Children deserve food, security, education, and peace. Violence has forced children in particular to pay a terrible price. The forcible recruitment of young children by Nepal's Maoist forces is an example of this. Children have suffered loss of their families and homes. The majority of internal refugees are children.

Armed conflict is very difficult to eradicate. Children are the predominant victims of war and/or terrorism, from Iraq to Afghanistan, from Nepal to Kashmir. Lots of innocent children are caught in the crossfire or are deliberately targeted by terrorists.

As with all human behavior, however, the influence of nurturing surroundings always has to be considered when the well being of children is at stake. Fortunately, worldwide the influence of nurturing seems generally to be prevailing over that of armed hostilities, in part thanks to greater education about other races and the spread of worldwide communication that shows children more of the commonality of the human race than its differences.

Since Nepal's natural resources are limited, its economy is not suited to producing material goods for child development. These require a greater capital investment and entail larger transportation costs. So for the sake of improved child development, in the short-term Nepal's programs must be made more knowledge-intensive.

Knowledge work does not require transportation and large capital investments. These programs, however, have to produce outcomes that are competitive in a world environment. This requires, in turn, world-class education in those subjects if graduates are to be able to compete around the world via the Internet.

Many underdeveloped countries today are doing what I describe above. Therefore, I can't think of a better way for Nepal to devote its revenues toward the well being of our children. It is true that Nepal is also committed to addressing the challenges of peace and development.

Nepal has become a workshop of the world, with very prosperous enclaves on its periphery. Nepal has also experienced a stunning change in its fortunes as the world has changed with its rise and has matured to become a completely independent actor in south Asia. What does this mean, then, for the children of Nepal, who are being born today? What will their world look like in 2006 and 2010?

To have a child can be looked at in a number of ways. For their parents, children are the expected result -- the approved building blocks of any civilization.

Planned or unplanned, children are to be expected. In middle age, children, once again, are often a pleasant surprise, as two adults find that God has decided they need some excitement in their lives. Children are often used to both bind and settle inheritance questions.

Regardless of how they are conceived and brought forth, child bearing is life-affirming, the most hopeful thing human beings can do. Children are also messy, time-consuming, and, some say, the ultimate teachers of their parents. Women tend to look at childbearing as destiny, which is not surprising. Birthing is the act that defines most women and perpetuates the human race. Women give birth to create families, as well as to fulfill the dream states they have maintained since their own childhood. Men can only look on in awe, protect and earn, and eventually die. It's the way of things.

So, what do these Nepali women with children in the year 2005 dream of for the year 2006? Peace and prosperity, certainly. Terrorism degrades both the terrorist and the terrorized. It is a moral malignancy based on an illusion. It does not yield genuine peace, which has been proven time and time again, but only provides jollies for sick and diseased minds.

In the collective dream state of a nation, women probably harbor hopes that Nepal, their own "mother," will become even more beautiful than they perceive it to be, which would be very good indeed. These women nurture the fierce determination that their child will have a greater say in these matters and will discover the key to the mystery that is the future.

Do they dream of great wealth and great accomplishments, or great fame, peace, and security? Or perhaps their dream is more humble -- survival and perhaps some slight advancement? Precisely what these mothers-to-be dream of is known only to the gods, who look down and ponder such requests.

One thing is certain -- no matter how these Nepali women conceive of their own and their children's future, the rest of the world will be just as eager as they are to see how it all develops, for Nepal may well hold the key to many puzzles as it finds its own rightful place in the sun of tomorrow, in the year 2006.

http://english.ohmynews.com/articleview/article_view.asp?article_class=3&no=270383&rel_no=1

In the wake of a worsening orphan crisis and accusations this week against a headmaster who allegedly raped six primary school pupils, the United Nations Children’s Fund today repeated its call for communities to speak out against all forms of child abuse.

UNICEF said it was horrified at the continued sexual abuse of children, most of them primary school pupils, and by those in trusted positions. Anecdotal evidence from local NGOs and clinics around Harare show child sexual abuse is rampant. Last year alone, a local NGO recorded 4146 cases of sexual abuse against children in its area of operation alone.

Despite growing public concern against child sexual abuse, together with a child friendly judiciary system in Zimbabwe, reported cases continue to rise.  Recently, school staff members were charged with abusing 52 girls from one boarding primary school near Marondera (just outside the capital), while in Harare 14 primary school girls were also allegedly abused by staff members.

This level of progress, however, will not be sufficient to ensure that every child benefits from a full course of primary education by 2015. The pace must be stepped up. Energy and resources urgently need to be devoted not only to expanding the provision of schooling, drawing in all out-of-school children, but also to addressing the range of factors in schools as well as in homes and communities that impede children’s completion of a primary education.

Analysis of household survey data from 1980 to 2001 shows a wide regional variation in the average annual rate of increase (AARI) in the :NE/AR. Regional AARI varies from a high of 1.4 per cent per year for Middle East North Africa to a low of 0.35 per cent for Central and Eastern Europe and the Common Wealth of Independent States (CEE/CIS).

In general the regions that had already attained high levels of participation demonstrated the lowest AARI, reflecting the fact that they were starting from a high base, as well as the extra difficulty involved in achieving the last few percentage points for universal participation. At the same time, the regions with the lowest levels of school participation (South Asia, Eastern/Southern Africa and West/Central Africa) achieved very high AARI, indicating that the efforts and resources invested in expanding education have borne fruit, despite considerable barriers and obstacles.

The progress made in these regions remains precarious, however, in the face of continued low levels of enrolment/attendance and multiple barriers to education.

A more significant sense of progress can be gauged from the projected AARI required to achieve the goal of universal primary completion by 2015. The world would have to maintain an AARI of 1.3 per cent over the next 10 years - approaching the rates achieved in Middle East North Africa over the past two decades.

The regions that are currently furthest from the goal will clearly have to achieve AARls that are considerably higher: 3.2 per cent in West/Central Africa, 2.8 per cent in Eastern/Southern Africa and 1.9 per cent in South Asia.

The good news is that most of the countries in the Middle East North Africa, East

Asia/Pacific and Latin America! Caribbean regions appear to be on course for 2015 if they maintain their current AARI. Past gains need to be safeguarded against the eroding effects of problems such as child labour, child trafficking, HIV/AIDS and emergencies such as civil conflict and natural disasters. In CEE/CIS the AARI needs to improve, but the target can certainly be met.

In all these regions, gains in enrolment/attendance need to be translated into improvements in children’s completion of primary education. At the other extreme, most of the countries in sub-Saharan Africa, and to a lesser extent in South Asia, will need to increase their AARI substantially to reach the 2015 goals. In West/Central Africa, for example, the AARI will need to be four times its current rate. There are, furthermore, 37 countries, most of them in sub-Saharan Africa, where the AARI will need to be above 2.0 per cent in order to reach the goal.

Clearly, the regions that have made some of the highest gains in AARI over the past 20 years will have to make even greater improvements over the next 10 years if they are to achieve universal primary completion by 2015. This is a formidable challenge. In the most disadvantaged regions and countries business as usual will not deliver. Global policies and strategies for the future will need to help such countries achieve exponential growth in AARI, through a series of ‘quantum leaps’ in their enrolment rates.

Gender parity in education is so central to achievernent of the MDGs that it was the only area in which an earlier target date of 2005 was set. Eliminating gender disparity is clearly a stepping stone towards the broader goal of education for all, which is impossible without gender parity. Even more significantly, it is also a platform for gender equality and the empowerment of women, which in turn are necessary for other MDGs such as reducing child mortality, improving maternal health and reducing poverty.

UNICEF projections based on attendance data for 81 developing countries show a global gender parity index (GPI) in 2005 of 0.96 - meaning that there are 96 girls for every 100 boys in primary school. This technically puts the world on track to meet the goal of gender parity in primary education.

But in practice there is a long road still to travel with three of the world’s regions lagging way behind in terms of girls’ primary participation. Globally, some 54 per cent of the children out of primary school are girls, meaning that for every 100 boys out of school, there are 117 girls in the same situation.

From this broad-brush picture, however, the detail needs to be distinguished at regional, national and even sub national levels in order to assess the achievements so far - and to measure the tasks ahead if gender parity is to be attained as soon as possible after the 2005 target date. The gender gap has been closing steadily ever since 1980: Girls have experienced greater gains in school participation than boys across all regions and in most developing countries. Without exception, all regions showed a higher AARI for girls than for boys over this period, reflecting the enormous ground girls’ education had to cover since 1980 in order to close the gap.

Despite this level of progress, the indications are that AARI for girls will have to grow much faster than for boys in most regions over the next decade if the world is to achieve gender parity as part of universal primary completion by 2015. Two regions illustrate the complexity of the situation. In South Asia and West/Central Africa the gender gap is still a paramount concern, but the dimensions of the problem are different. The availability of education in the two regions is very different: In South Asia three quarters of girls attend school whereas in West/Central Africa only a fraction over half of the girls participate in education. But the sheer numbers of girls out of school in South Asia - around 23.5 million, which means there are almost five million more girls out of school than boys - ensures that the gender gap for the developing world as a whole remains wide. In West/ Central Africa, meanwhile, girls have far less chance of realising the manifold benefits of education than the girls of any other region. Closing the gender gap in these two regions - as well as pushing on towards universal primary education - should be an absolute priority for policy makers and development agencies over the next decade.

The Committee on the Rights of the Child today considered the second periodic report of Lithuania on how that country is implementing the provisions of the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Introducing the report was Violeta Murauskaite, Undersecretary in the Ministry of Social Security and Labour of Lithuania, who said that among the main achievements in the field of child rights protection was the Government's collection of statistical data on children, the creation in 2003 of the Municipal Children's Rights Protection Office, which was responsible for the implementation of measures on the protection of the rights of the child at the municipal level, and the creation of the Council of the Child's Welfare in October 2005. Moreover, a law had recently been drafted on social services which aimed to increase availability of social services for families and children, such as family counseling and alternative family child care, among other things. In terms of education, she noted the creation by the Parliament of a new version of the Law on Education of Lithuania and the National Strategy of Education for 2003-2012 to ensure equal opportunities for children to receive proper education.

In preliminary remarks, Committee Expert Lucy Smith, the Committee Expert who served as country Rapporteur for the report of Lithuania, thanked the delegation for a fruitful dialogue which had provided the Committee with a clearer picture about the situation of child rights in Lithuania. It was the impression of the Committee that there was a political will in Lithuania to strengthen the rights of the child and to understand the importance of those rights. Among other things, the Committee commended the Government for its efforts to implement the National Plan of Action of Children, however it was noted that it needed to be funded adequately.

Other Committee Experts contributed to the debate by raising questions pertaining to, among other things, cooperation with non-governmental organizations; domestic violence and child abuse; corporal punishment; foreign children, in particular children from Chechnya and Afghanistan; Roma children; children with disabilities; the Office of the Ombudsman; reproductive health; alternative care institutions; education; and trafficking in humans and prostitution.

The Committee will release its formal, written concluding observations and recommendations on the report of Lithuania towards the end of its three-week session which will conclude on 27 January.

The delegation of Lithuania was made up of representatives of the Ministry of Social Security and Labour; the Ministry of Education; the Ministry of Health; the Ministry of Foreign Affairs; the Ministry of the Interior; the Ministry of Justice; the Department of Drugs Control; and the Permanent Mission of Lithuania to United Nations Office at Geneva.

As one of the 192 States parties to the Convention, Lithuania obliged to present periodic reports to the Committee on its efforts to comply with the provisions of that treaty. The delegation was on hand during the day to present the report and to answer questions raised by Committee Experts.

When Chamber B of the Committee reconvenes at 10 a.m. on Thursday, 19 January, it will take up the second periodic report of Mauritius (CRC/C/65/Add.35).

http://www.nieuwsbank.nl/en/2006/01/19/v009.htm

Among a total of 2.6 million children engaged in various forms of labor in Nepal, only 1.4 million are paid by their employers, Xinhua said in its report Wednesday.

"About 88 percent of economically active girls work 14 hours or more per day," it quoted Gauri Pradhan, chairman of Child Workers in Nepal Concerned Center (CWIN), a non-governmental organisation (NGO) and Global March partner in Nepal, as saying at a workshop titled From Exploitation to Education.

According to the International Labour Organisation, 55 percent of working children are girls, Pradhan noted, adding, "They work longer hours than boys but many are not paid by their employers."

Uneven economic and social relations, poverty and lack of awareness are pushing children into child labour. "Even though children get an opportunity to go to schools, they cannot continue education," Pradhan said.

"Child labour has declined in recent years but the Nepali government is facing new challenges due to limited resources and conflict situation to tackle the problem," Dinesh Hari Adhikari, joint-secretary at the Ministry of Labor and Transportation Management, said at the workshop.

However, a master plan on child labour and Education For All programmes are underway to address the problem, Adhikari added.

CWIN is the Regional Coordinator of Global March in South Asia region.

Kailash Satyarthi has saved tens of thousands of lives by staging dangerous and daring dawn raids on Indian factories where children are brutally enslaved.

His mission is to "wipe away the blot of human slavery".

In Kenya, Martin Fisher and Nick Moon have helped impoverished families by doubling the yield of local farmers through a low-cost, manual water pump.

Meanwhile, a new bank is loaning billions of pounds to the poor thanks to entrepreneurial efforts in Bangladesh.

And one enterprising woman has founded the Delancey Street foundation in San Francisco to help drug addicts, criminals and the homeless win back their self-respect and lead productive lives.

A new breed of compassionate capitalists are beginning to stamp their mark on the world as 'change-agents' for society.

Their stories and others are about to be told in a new TV programme fronted by Hollywood movie icon Robert Redford, recording the birth of the "new heroes of our time", the "social entrepreneurs".

Modern day slavery

Bonded labour is a form of modern day slavery whereby a poor family borrows a petty sum from a businessman or landlord but is forced to hand over one of their children as security.

But they are too impoverished to pay back the loan.

The son or daughter becomes a slave and if they try to escape they are beaten, tortured and even killed.

Forced to work 18 hours days, often without breaks, their spirit is crushed from an early age.

Mr Satyarthi left a promising career as an electrical engineer to mount rescue raids on factories - often manned by armed guards - where children and families were held captive.

Culprit companies include carpet makers, diamond miners, and even firms that make footballs.

Mr Satyarthi created the South Asian Coalition on Child Servitude (SACCS) in 1989, which has liberated and rehabilitated nearly 40,000 bonded labourers, educating them in basic skills to lead and free and independent life.

Former slaves have even become liberators themselves, taking part in dawn raids to free others.

Death threats

But all this has come at a personal price to Mr Satyarthi.

He has endured death threats and attempts at incarceration and has lost two of his colleagues who were murdered on the job.

Undeterred, Mr Satyarthi has begun a programme called "Bal Mitra Gram" to encourage Indian villages to abolish child labour as well as supporting "Rugmark" - where carpets are labelled and certified to be child-labour-free from the factories that make them.

By showing buyers the human costs involved in some Indian industries, he hopes to tweak the conscience of western consumers.

In the meantime, the business of liberating child slaves is something he will never turn his back on.

"I would never give up the work," he tells the BBC.

"Somebody has to accept the challenge whatever dangers are there.

"I want to see in my lifetime that there is no child slavery in the world."

'The New Heroes', the Community Channel on Thursdays at 20:00 GMT from 19 January, 2006, with repeats on Fridays at 22:00 GMT and Sundays at 21:00 GMT.

Interview by Alison Benjamin
Wednesday January 4, 2006
The Guardian

Why have you dedicated your life to ending child labour?

I can recall the first day at my school, I was shocked to note a cobbler child my age working on the doorstep. This made me think: why are they cursed to work? That was the beginning.

Is it dangerous freeing child slaves in raids on armed factories?

Feeling danger is a perception. If it was your own son or daughter who was forced to become a slave, would you think twice before fighting tooth and nail to free him or her?

How many villages in India have abolished child labour?

Thousands. Through our organisation, we have eliminated child labour in more than 200 villages.

Are parents compensated for the loss of earning while their children go to school?

Most children don't earn anything. In cases of bonded child labourers, parents have been given the benefits of rehabilitation programmes. In cases of child labour, parents are provided with many incentives, such as midday meal programmes.

What are the essential qualities needed to be a social entrepreneur?

An eye to finding the solution without getting bogged down by the problem, and a risk-taking ability.

Are consumers more powerful than governments when it comes to ending child labour?

When the demand to end child labour comes from the users of the products themselves, the manufacturers have nothing to do but relent.

Are you extending the non-child labour labelling programme?

There is a plan to extend it to embroidery, the sporting goods industry, and a "knitmark" for garments.

What change could governments make that would end child labour?

Providing free education to all children.

What is your new year's resolution?

It has been years since I enjoyed an evening with my wife. I would like to take her for dinner.

· Kailash Satyarthi features in The New Heroes, a series on global social entrepreneurs, broadcast on the Community Channel from Jan 19 at 8pm.

Surveys released at a conference in HCM City at the end of last year found that while performing house chores sounds simple, the job is actually difficult and complicated for children less than 16 years old, adversely impacting their physical and mental health.

The surveys, conducted by the Family and Gender Institute and the Economic Research Institute in HCM City, also pointed out that children working as domestic helpers in urban areas worked excruciating hours.

Children working as domestic helpers are not allowed to play, are strictly supervised by adults and have little access to information and learning. They also face the danger of being sexually harassed by employers and not knowing whom they should call for help, the surveys said.

A 16-year old girl in Thanh Hoa northern province said that she was not allowed to go out often. She had to wander around the house all day long and did not know if there was anyone to talk to.

"I opened my heart to no one at all," she said. "I missed my mother very much."

Having no relatives or friends, and receiving no care from their employers, children cope with agonizing situations.

One mother had to look for her missing daughter through the help of a hot line because her daughter's former employer said coolly: "She has gone to another house to work."

The mother could do nothing but stand like a post and cry.

A thirteen-year old girl who was working for a rich family recalls that she was neither beaten nor faced threats of a reduced salary, but she was often scolded by her employers.

She had to work all day long and only went to bed at 9 or 10pm. She often said her prayers before going to bed. By doing so, she said she was able to ask to be back with her mother.

About child labour issues, Pham Thi Huyen Thanh, deputy chairman of Hanoi Committee for Population, Family and Children, said nearly all children who volunteer to work as domestic helpers do so because their families are poor.

In many cases, parents forced their children to drop out of school to help families in cities earn a living. Contributing to the decision of these parents are brokers who cash in by taking these children to job introduction centres.

Communities where child labour is common sympathise with parents who send their children to urban areas to earn a living.

A survey conducted by the Family and Gender Institute showed merely 6.5% of those questioned in Vinh Phuc and Thanh Hoa provinces objected to sending children to big cities to work as domestic helpers.

Thanh went on to say that child labourers face many other difficulties after going to big cities and towns. Limited awareness about children's rights in society is attributed to the trend. The problem is compounded by a lack of comprehensive legal documents concerning children's rights and insufficient provisions of information related to the issue.

All of these aforementioned problems have resulted in difficulties in receiving training, possessing information and buying insurance, Thanh said.

"It is time to solve these problems as it is no longer early now," Thanh warns.

In addition to improving the legal environment, which Thanh said was a drastic but neccessary measure, she also made other suggestions.

It is neccessary to readjust children's age between different laws, supplement and correct policies on early childhood and juvenile labour, disseminate information to raise people's awareness about children's rights, and punish people who violate children's rights, among other things.

Thanh said due attention must also be paid to solve child labour issues, other-wise the situation would lead to even more harassment of children, impacting children's rights and the country's best interests.

The International Convention on Children's rights regulates that children must be protected to help them avoid any exploitation in the economy or anything that could impact their education, health or welfare.

Vietnam has also created a series of legal documents to address the prevention and settlement of homelessness among children, sexual harassment and early childhood labour.

When police in Kasungu arrested Group Village Headmen Thomo and Sitolo for recruiting children, some of their subordinates thought the law enforcers had overstretched their arm.

Such people got surprised further when a magistrate’s court in the district convicted Thomo, who had four boys on his payroll, and slapped him with a K10,000 fine after he had pleaded guilty.

His colleague Sitolo is on bail awaiting commencement of trial in January 2006, according to assistant district labour officer Josam Dzoole Mwale.

Thomo and Sitolo are among many tobacco producers in the district who used to employ child labour and managed to get away with it. But now the landscape is tilting against them because communities are now able to identify perpetrators of child labour and report them to authorities.

“Cases of child labour in the district are on the decrease because of the good work community based child labour committees are doing,” said Dzoole Mwale.

In April 2005 the Kasungu magistrate’s court fined a Mr. Makamu from Sub-Traditional Authority (S/T/A) Kaphaizi in the district K5,000 because he was using children to work for him. In October the same court fined another man from T/A Chilowamatambe (Mr. Chimwenje) K8,500 after members of the community reported he had employed a 12 year-old boy from Dedza to herd his cattle.

Protazio Banda from T/A Njombwa has been appearing in the court for employing two boys from Dedza. The court is expected to pass judgement on January 30 2006, according to Dzoole-Mwale.

Lifonso Chinjani and Mphamano Milandu, both of them 13 years old and from T/A Kachere’s area in Dedza, were taken to Kasungu to work for Banda but the boys decided to run away from the businessman because of what they termed as “ill-treatment and delayed wages.”

“Instead of paying us our wages, he was just shouting at us for no apparent reason,” said Lifonso who spent about a week at Kasungu Labour Office for the government office to help them get the money from Banda so that they could travel back home.

The labour office used the boys as witnesses to testify against Banda.

Communities in Kasungu and Dowa districts, until last year regarded as hot spots of child labour, have mobilised themselves to fight child labour and enable the children to go to school.

Elimination of Child Labour in Tobacco (ECLT), a foundation based in Geneva, Switzerland has been providing financial support for the implementation of what is called Integrated Child Labour Elimination Project (Iclep), which is being implemented by Total Land Care (TLC), Creative Centre for Community Mobilisation (Creccom) and Nkhoma and Livingstonia Synods of the CCAP.

Creccom is implementing the education component while TLC is addressing the food security issue. The two synods are responsible for implementation of safe water and sanitation component. The implementing partners are working with nine school communities that include seven primary schools and two community day secondary schools and 220 villages in Dowa and Kasungu districts.

According to Central East Division Education Manager Dudley Chiwala, not only has enrolment in primary schools in the project area increased tremendously, but also pupils do not absent themselves from classes. The dropout rate has decreased by 36 percent.

Malawi is one of the countries struggling to eliminate child labour. Not only are the children employed in tobacco or tea estates, but also in homes and some factories.

Early this year Industrial Development Officer in the Ministry of Trade and Private Sector Development, Clement Phangaphanga, said Malawi risked losing business on the global market if manufacturers continued to employ children in their production unit.

He said that multinational companies, particularly in the US where Malawi exports good under the Agoa facility, are no longer interested in products from companies that employ child labour in their production units.

“We have not lost the market yet, but the potential is there,” Phangaphanga said recently at Lilongwe Hotel, where Centre for Social Research of the University of Malawi released findings of a study it carried out on child labour in Kasungu and Mchinji districts.

Some observers have said time and again that there has not been adequate political will to address issues of child labour, one of the factors blamed for low school attendance and dropout.

Alister Munthali, research fellow at the Centre for Social Research, said that it was important to revise the laws to provide for stiffer penalties for individuals and companies that employ children and intensify inspections at workplaces, among others.

Although the country’s Employment Act forbids employment of children aged less than 14 years old, it is not uncommon to see such children working in different sectors of the economy, he said.

Child labour is a pervasive problem throughout the world, especially in developing countries. Africa and Asia together are said to account for over 90 percent of total child employment. Malawi is one of the countries grappling with the problem of worst forms of child labour.

The 2002 child labour report shows that almost 1.4 million children are working in sectors like agriculture, fishing, domestic work, construction, mining, quarrying, vending, prostitution and transport.

Often parents in developing countries assign different roles to their children as part of the socialisation process, to prepare them for adulthood. But some of the roles are counterproductive.

But child labour is child labour, regardless of whether it takes place in the home, at an estate or at a company. Experts say Malawi cannot eliminate child labour without addressing the problem of poverty.

Though children are not well paid, they still serve as major contributors to their families’ incomes. Because of child labour, thousands of children are denied right to education. Traditional factors such as rigid cultural and social roles in some communities also further limit educational attainment and increase child labour.

ABUJA — Worried by incidences of child labour in cocoa producing areas of Nigeria, the Federal Government in collaboration with the International Labour  Organisation, ILO, has put in place a new national action policy to combat the menace. The purpose of the policy is to have a vision statement on child Labour,  identify stakeholders’ responsibilities, and map out strategies and resources for the frontal attack against plights of children.

The draft policy, developed by stakeholders has been completed and would be submitted soonest to the Federal Executive Council for approval, the Minister of  Labour and Productivity, Dr. Hassan Lawan, said at the 2005 ministerial press briefing of the ministry in Abuja.

Speaking further, the minister noted that the programme is designed to contribute to the effective prevention, withdrawal, rehabilitation, and reintegration and generally  eliminate child labour in cocoa producing areas of the country.

Said he: “The machinery operates through a child labour monitoring system that generates information on the incidences, prevalence, withdrawal and referral of child  workers in six cocoa producing communities in Ondo State. The programme had trained a total of 120 labour and factory inspectors, agric extension workers, and  community monitors, NGOs, CBOs, traditional rulers and farmers on various intervention strategies including rehabilitation, empowerment and social reintegration.”
In addition, Dr. Lawan observed that, at the moment, the programme is monitoring a total number of 345 withdrawn child workers placed in schools and vocational  training centres, 15 training institutions, 15 employers, and over 500 child workers with a view to withdrawing them.

Also the minister explained that the Ministry of Labour in collaboration with the ILO developed a project on financial support for the repatriation of 300 trafficked  children for labour and sexual exploitation within and outside Nigeria while adding that several requests were received from various agencies including state  government ministries of women affairs and youth development.

Meanwhile, he stated that in the year 2005, a total of 250 internally and 110 externally trafficked children were reunited with their families while 3 workshops were  held for 37 directors of state ministries of women affairs and social welfare, 23 agencies and 41 stakeholders throughout the federation for monitoring and experience  sharing on repatriated trafficked children.

The Ministry of Employment is currently immersed in the elaboration of a bill on the prohibition of girl domestics, said Yasmina Baddou, Secretary of State to the Minister of Social Development, Family, and Solidarity.

The bill will impose stringent measures against the employment of domestic girls. This phenomenon deprives little girls from their basic rights, including education and healthy growth, underlined Baddou, responding to an oral question in the House of Advisors.

She also stressed that, besides the bill, her department is now working on a programme that will include sensitization and prevention measures, especially in the regions where the phenomenon is more rampant.

The programme aims at involving schools and local associations, and supporting poor families through income-generating projects and schooling-support programmes.

The secretary of state pointed out that the report issued recently by Human Rights Watch (HRW) on girls exploited as domestics in Morocco is not a broad field-research and that it should not be generalized. She underlined that child domestics has always been a major concern of the government, civil society and the press.

In a recent report, HRW said that tens of thousands of girls working as domestics in Morocco face physical and psychological abuse as well as economic exploitation.

Titled “Inside the Home, Outside the Law: Abuse of Child Domestic Workers in Morocco,” the report states cases of girls of five working, continuously, up to 100 hours a week, sometimes more, for not more than MAD 6.5 a day.

Baddou added that Morocco has opened many workshops to fight this phenomenon, such as the plan of action for children (2005/2015), which is a global approach for a better child protection and a better treatment of the phenomenon of girl domestics.

Both the new bill banning the exploitation of girl domestics and the programme underway to find a solution to the phenomenon are part of the government's efforts to eradicate child labour as a whole.

A recent study jointly carried out by the Moroccan Ministry of Employment, the International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour (IPEC), Unicef and the World Bank estimated the number of children working throughout the Kingdom at about 600,000, representing 11% of the country's children. Their age vary between 7 and 14.

The survey was part of Understanding Children's Work (UCW), a programme aimed at drawing up strategies to wipe out the child labour phenomenon.

BANGALORE , India, 5 January 2006 – Twelve-year-old Suguna sits with the rest of her classmates under a tree in the village of Irudalam. The soft rhythmic chant of their voices mingles with that of their teacher, drifting across the simple stone and mud houses of this traditional community. Suguna’s class is a ‘bridge course’, designed to keep up the studies of children who have dropped out of school – with the hope of getting them back into formal education later. 

Suguna was taken out of school by her father, Obisilamy, when his wife, Radhamma, gave birth to their fourth child. As the eldest daughter, it fell to Suguna to look after the child while the mother continued to earn a daily wage of 30 rupees (about 70 U.S. cents). 

Suguna is now back in school, thanks to the success of an ambitious micro-planning project – supported by UNICEF and its local partners – to promote a model for community development, especially with respect to children’s needs.

The cornerstone of micro-planning is to get all members of the community involved in identifying common problems – and then set out to solve them. During an intensive five-day exercise, all the essential indicators that point to the health of a community are assessed and a detailed plan drawn up to make life better. Then volunteer groups set about implementing the changes.

MACHIARA, Pakistan, 9 January 2006 – The New Year has brought heavy snow to Pakistan’s quake-affected region, leaving many villages cut off and aid flights grounded. Many quake survivors, among them thousands of children, do not have adequate clothing to shield them from the freezing temperatures. In a race against time, UNICEF and partners have been rushing out winter supplies for children and families.

“There are still so many villages high in the mountains that remain to be reached,” said Munir Safieldin, who is in charge of UNICEF’s operations in the city of Muzaffarabad. “So far we have been flying supplies into these areas but we are talking about thousands of villages. This is not a small operation. We still need to keep pushing to reach the remaining villages on the tops of the hills.”

In the village of Machiara along the Neelum Valley – where the nearest town is a two day walk away – the landing of the first helicopter after the recent storm brought joy to everyone. The helicopter delivered a cargo of winter essentials from UNICEF, including jackets and warm boots.

MEXICO CITY , Mexico, 9 January, 2005 – In a classroom in Mexico’s capital groups of children slide together scraps of paper marked with letters. The aim is to spell out words – but the class is less about spelling than human values. One of the words is ‘violence’, and the teacher reminds the children it can often happen in their own homes.

Because of classes like this one at the Escuela Martires de la  Libertad (Martyrs of Liberty School), 7-year-old Diana-Karin has already begun to think about ways to defuse violence in families.

"If the father gets drunk you should stop him from going out to drink more," she says. "That way he'll stop drinking and then he won't hit you."

The lesson is part of a project sponsored by UNICEF called ‘Education for Peace’. It is designed to cut down the number of children who drop out of school because of violence they experience both at home and at school, from teachers and other pupils.

"Here in Mexico City, specifically, violence has been identified as one of the main reasons why children are not attending school, and why there is a high level of desertion, especially at the secondary school level," explains Annalisa Brusati, UNICEF’s Mexico City coordinator for the project.

Before the age of 15 more than one of every 25 of the city's children has dropped out of school. The total is more than 64,000.

http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/mexico_30660.html

Campaigning development charity War on Want has been granted funding for a project to support child workers in Guatemala.

The grant of £132,488 has been approved by Comic Relief for the Conrado de la Cruz project to promote the rights of 800 Mayan girls working in the city.

According to government figures, over 28 per cent of children in Guatemala aged between 7 and 14 years work as farm labourers, domestics, street vendors and in factories. National illiteracy rates exceed 30 per cent, with girls as young as ten forced into labour by poverty.

The Conrado project aims to enable the children to set up their own organisations to support their needs and access to skills and education over a three-year period. Many of the girls have formed ‘junta directivas’ or management committees themselves and have begun to register with the local council. Many attend a learning centre run by the project which offers basic education and cultural activities.

War on Want’s projects director Guillermo Rogel said: “We are delighted to receive this funding which will help Guatemalan child workers have a greater voice in their society. It will also help to bring the problem of child labour in the Third World home to the British public.”

Out of the five million children aged under 18 years in Guatemala, over two million are forced into work, despite the fact that it was the sixth country to ratify the Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1990.

Girls Working as Domestics Denied Basic Rights

Tens of thousands of girls working as domestics in Morocco face physical and psychological abuse as well as economic exploitation, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. Moroccan law denies these children basic labor rights, and the authorities rarely punish employers who abuse them.

The 60-page report, “Inside the Home, Outside the Law: Abuse of Child Domestic Workers in Morocco,” documents cases of girls as young as five working 100 or more hours per week, without rest breaks or days off, for as little as six and a half Moroccan dirhams (about 70 U.S. cents) a day.  
 
Current and former child domestics describe frequent physical and verbal abuse, denial of education and of adequate food and medical care, and sexual harassment by employers or their relatives. Some domestics said that employers forced them to work against their will by beating them, locking them indoors, or refusing to pay those who wanted to quit.  “There is a myth that these girls are improving themselves by working,” said Clarisa Bencomo, children’s rights researcher at Human Rights Watch. “The reality is that far too many girls end up suffering lasting physical and psychological harm.”  
 
Young and often illiterate, child domestics frequently lack the skills and the opportunities to seek help in leaving abusive workplaces. Hidden away in private homes, most do not attend school, rarely go out except for brief errands, and have only infrequent contact with their families. Some girls are brave enough or desperate enough to risk running away. But many more put up with abuse because they lack money and knowledge about how to return home, fear employers’ threats of violence or denunciation to police, or fear getting lost or attacked if they try to make it home on their own.  

Read more: http://hrw.org/english/docs/2005/12/21/morocc12278.htm

Excluded and Invisible is a sweeping assessment of the world's most vulnerable children, whose rights to a safe and healthy childhood are exceptionally difficult to protect. The report describes in detail how these children - poor, exploited and abused - are being ignored, growing up beyond the reach of development campaigns and often invisible in everything from public debate and legislation to statistics and news stories.