New tack in battle against child labour

Date: 27/03/1997

By Shada Islam

THE European Commission is considering plans to shift the focus of the EU's efforts to combat child labour away from trade penalties and towards providing countries which demonstrate a determination to halt the practice with economic and commercial incentives.

The initiative coincides with moves by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) to get agreement on a first-ever global convention which would ban all “intolerable” or extreme forms of child labour, including slavery and the use of children for prostitution.

Plans still under discussion within the Commission would see the launch of a programme of tariff 'incentives' for countries which implement initiatives to eliminate the practice. But the EU would still retain the right to use the current mechanism for suspending tariff benefits granted to countries under the Gener- alised System of Preferences (GSP), as in the case of Burma.

The Commission's thinking reflects calls from the ILO and others for 'supportive action' by the international community to stop the use of child workers. This may take the form of increased development assistance linked to child welfare programmes, education projects and technical help in drawing up labour legislation.

The new ILO convention, expected to be ready for signature in 1999, is designed to complement the organisation's current rules prohibiting the use of child labour.

“It will fill the gaps in current international legal instruments on the subject and set clear priorities for national and international action,” said ILO Director-General Michel Hansenne.

Work on the new convention coincides with a growing recognition by international labour specialists, development experts, trade unions and human rights organisations that the fight against child labour requires what the ILO describes as “global solidarity” and a “multi-dimensional” approach.

“Governments must not limit their interventions - as most of them have done so far - to the enactment of protective legislation and a timid monitoring of its enforcement. They must also act on the economic, social, educational and cultural fronts,” said the organisation in a report drawn up for a recent conference on child labour in Amsterdam.

This view was echoed by Dutch Social Affairs Minister Ad Melkert, whose government holds the EU presidency.

“We must generate a partnership in place of provocation,” he insisted, adding that while the “flagrant exploitation of children has to be banned”, there was a need to “simultaneously offer alternatives to the children and their parents, including education, health care and employment”.

Dutch Development Minister Jan Pronk is equally insistent that western nations must adopt a “flexible and differentiated” approach to combating child labour.

“Imposing an immediate ban on all forms of child labour would be both unrealistic and counter-productive,” he argued, pointing out that children forced to stop working would not be able to find a place in the developing countries' inadequate school system.

“The ban would do nothing to tackle the root causes of the problem. Children would disappear into illegal networks, where they would be required to do even more hazardous work,” he warned.

ILO officials admit that in the past, the mere threat of punitive trade action by western nations has led to the mass dismissal of child workers by employers in Asia. The children then shifted to other, often more dangerous, occupations.

“Evidence suggests the need for caution and the need to move children away from the workplace in a phased and planned manner,” stated the organisation's report.

The agency is practising what it preaches. In a new scheme to eliminate child labour in Pakistan's soccer ball industry in the city of Sialkot, western sports good manufacturers (including Nike and Reebok) have joined forces with Pakistani football manufacturers, the ILO, UNICEF and human rights organisations such as Save the Children to implement an ambitious programme to move children from the factory floor to the school room in 18 months.

All participants have agreed to fund a 'social protection programme' to ensure that while the children go to school, their parents and older siblings can find employment to make up for the loss in family income.

International labour experts insist that their long-term aim remains to eliminate all forms of child labour. But, with an estimated 250 million children between the ages of five and 14 engaged in some kind of economic activity world-wide, the use of under-age workers is not going to stop overnight.

The ILO's priority is to tackle the worst abuses against children or, as Hansenne put it, “gross violations of international law and national legislation unjustified by any economic circumstances”.

The agency says about one-third of the world's child workers are engaged in work that is exploitative and hazardous to their health and well-being.

The goal of the convention will be to oblige ILO members to suppress immediately all extreme forms of child labour including slavery and bonded labour, the sale and trafficking of children, forced or compulsory labour, including debt mortgage and serfdom, the use of children for prostitution or in pornographic activities and the engagement of children in any kind of dangerous work.

It will also provide for a complete prohibition of work by young children (under 12 or 13-years-old) and special protection for girls.

Hansenne says the new convention will require member countries to adopt and strictly apply necessary penal sanctions.

“Many millions of children are employed in work or in conditions that are a veritable insult to human rights and an intolerable assault on the dignity of the individual,” he said.