    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1999, Book I)]
    [June 16, 1999]
    [Pages 946-950]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks to the International Labor Organization Conference in Geneva,
    Switzerland
    June 16, 1999

        Thank you very much, Director General Somavia, for your fine statements and your excellent work.
    Conference President Mumuni, Director
    General Petrovsky, ladies and gentlemen
    of the ILO, it is a great honor for me to be here today with, as you
    have noticed, quite a large American delegation. I hope you will take it
    as a commitment of the United States to our shared vision and not simply
    as a burning desire for us to visit this beautiful city on every
    possible opportunity.
        I am delighted to be here with Secretary Albright and Secretary of Labor Herman; with my National Economic Adviser, Gene
    Sperling, and my National Security Adviser,
    Sandy Berger. We're delighted to be joined
    by the president of the American Federation of Labor, the AFL-CIO, John
    Sweeney, and several other leaders of the
    U.S. labor movement, and with Senator Tom Harkin
    from Iowa, who is the foremost advocate in the United States of the
    abolition of child labor. I am grateful to all of them for coming with
    me and to the First Lady and our
    daughter for joining us on this trip. And I
    thank you for your warm reception of her presence here.
        It is indeed an honor for me to be the first American President to
    speak before the ILO in Geneva. It is long overdue. There is no
    organization that has worked harder to bring people together around
    fundamental human aspirations and no organization whose mission is more
    vital for today and tomorrow.
        The ILO, as the Director General said, was created in the wake of
    the devastation of World War I as part of a vision to provide stability
    to a world recovering from war, a vision put forward by our President,
    Woodrow Wilson. He said then, ``While we are fighting for freedom, we
    must see that labor is free.'' At a time when dangerous doctrines of
    dictatorship were increasingly appealing, the ILO was founded on the
    realization that injustice produces, and I quote, ``unrest so great that
    the peace and harmony of the world are imperiled.''
        Over time the Organization was strengthened, and the United States
    played its role, starting with President Franklin Roosevelt and
    following through his successors and many others in the United States
    Congress, down to the strong supporters today, including Senator
    Harkin and the distinguished senior Senator from
    New York, Patrick Moynihan.
        For half a century, the ILO has waged a struggle of rising
    prosperity and widening freedom, from the shipyards of Poland to the
    diamond mines of South Africa. Today, as the Director General said, you
    remain the only organization to bring together governments, labor
    unions, and business to try to unite people in common cause: the dignity
    of work; the belief that honest labor, fairly compensated, gives meaning
    and structure to our lives; the ability of every family and all children
    to rise as far as their talents will take them. In a world too often
    divided, this organization has been a powerful force for unity, justice,
    equality, and shared prosperity. For all that, I thank you.
        Now, at the edge of a new century, at the dawn of the information
    age, the ILO and its

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    vision are more vital than ever, for the world is becoming a much
    smaller and much, much more interdependent place. Most nations are
    linked to the new dynamic, idea-driven, technology-powered, highly
    competitive international economy.
        The digital revolution is a profound, powerful, and potentially
    democratizing force. It can empower people and nations, enabling the
    wise and farsighted to develop more quickly and with less damage to the
    environment. It can enable us to work together across the world as
    easily as if we were working just across the hall. Competition,
    communications, and more open markets spur stunning innovation and make
    their fruits available to business and workers worldwide.
        Consider this: Every single day, half a million air passengers, 1.5
    billion E-mail messages, and $1.5 trillion cross international borders.
    We also have new tools to eradicate diseases that have long plagued
    humanity, to remove the threat of global warming and environmental
    destruction, to lift billions of people into the first truly global
    middle class.
        Yet, as the financial crisis of the last 2 years has shown, the
    global economy with its churning hyperactivity poses new risks, as well,
    of disruption, dislocation, and division. A financial crisis in one
    country can be felt on factory floors half a world away. The world has
    changed, much of it for the better, but too often our response to its
    new challenges has not changed.
        Globalization is not a proposal or a policy choice. It is a fact.
    But how we respond to it will make all the difference. We cannot dam up
    the tides of economic change anymore than King Canute could still the
    waters. Nor can we tell our people to sink or swim on their own. We must
    find a third way, a new and democratic way, to maximize market potential
    and social justice, competition and community. We must put a human face
    on the global economy, giving working people everywhere a stake in its
    success, equipping them all to reap its rewards, providing for their
    families the basic conditions of a just society. All nations must
    embrace this vision, and all the great economic institutions of the
    world must devote their creativity and energy to this end.
        Last May I had the opportunity to come and speak to the World Trade
    Organization and stress that as we fight for open markets, it must open
    its doors to the concerns of working people and the environment. Last
    November I spoke to the International Monetary Fund and World Bank and
    stressed that we must build a new financial architecture as modern as
    today's markets, to tame the cycles of boom and bust in the global
    economy as we can now do in national economies, to ensure the integrity
    of international financial transactions, and to expand social safety
    nets for the most vulnerable.
        Today I say to you that the ILO, too, must be ready for the 21st
    century, along the lines that Director General Somavia has outlined.
        Let me begin by stating my firm belief that open trade is not
    contrary to the interest of working people. Competition and integration
    lead to stronger growth, more and better jobs, more widely shared gains.
    Renewed protectionism in any of our nations would lead to a spiral of
    retaliation that would diminish the standard of living for working
    people everywhere. Moreover, a failure to expand trade further could
    choke off innovation and diminish the very possibilities of the
    information economy. No, we need more trade, not less.
        Unfortunately, working people the world over do not believe this.
    Even in the United States, with the lowest unemployment rate in a
    generation, where exports accounted for 30 percent of our growth, until
    the financial crisis hit Asia, working people strongly resist new
    market-opening measures. There are many reasons. In advanced countries
    the benefits of open trade outweigh the burdens. But they are widely
    spread, while the dislocations of open trade are painfully concentrated.
        In all countries, the premium the modern economy places on skills
    leaves too many hard-working people behind. In poor countries, the gains
    seem too often to go to the already wealthy and powerful, with little or
    no rise in the general standard of living. And the international
    organizations charged with monitoring and providing for rules of fair
    trade, and enforcement of them, seem to take a very long time to work
    their way to the right decision, often too late to affect the people who
    have been disadvantaged.
        So as we press for more open trade, we must do more to ensure that
    all our people are lifted by the global economy. As we prepare to launch
    a new global round of trade talks in Seattle, in November, it is vital
    that the WTO and the ILO work together to advance that common goal.

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        We clearly see that a thriving global economy will grow out of the
    skills, the ideas, the education of millions of individuals. In each of
    our nations and as a community of nations, we must invest in our people
    and lift them to their full potential. If we allow the ups and downs of
    financial crises to divert us from investing in our people, it is not
    only those citizens or nations that will suffer; the entire world will
    suffer from their lost potential.
        It is clear that when nations face financial crisis, they need the
    commitment and the expertise not only of the international financial
    institutions; they need the ILO as well. The IMF, the World Bank, and
    WTO, themselves, should work more closely with the ILO, and this
    organization must be willing and able to assume more responsibility.
        The lesson of the past 2 years is plain: Those nations with strong
    social safety nets are better able to weather the storms. Those strong
    safety nets do not just include financial assistance and emergency aid
    for poorest people; they also call for the empowerment of the poorest
    people.
        This weekend in Cologne, I will join my partners in the G-8 in
    calling for a new focus on stronger safety nets within nations and
    within the international community. We will also urge improved
    cooperation between the ILO and the international financial institutions
    in promoting social protections and core labor standards. And we should
    press forward to lift the debt burden that is crushing many of the
    poorest nations.
        We are working to forge a bold agreement to more than triple debt
    relief for the world's poorest nations and to target those savings to
    education, health care, child survival, and fighting poverty. I pledge
    to work to find the resources so we can do our part and contribute our
    share toward an expanded trust fund for debt relief.
        Yet, as important as our efforts to strengthen safety nets and
    relieve debt burdens are, for citizens throughout the world to feel that
    they truly have a hand in shaping their future, they must know the
    dignity and respect of basic rights in the workplace.
        You have taken a vital step toward lifting the lives of working
    people by adopting the Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights
    at Work last year. The document is a blueprint for the global economy
    that honors our values: the dignity of work, an end to discrimination,
    an end to forced labor, freedom of association, the right of people to
    organize and bargain in a civil and peaceful way. These are not just
    labor rights; they're human rights. They are a charter for a truly
    modern economy. We must make them an everyday reality all across the
    world.
        We advance these rights first by standing up to those who abuse
    them. Today, one member nation, Burma, stands in defiance of the ILO's
    most fundamental values and most serious findings. The Director General
    has just reported to us that the flagrant violation of human rights
    persists, and I urge the ILO governing body to take definite steps, for
    Burma is out of step with the standards of the world community and the
    aspirations of its people. Until people have the right to shape their
    destiny, we must stand by them and keep up the pressure for change.
        We also advance core labor rights by standing with those who seek to
    make them a reality in the workplace. Many countries need extra
    assistance to meet these standards. Whether it's rewriting inadequate
    labor laws or helping fight discrimination against women and minorities
    in the workplace, the ILO must be able to help.
        That is why in the balanced budget I submitted to our Congress this
    year I've asked for $25 million to help create a new arm of the ILO to
    work with developing countries to put in place basic labor standards,
    protections, safe workplaces, the right to organize. I ask other
    governments to join us. I've also asked for $10 million from our
    Congress to strengthen U.S. bilateral support for governments seeking to
    raise such core labor standards.
        We have asked for millions of dollars also to build on our voluntary
    anti-sweatshop initiative to encourage the many innovative programs that
    are being developed to eliminate sweatshops and raise consumer awareness
    of the conditions in which the clothes they wear and the toys they buy
    for their children are made.
        But we must go further to give life to our dream of an economy that
    lifts all our people. To do that, we must wipe from the Earth the most
    vicious forms of abusive child labor. Every single day, tens of millions
    of children work in conditions that shock the conscience. There are
    children chained to often risky machines, children handling dangerous
    chemicals, children forced to work when they should be in school
    preparing themselves and their countries for a better tomorrow. Each of
    our nations must take responsibility.

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        Last week, at the inspiration of Senator Tom Harkin, who is here with me today, I directed all agencies of the
    United States Government to make absolutely sure they are not buying any
    products made with abusive child labor.
        But we must also act together. Today, the time has come to build on
    the growing world consensus to ban the most abusive forms of child
    labor, to join together and to say there are some things we cannot and
    will not tolerate.
        We will not tolerate children being used in pornography and
    prostitution. We will not tolerate children in slavery or bondage. We
    will not tolerate children being forcibly recruited to serve in armed
    conflicts. We will not tolerate young children risking their health and
    breaking their bodies in hazardous and dangerous working conditions for
    hours unconscionably long, regardless of country, regardless of
    circumstance. These are not some archaic practices out of a Charles
    Dickens novel. These are things that happen in too many places today.
        I am proud of what is being done at your meeting. In January I said
    to our Congress and the American people, in the State of the Union
    Address, that we would work with the ILO on a new initiative to raise
    labor standards and to conclude a treaty to ban abusive child labor
    everywhere in the world. I am proud to say that the United States will
    support your convention. After I return home, I will send it to the U.S.
    Senate for ratification, and I ask all other countries to ratify it, as
    well.
        We thank you for achieving a true breakthrough for the children of
    the world. We thank the nations here represented who have made genuine
    progress in dealing with this issue in their own nations. You have
    written an important new chapter in our effort to honor our values and
    protect our children.
        Passing this convention alone, however, will not solve the problem.
    We must also work aggressively to enforce it. And we must address root
    causes, the tangled pathology of poverty and hopelessness that leads to
    abusive child labor. Where that still exists, it is simply not enough to
    close the factories where the worst child labor practices occur. We must
    also ensure that children then have access to schools and their parents
    have jobs. Otherwise, we may find children in even more abusive
    circumstances.
        That is why the work of the International Program for the
    Elimination of Child Labor is so important. With the support of the
    United States, it is working in places around the world to get children
    out of the business of making fireworks, to help children move from
    their jobs as domestic servants, to take children from factories to
    schools.
        Let me cite just one example of the success being achieved, the work
    being done to eliminate child labor from the soccer ball industry in
    Pakistan. Two years ago, thousands of children under the age of 14
    worked for 50 companies stitching soccer balls full-time. The industry,
    the ILO, and UNICEF joined together to remove children from the
    production of soccer balls and give them a chance to go to school, and
    to monitor the results.
        Today, the work has been taken up by women in 80 poor villages in
    Pakistan, giving them new employment and their families new stabilities.
    Meanwhile, the children have started to go to school, so that when they
    come of age, they will be able to do better jobs raising the standard of
    living of their families, their villages, and their nation. I thank all
    who were involved in this endeavor and ask others to follow their lead.
        I am pleased that our administration has increased our support for
    IPEC by tenfold. I ask you to think what could be achieved by a full and
    focused international effort to eliminate the worst forms of child
    labor. Think of the children who would go to school, whose lives would
    open up, whose very health would flower, freed of the crushing burden of
    dangerous and demeaning work, given back those irreplaceable hours of
    childhood for learning and playing and living.
        By giving life to core labor standards, by acting effectively to
    lift the burden of debt, by putting a more human face on the world
    trading system and the global economy, by ending the worst forms of
    child labor, we will be giving our children the 21st century they
    deserve.
        These are hopeful times. Previous generations sought to redeem the
    rights of labor in a time of world war and organized tyranny. We have a
    chance to build a world more prosperous, more united, more humane than
    ever before. In so doing, we can fulfill the dreams of the ILO's
    founders and redeem the struggles of those who fought and organized, who
    sacrificed and, yes, died for freedom, equality, and justice in the
    workplace.
        It is our great good fortune that in our time we have been given the
    golden opportunity to make the 21st century a period of abundance and
    achievement for all. Because we can do

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    that, we must. It is a gift to our children worthy of the millennium.
        Thank you very much.

    Note: The President spoke at 11:25 a.m. in the Assembly Hall at the
    United Nations Building. In his remarks, he referred to Juan Somavia,
    director general, Alhaji Muhammad Mumuni, conference president,
    International Labor Organization; and Vladimir Petrovsky, director
    general, United Nations Office at Geneva. The President also referred to
    IPEC, the International Program on the Elimination of Child Labor. The
    Executive order of June 12 on child labor is listed in Appendix D at the
    end of this volume.