[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 35, Number 48 (Monday, December 6, 1999)]
[Pages 2500-2503]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks on Signing the International Labor Organization Convention on 
the Prohibition and Elimination of the Worst Forms of Child Labor in 
Seattle

December 2, 1999

    Thank you, Secretary Herman; Mr. Samovia, thank you for your 
leadership; John Sweeney, Ambassador Tom Niles; all the Members of 
Congress here; Governor Locke; I would like to begin--I have to make a 
brief statement about Ireland, but before I do, just to illustrate the 
depth of support here, I'd like to ask all the Members of Congress who 
are here to stand and be recognized, and thank them for their help. 
Thank you.

Northern Ireland Peace Process

    Before I make my statement about this important convention, I'd like 
to say a few words about the truly remarkable and historic events taking 
place today in Northern Ireland. Eighteen months ago today the Good 
Friday agreement was signed with the promise of a future of peace and 
hope. Today the promise is being realized. The people of Northern 
Ireland now have the power to shape their own destiny and choose their 
own future. Democratic government by and for all the people of Northern 
Ireland is now replacing suspicion, fear, and violence. It is now 
possible to believe that the day of the gun and the bomb are, in fact, 
over.
    There are many leaders who deserve special tribute for their 
contributions, but I would like to mention especially David Trimble and 
John Taylor, John Hume and Seamus Mallon, Gerry Adams and Martin 
McGuinness, John Alderdice, Monica McWilliams, David Ervine and Gary 
McMichael and so many others.
    I would also like to thank Prime Minister Blair, Prime Minister 
Ahern, their predecessors, John Major, John Bruton, Albert Reynolds. I 
thank Sir John de Chastelain for his work. I thank the special envoys to 
Northern Ireland, Ms. Mowlam and Mr. Mandelson, for the work they have 
done. And especially I thank our great American leader there, George 
Mitchell, whose patience, commitment, and conviction were essential to 
making this day happen.
    The Good Friday agreement must continue to be implemented in full, 
in word and in spirit. The United States must continue and will continue 
to stand with all those who are unequivocally committed to the pursuit 
of peace and justice and democracy in Northern Ireland. This is our 
common responsibility to the children there, whose future is the best 
reason for all that has been done.
    Let me say that the United States is the home of the largest Irish 
diaspora in the world. Many of us claim Irish heritage. For

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all the years and all the bloodshed, to have the promise of being over 
today, this is an especially meaningful day for Irish-Americans, and I 
thank you very much.

ILO Child Labor Convention

    I'd like to begin this day by thanking all the Members of the 
Senate. Thank you, Senator Murray, for being here. And I want to thank 
the Republicans, as well as the Democrats, who voted on this together. 
But I would be remiss if I did not say that the first person who ever 
discussed this issue with me in 1992 when we were both running for the 
office I am privileged to hold was Senator Tom Harkin of Iowa. And for 
more than 7 years now, at every occasion, he has talked to me about this 
issue. It has been truly one of the driving passions of his life, and 
without him we would not be here doing this today. And I would like to 
ask him to stand.
    Thank you, Senator Harkin. Thank you.
    I also want to thank Secretary Herman and Gene Sperling and Karen 
Tramontano for what they did in our administration to spearhead the 
effort. Perhaps there is no better way to conclude my visit here, 
because what we celebrate this morning symbolizes in many ways what 
we're seeking in the launch of a new round of trade talks, not just to 
lower barriers but to raise living standards, to help ensure that people 
everywhere feel they have a positive stake in global trade that gives 
them and their children a chance for a better life.
    We are here in Seattle to continue our efforts to help establish a 
new consensus on international trade that leads to jobs that are secure, 
development that is sustainable, prosperity that is broadly shared. We 
seek to widen the circle of opportunity, deepen our commitments to human 
rights and human freedom, and put a human face on the global economy.
    Some day that it is not possible, that the interests of nations, 
businesses, and labor, within and across national borders, are too 
divergent. This child labor convention proves that, at least on this 
profoundly important issue, it is possible. It is a living example of 
how we can together come to level up global standards and lift up core 
labor values.
    The step we take today affirms fundamental human rights. Ultimately, 
that's what core labor standards are all about, not an instrument of 
protectionism or a vehicle to impose one nation's values on another but 
about our shared values, about the dignity of work, the decency of life, 
the fragility and importance of childhood.
    In my State of the Union Address almost 2 years ago, I asked 
Congress to help make the United States a world leader in this cause and 
to start by working to end abusive child labor. We are making good on 
that effort. Together--again, across party lines--we secured the largest 
investment in American history to end abusive child labor around the 
globe.
    We're establishing the first-ever United States Government 
purchasing ban on goods made by forced or indentured child labor, and 
we've beefed up enforcement to stop the importation of goods made by 
such labor. Just last week, the Customs Service banned the importation 
of certain hand-rolled cigarettes, known as bidis, because of evidence 
that one firm was making them with bonded child labor.
    Today we build on our achievements and our common commitment. This 
convention is truly a victory for labor, for business, and for 
Government--for all those who worked long and hard for 2 year to reach a 
consensus; a victory for the nations of the world who joined together in 
the ILO this summer to adopt this convention on a unanimous vote. Today 
we say with one clear voice: Abusive child labor is wrong and must end.
    Above all, of course, this is a victory for the children of the 
world, and especially for the tens of millions of them who are still 
forced to work in conditions that shock the conscience and haunt the 
soul; children brutalized by the nightmare of prostitution; children 
indentured to manufacturers working against debt for wages so low they 
will never be repaid; children who must handle dangerous chemicals or 
who are forced to sell illegal drugs; children who crawl deep into 
unsafe mines; children who are forcibly recruited into armed conflicts 
and then spend the rest of their entire lives bearing the scars of 
committing murder when they were 8 or 9 or 10 years old.

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    For the first time, this convention calls on the international 
community to take immediate and effective steps to stop the worst forms 
of child labor. This convention enables the world to say, no more. We 
recognize, of course, that no treaty or convention is enough and that to 
end abusive child labor once and for all we must untangle the pathology 
of grinding poverty and hopelessness than lies at its root. If we want 
to slam the door shut on abusive child labor, we must open the door wide 
to education and opportunity. After all, nations can only reach their 
potential when their children can fulfill theirs.
    John Sweeney put it best when he said economic development is based 
in education, and school is the best place for children. That's why this 
convention places a priority on basic education, and we are trying to 
honor that priority.
    Around the world, we are investing in creative solutions to get 
children out of abusive workrooms and into classrooms. We are giving 
them a way out of the soccer ball industry in Pakistan, the shoe 
industry in Brazil, the fireworks industry in Guatemala. We are giving 
them back the most precious gift of all, their childhood.
    And as we work to provide both boys and girls access to schools, we 
are also working to provide their parents with viable economic 
alternatives and access to jobs. In Pakistan, for example, when 7,000 
children moved out of the soccer ball manufacturing plant into the 
schools, 7,000 parents moved into jobs they didn't have before, at 
better incomes.
    Microcredit loans help people in developing countries, and women in 
particular, to start businesses, raise their standard of living, build a 
better life for their children. I am proud that through the Agency for 
International Development, the United States financed 2 million such 
loans last year. So we have here not only the Secretary of Labor but the 
Secretary of Commerce. We see this not only as a labor issue but a 
business and an economic issue. We believe that everyone will be better 
off when children are given back their childhoods.
    We are working to integrate the agenda, also, as all of you know, of 
the World Trade Organization, the IMF, and the World Bank with the 
agenda of the ILO. That is key to making sure that the issues of child 
labor and core labor standards, more generally, are on the international 
economic agenda, and they don't become either/or conflicts. That's why 
ensuring the rights, the basic rights of labor, is central to our 
mission here in Seattle.
    This is a good day for the children of the world, but we can make 
tomorrow even a better day. We can do it by seeing that other nations 
also ratify this treaty and join in our cause, and we can do it by 
building on the solid foundation of this convention and the common 
ground forged by leaders here in the work of the WTO, the IMF, the World 
Bank, and other international institutions. We have to harness the 
spirit of progress and the sense of possibility that this noble document 
embodies. We can light the way out of the darkness of abusive child 
labor into the dawn of a new century of promise for all the children of 
the world.
    Thank you very much.
    They've elected me to say this. I would like to ask Mr. Sweeney and 
Ambassador Niles and all of the Members of the Congress, the Governor 
and Secretary Daley, Secretary Slater, to come up and join us as we do 
this signing, please.

Note: The President spoke at 9:10 a.m. at the Bell Harbor International 
Conference Center. In his remarks, he referred to Juan Samovia, director 
general, International Labor Organization; John J. Sweeney, president, 
AFL-CIO; former U.S. Ambassador to Greece Thomas M.T. Niles, president, 
U.S. Council for Business; Gov. Gary Locke of Washington; David Trimble, 
leader, and John Taylor, member, Ulster Unionist Party; Social 
Democratic and Labor Party members John Hume and Seamus Mallon; Gerry 
Adams, leader, and Martin McGuinness, member, Sinn Fein; Alliance Party 
leader Lord John Alderdice; Monica McWilliams of the Northern Ireland 
Women's Coalition; Progressive Unionist Party spokesman David Ervine; 
Ulster Democratic Party leader Gary McMichael; Prime Minister Tony Blair 
and former Prime Minister John Major of the United Kingdom; Prime 
Minister Bertie Ahern and former Prime Ministers John Bruton and Albert 
Reynolds of Ireland; Gen. John de Chastelain, Canadian Defense Forces, 
chair, Independent International Commission on Decommissioning; former 
United Kingdom Secretary of State for Northern Ireland Marjorie Mowlam 
and her successor, Peter Mandelson; and former Senator

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George J. Mitchell, who chaired the multiparty talks in Northern 
Ireland. The convention was entitled the International Labor 
Organization Convention No. 182, Convention Concerning the Prohibition 
and Immediate Action for Elimination of the Worst Forms of Child Labor.