return, the civil 
     society must understand the demands of the children and work 
     together with us to watch them closely so that the 
     governments will not fail us again. NGOs also have to use the 
     resources that they have honestly and directly for the 
     children.
       It is also parents' responsibility to listen to children.
       The children need love, respect and dignity. It is in the 
     hands of parents to provide with happy and stable family 
     life. Parents must take their responsibility and vote. When 
     they vote, they must also speak for the children and vote for 
     someone who respects child rights. If the parents are not 
     acting in the best interest of the child, the state must act 
     on the child's behalf. Parents must talk about issues such as 
     child sexual exploitation or abuse even when they are not 
     comfortable because this is the only way a child will know 
     his or her natural rights of safety and security. Parents 
     must understand the importance of a proper education no 
     matter of the gender of the child.
       Having identified the current situation of child labour and 
     our demands to the adults, we now show our commitment and the 
     role in ending child labour.
       We, the children, have to start initiatives to spread 
     awareness about child labour in our own local communities and 
     villages. We must educate each other about child labour, from 
     a child to a child to promote child participation.
       We must work at national level and establish a Children's 
     Parliament, in every country, that is not just a symbol but a 
     source of power for children to change the situations that we 
     think are wrong. This Parliament would elect a representative 
     to the country's government. These representatives would also 
     meet at a congress at regional and at international to look 
     at the problems at a larger scale, and report back to their 
     governments and local communities.
       We have to start a network of children so that we can keep 
     contact with each other to

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     be educated on the issue all over the world. Only while 
     working together, we can have the power to take action and to 
     end child labour. This network will be made up of children 
     from all over the world, and it will spread the stories of 
     child labour and opinions. The network will help us plan more 
     effective actions in our struggle against child labour. The 
     network will also be a medium to report on the governments' 
     failing or not failing their promises among the children of 
     the world.
       We believe that the use of art, dance, music and drama as a 
     form of expression and means to spread awareness about child 
     labour is very important. These are ways in which children 
     from any background can connect with, understand and enjoy. 
     There are many ways to spread the message against child 
     labour, beyond boarders, through performing art.
       We must also use media to spread our voices. We would 
     create our own form of media, such as newspaper developed by 
     the children for the children, for us to freely express our 
     opinion. Media also must be more friendly and tell the truth 
     about child labour and help us combat child labour.
       We have to bring the efforts to end child labour out to the 
     villages, where the fight is not as strong. Information about 
     child labour sometimes only reaches cities and people in the 
     villages do not have information about the dangers of child 
     labour. We must get them involved.
       We promise to continue to take action to eliminate child 
     labour and make a better world for children. Now, we ask all 
     of you to join us, because only together can we truly achieve 
     freedom for all. In this friendship, we will create a healthy 
     and peaceful world for all.
       Today, the power is in our hands. We define the future.
       We are the present and our voice is the future.

                          ____________________