THE Federal Government is to strengthen its policing of all the nation’s sea and airports in furtherance of its fight against human trafficking and child labour.

Also, all bush paths and other secret routes used for human trafficking are to be discovered and blocked.
Comptroller General of the Nigerian Immigration Service, Mr. C.J. Udeh, disclosed these measures in a message to the opening of a training workshop on trafficking in persons organised for officers of the anti-human trafficking and child labour unit in the North Central geo-political zone, holding in Minna, Niger State.
Mr. Udeh noted that the battle against human trafficking was being fought from many fronts because of the damage the illegal business had done to the image of the country.

He said the immigration service remained in the vanguard of the struggle against the menace and therefore charged its officers and men to be more alive to their responsibilities.

Mr. Udeh expressed gratitude to the American Bar Association for organising the capacity building workshop which, he believed, would complement the efforts of the immigration service in the war against human trafficking.

He pleaded with other professional organisations in and outside the country as well as members of non-governmental organisations to collaborate with the service in order to achieve the desired result.

The Comptroller General said to show the seriousness the Federal Government attached to the project, President Olusegun Obasanjo had directed a special unit to be established in each command to prosecute the agenda.

HYDERABAD: Speakers at a workshop on “Mutual Consensus on Elimination of Child Labour” here on Saturday described poverty as the main cause of child labour in the bangle industry of Hyderabad.

They called for measures to tackle the issue through education. The speakers said workers in the bangle industry of the city are facing enormous problems but children are the worst affected by child labour, as they suffer from various diseases.

They said concrete efforts should be made to address the poverty issue, otherwise this menace of child labour in bangle and other industries cannot be eliminated completely. The speakers were of the view that child labour could not be eliminated completely in poverty-stricken societies like Pakistan, but it could be reduced to some extent by providing social services to children doing labour.

The workshop was organised for journalists by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) in collaboration with the NRSP and the Hyderabad Press Club. District Naib Nazim Hyderabad Zafar Ali Rajput, who was the chief guest on the occasion, said the city’s bangle industry, which was Asia’s biggest industry, was on the verge of destruction due to certain reasons. However, he said, the district government was taking concrete measures to restore bangle and other industries of Hyderabad.

He assured that all possible efforts would be made by the local administration to end child labour and added that action would be taken on the recommendation of the District Coordination Committee to address this persisting issue.

Project Manager ILO-NRSP Hyderabad Ali Nawaz Memon defined the term of child labour. He said work which affects physical and mental growth of children in their tender age falls under child labour. He said poverty was the main cause of the increase in the menace of child labour, as these children contributed towards their family income.

Memon said the public-private partnership by providing social services and education to these children could control the menace of child labour. The ILO, in collaboration with government functionaries, has launched projects in seven districts of the country to solve the issue and the project in the glass bangle industry of Hyderabad was the biggest one, he said.

The ILO has made concrete efforts to provide social services such as education, health and vocational training to the people engaged in bangle work, Memon said.

He informed the participants that male and female glass bangle workers, aged between 15 and 18, were being provided with basic education at 20 literacy centres of the ILO, while 50 female workers have been admitted recently to the Technical Institute Qasimabad for vocational training so that they could be able to do another work for their livelihood.

Ali Nawaz Memon demanded establishment of a health unit at Choori Para to provide health facilities to the workers and called upon the political parties to play their due role in eliminating the system, which increased poverty and other social problems like child labour.

President Hyderabad Press Club Shahid Sheikh and Secretary Jafar Memon said in their speeches that the training workshop would help journalists become sensitised on various issues, including child labour in the bangle industry. Later, the chief guest distributed certificates among the participants of the workshop.

Over 760 children will benefit from a $32.9 million grant, which is aimed at assisting children who fall victim to child labour and ensuring that they receive a sound education.

The money was distributed yesterday to eight institutions, which are working along with the Partners of the Americas Guyana Programme as part of the organisation's child labour eradication effort. More than three-quarters of the money, $22.8 million, is being provided by the United States Department of Labour's International Child Labour Program.

Director of EDUCARE Guyana Inc, the local chapter of the programme, Ed Denham said it will target children who are involved in some of the worst forms of labour. According to the organisation, some of the worst forms of child labour found in Guyana are trafficking, prostitution, vending, begging, logging, mining, sawmilling, portering, fishing and conducting minibuses.

According to Denham, EDUCARE is not saying that children should not work but it must be within defined parameters and it must be monitored. He said it is known that children help out at home but this work should never reach the stage where it interferes with their play time, their homework or makes them tired the next day.

This first phase will target 620 primary school-aged children, and 146 secondary school-aged children.
Minister of Education Shaik Baksh, painting a picture of the seriousness of the school dropout issue, said that of the 73% of Guyanese students enrolling in secondary schools, only 48% actually complete the five years. The minister pointed out that one of the major contributors to this is child labour. He said that for this to be adequately dealt with the government needs parents and communities to come on board. At the ministry's end, more school welfare officers will be trained, 20 of whom would be going out to different regions shortly to deal with truancy and absenteeism. He said also that a literacy programme which was launched in two regions will soon be introduced in the other regions. Baksh also pointed to the need for a remedial educational centre for students who are not up to standard with their studies. He said, ideally, studies should be conducted at the centre during the summer and on Saturdays during the school term for some time so as to reduce the level of school dropouts.

And the minister yesterday acknowledged that there needs to be more collaboration between his ministry and the Ministry of Labour as there is a gap. He pledged that he would take the first step towards closing the gap.

Those who received assistance yesterday were: Denise Catering Institute in Region Ten; the Adult Education Association in Berbice; Sunshine Women & Youth, Region Three, which received two sets of donations as they are involved in both phases of the programme; the Adult Education Association in Bartica; Zeelugt Primary School; St Anthony's Primary School; Fort Ordinance Primary; and the Vreed-en-Hoop Seventh Day Adventist Church. The three schools also received computers to assist the children in information technology studies and also to help track students who are not regularly at school.

EDUCARE is a programme funded by the United States Department of Labour and managed by Partners of the Americas and is charged with combating child labour though education. It is concentrating its resources on issues of child labour that come under the International Labour Organisation's Convention 182 on the worst forms of child labour. The organisation said many of the children it works with tend to fall into category 'D' - children who have dropped out of school for a variety of reasons. It provides assistance to two different sets of children the first being primary-aged children who are at risk of entering into child labour and with their partners in the communities the organisation provides uniforms, a daily hot meal and remedial after-school education programmes.

The programmes are referred to as School Attendance Programmes (SAP). The second set of children comprises those who have already dropped out of secondary school and are working in the worst forms of child labour.

Activists at the World Social Forum (WSF) demanded an end to all forms of child labour and urged promotion of children's rights.

They pledged to lobby for harmonization of all laws and policies on children, and agreed to work with political parties to include the crisis of child labour as a key issue in their manifestos.

Ahead of the WSF, the East Africa Regional Declaration on Abolition of all Forms of Child Labour was adopted last Wednesday at a regional conference in Thika.

The workshop was organised by the Legal Resource Foundation Trust (LRF) in partnership with a Dutch non-governmental organization. LRF has partnered with some faith-based organizations, like Catholic Justice and Peace Commission in Lodwar, Kitale, Nakuru and Kisii

Some of the worst form of child labour include: trafficking of children for sexual exploitation, recruitment of children in armed conflicts, use of children in crime and production of pornographic material.

At the WSF main venue in Kasarani, Nairobi, an Indian activist, Sunha Shantha said, "Poverty is no excuse for child labour, and we have to see to it we don't loose the battle of enrolling and retaining children in schools."

AUSTRALIA has endorsed international pacts against children being sexually exploited or involved in wars.

The Federal Government announced today it had ratified the two optional protocols to the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

The first obliges countries to criminalise child prostitution and pornography, the sale of a minor for sexual exploitation, forced labour and trade in children's organs.

The second requires nations to ensure people under 18 are kept out of armed conflicts and not compulsorily recruited into armed forces.

Both protocols were adopted by the UN General Assembly in 2000 and came into force two years later.
The Australian Government ratifies treaties once domestic laws and regulations comply with them.

"Ratification complements Australia's strong legislation and enforcement arrangements to combat sex crimes against children," Foreign Minister Alexander Downer and Attorney-General Philip Ruddock said.
The Uniting Church welcomed the move, saying the Government has scored a hat trick by ratifying the two treaties and backing an International Labour Organisation convention on child labour.

"Australia has shown a commitment to ending the exploitation of children through hazardous and forced work, prostitution and pornography, but there is always more to be done," said Mark Zirnsak, of the Uniting Church Synod Victoria and Tasmania.

Dr Zirnsak said one step would be to ensure countries receiving aid from Australia also ratified the treaties.

New Delhi/ Washington • India figures among 39 countries placed on a US “special watch list” of nations deemed to warrant special scrutiny of their anti-trafficking efforts under a 2003 US law.

The government of India has made some progress in combating its significant problem of human trafficking since the release of a Trafficking in Persons (TIP) report for 2006, the state department said while releasing an interim assessment of these countries for 2007.

However, the government still needs to go further in designating and empowering a national agency or office, specifically tasked with carrying out an effective law enforcement response to trafficking crimes committed throughout India, it said.

Some of these countries could be downgraded to the lowest “Tier 3” - countries whose governments do not fully comply with the minimum standards under US Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorisation Act (TVPRA) of 2003 - in the upcoming June 2007 TIP report if their anti-trafficking efforts this year are determined to be inadequate, it warned.

Besides India, the 2007 interim assessment covers Algeria, Argentina, Armenia, Bahrain, Belize, Bolivia, Brazil, Cambodia, Central African Republic, China, Cyprus, Djibouti, Ecuador, Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, Finland, Indonesia, Israel, Jamaica, Kenya, Kuwait, Laos, Libya, Macau, Malawi, Malaysia, Mauritania, Mexico, Oman, Peru, Qatar, Russia, Singapore, South Africa, Switzerland, Taiwan, Togo, and the United Arab Emirates.

On India, the interim assessment said that despite estimates of a significant debt bondage situation in the country, New Delhi reported no arrests, prosecutions, or convictions of employers using bonded labour. Similarly, it did not provide evidence of any rescues of bonded labour victims.

India, however, did make moderate progress on addressing child labour between September and November. Delhi Police rescued 140 children working in zari factories and rice mills, but it is unclear how these children have been rehabilitated.

In October, the government also enacted a ban on the employment of children in domestic work or the hospitality industry with penalties including three months to two years incarceration and the possibility of fines, it noted.

Referring to India’s anti-trafficking efforts, the interim report said that in September 2006, the Indian government responded to the need for a central anti-trafficking law enforcement effort by creating a two-person federal “nodal cell” responsible for collecting and analysing data of state-level law enforcement efforts.

The cell is responsible for identifying problem areas and analysing the circumstances creating these areas and monitoring action taken by state governments for combating trafficking in these areas. It is also to organise coordination meetings with nodal police officers of the states.

The government has provided significant in-kind contributions to a two-year programme by the US government funded United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime (UNODC) in Maharashtra, Goa, West Bengal, and Andhra Pradesh. The programme focuses on raising the awareness of police and prosecutors on the problem of trafficking and to build their capacity to investigate and prosecute people involved with trafficking, it said.

But law enforcement activity to combat human trafficking remains confined to the state level and continues to be relatively low in comparison to the estimated extent of the situation.

However, in June, two former state ministers in Jammu and Kashmir were arrested for trafficking in minor girls for commercial sexual exploitation, along with other senior government officials. Two traffickers in Delhi were also convicted and sentenced to three and seven years in prison, and another was arrested in August, it said.

In November 2006, the parliamentary committee returned the amendments to the Immoral Trafficking Prevention Act to the ministry of women and child development for revision.

The committee asked the ministry to clarify language, provide a clearer delineation between criminals and victims, prioritise programmes and resources for expanded rehabilitation and reintegration efforts, and recommended passage of the bill with those changes, the interim report noted.

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Baitul Mal (PBM) has established 134 new National Centres for the Rehabilitation of Child Labour (NCRCL) to eliminate forced labour in the country.

PBM Managing Director Brig (r) Muhammad Sarfraz said that the body, working under the Social Welfare and Special Education Ministry, was committed to providing basic necessities of life such as shelter, food, education and healthcare to the people. He said that the PBM was making all possible efforts to educate children working on the street, and that many rehabilitation centres have been established countrywide since 1995 in this regard. He said that these centres impart quality education to victims of forced labour aged between 5 to 14 years, and that over 13,500 students were currently enrolled in the primary education programme.

“The PBM has also introduced a Rs 300 monthly stipend for parents by distributing Rs 10 as daily pocket money to each child, apart from providing free uniforms, school bags, stationery and other related items”, he added.

Besides rehabilitation centres, the PBM has also launched a ‘Child Support Programme’ in five selected districts of each province. “Through this program, the PBM is paying Rs 200 per month to families with one child and Rs 350 to those with two or more school-going children,” said Sarfraz, adding that the current plan of action focuses on the immediate elimination of the more hazardous forms of child labour.

AROUND 200 children of various schools holding placards in their hands and shouting slogans against child labour, took out a rally from Chetna crossing which passed through various routes, to invite attention of people towards the plight of children working in hotels, dhabas and at various shops. They shouted, “We want pen not work”.

The rally was organised by Purvanchal Gramin Sewa Samiti in collaboration with Child Line and some schools.

It converted in a meeting at Townhall crossing. Expressing his views on this occasion, local MLA Dr RMD Agrawal stressed the need for people’s participation to check child labour in the society.

Co-ordinator of Child Line Divya Prakash Kanha threw light on the objective of the rally and said the condition of child labourers was very poor. Innocent children were working in unfavourable conditions at dhabas and hotels.

Office bearers of Purvanchal Gramin Sewa Samiti Amarnath Jaiswal called upon people to pledge not to take work from children. He said the rally was organised to mark Anti-Child Labour Day.

Sanaa: Child trafficking in Yemen is not a phenomenon, but it is a problem that must be solved, said a Yemeni minister.

"It is a burning problem that can't be ignored," Yemeni Minister of Social Affairs and Labour, Amat Al Razzaq Humad, told the upper chamber of parliament, Shura Council, which held a session on Wednesday to discuss the issue of labour and smuggling of children in the presence of all concerned bodies.

According to officials and statistics, 900 children were smuggled to Saudi Arabia during 2006 and about two million children do not go to school. The minister told the Shura Council that the street children were a 'time bomb'.

Ineffective

The Shura Council attributed the problems of smuggling children and child labour to the weakness of the official institutions concerned with children.

In the session devoted to discussing a report about the reality of children in Yemen, the Council demanded the official organisations play an effective role in protecting children from smuggling and labour.

The suffering of children in Yemen is not because of lack of resources but it is because these resources are not rationalised, other members said.

They mentioned some problems facing children including inadequate health care, malnutrition and violence.

The Minister of Social Affairs said her ministry is going to establish a new centre in Sanaa for dealing with children problems including receiving those children who are repatriated from Saudi Arabia after being smuggled.

"We held many talks with officials of Saudi Arabia to discuss the children trafficking in coordination with Unicef and we formed a joint technical committee," she said.

Deputy Minister of Education, Hassan Ba Awm, confirmed that there are about two million children who don't go to school.

He pointed out to the importance of investment in education by building schools to accommodate and educate all children.

http://archive.gulfnews.com/articles/07/01/19/10097777.html

Approximately 30,000 women and children are trafficked annually from South-East Asia, 10,000 from Latin America, 4,000 from former Soviet Union and Central and Eastern Europe and 1,000 from other regions. The primary source countries for the United States are Thailand, Vietnam, China, Mexico, the Russian federation, Ukraine and the Czech Republic. According to the ICFTU, this report also indicates that most trafficked women and children are employed in the sex sector, domestic and cleaning work (in offices, hotels, etc.) sweetshops and agricultural work.

The three major industries in the United States that employed children were grocery stores, full service restaurants and quick service restaurants. Legal protection was sparsely enforced, labour inspections by federal agencies had declined and records were inadequately maintained.
The child labour, forced labour and traffic in human beings are social stigmas for any society in which they prevail. Forced labour is a crime and traffic in human being is a heinous crime which cannot be tolerated and allowed or permitted at any cost.

India is alleged to be a source, destination and transit country for men, women and children trafficked for the purpose of forced or bonded labour and commercial exploitation. India is also a destination for women and girls from Nepal and Bangladesh trafficked for the purpose of commercial and sexual exploitation. In addition, boys from Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh are trafficked through India to the Gulf states for involuntary servitude as child camel jockeys. India lacks a national law enforcement response to any form of trafficking, but took some preliminary measures to create a central law enforcement unit to do so, said a US report (Indo-Asian News Service, Washington, June 6, 2006), which the US intends to use as a diplomatic tool to raise global awareness and spur countries to take effective actions to counter trafficking in persons. India and other countries placed on special watch list in this regard.

America pretends to be the only country, which is worried about eradicating slavery, forced labour, child labour, trafficking etc., but the reality is somewhat different. The 95th Session of the International Labour Conference of ILO was held at Geneva between May 30, 2006 and June 16, 2006 with reference to worst forms of child labour convention, 1999 (No. 182) ratification:1999. Committee on the application of standards during its discussion recorded certain findings and datas collected by various unions, federations, institutions etc. which are hereby produced for concerned persons’ perusal. According to the communication by the International Confederation of Free Trade Union (ICFTU) dated January 9, 2004, to the committee of International Labour Organisation, the United States is thought to be the destination of 50,000 trafficked women and children each year. It further indicates that approximately 30,000 women and children are trafficked annually from South-East Asia, 10,000 from Latin America, 4000 from former Soviet Union and Central and Eastern Europe and 1,000 from other regions. The primary source countries for the United States are Thailand, Vietnam, China, Mexico, the Russian federation, Ukraine and the Czech Republic. According to the ICFTU, this report also indicates that most trafficked women and children are employed in the sex sector, domestic and cleaning work (in offices, hotels, etc.) sweetshops and agricultural work. Most reported cases of trafficking occurred in New York, California and Florida. This was corroborated by the report of the Trafficking in Persons and Worker Exploitation Task Force, i.e. a governmental body.

The worker member of the United States (Ms Avendano) stated that a great number of young children worked long, hard hours in United States agriculture under working conditions that threatened their health, safety and well-being. The Fair Labour Standards Act permitted children in agriculture to work at younger ages, longer hours and in more dangerous occupations than children in any other industry, working on average 30 hours a week. Among 15-17-year olds, child workers in agriculture accounted for at least 25 per cent of all fatalists experienced by all working children. United States legislation prohibited 12-13-year-old from working in an air-conditioned office but allowed children of the same age to work unlimited hours outside of school harvesting produce under the blazing sun without adequate water or sanitation.

The three major industries in the United States that employed children were grocery stores, full service restaurants and quick service restaurants. Legal protection was sparsely enforced, labour inspections by federal agencies had declined and records were inadequately maintained. The speaker stated that last year, the Department of Labour had lowered the age below which it was impermissible for fast food restaurants and other retail establishments to employ children to operate deep fryers and grills and to clean grills and deep fryers that had cooked to 100 degrees fahrenheit, in spite of concerns raised by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH). This clearly weakened the protection afforded to young workers in hazardous occupations. Another regulatory change allowed for 16-17-year-olds to load paper balers and compactors that met specific safety standards. Such equipments were extremely dangerous to operate. This also represented a serious step backward by the United States in protecting against the worst forms of child labour.

There was an another setback when the Department of Labour had reached a settlement with Wal-Mart, where it had found that the company had committed dozens of violations of the Secretary’s hazardous orders in three states, including violations of the prohibitions of loading, operating and unloading of paper balers by 16 and 17-year -olds. The settlement provided the company with advance notification of future investigations and the ability to avoid civil money penalties. When the agreement became public, Congress demanded that the Department of Labour’s Office of Inspector General launch an investigation. This agreement raised serious concerns over the government’s ability and commitment to protect children from the worst forms of child labour. The United States pretends to give the highest priority to child labour complaints. Mr. Steyne, the worker member of the United Kingdom, presented the testimonies of several child labourers in agriculture in the United States. These included Dora, a 15-year-old from Eagle Pass, Texas, who worked every summer in the sugar beet field of Minnesota. She worked nine hours per day in the fields in the extreme heat or cold and often without drinking water for hours. She had also been exposed to pesticides thrown form airplanes. She also missed classes because she and her family had to leave for the fields in May every year. One Santos, 16-year-old, had started cutting onions at the age of five, and had hurt himself many times in the fields and had worked for hours without drinking water. Flor began to work in a fruit packing plant in Washington State at the age of 15, a year younger than the state law permitted. Together with another 100 workers, seven of which were 15 or younger, she suffered poisoning by carbon monoxide fumes and was dismissed by the company because she was underage, without receiving any form of compensation.

The government representative wished to provide clarification with regard to a comment regarding the United States Wal-Mart settlement. The speaker stated that the Wal-Mart agreement was part of the Labour Department’s efforts at protecting young workers. The corporate-wide settlement reached with Wal-Mart imposed a number of obligations that went far beyond what the law required, and the agreement secured the payment of 90 per cent of the penalties that had been initially assessed, which was high in comparison to the average settlement rate of 70 per cent. Under the agreement, Wal-Mart agreed to decline from employing 14 and 15-year-olds, even though this was legal in many cases, and it agreed to prohibit 16 and 17-year-olds from using cardboard balers. The company also agreed to make compliance with child labour laws. Most of these measures would not have been implemented in the absence of the agreement. Furthermore, he stressed that nothing in the agreement prevented the Wage and Hour Division from conducting unannounced interventions to protect youth from hazardous situations. He pointed out that the Department of Labour’s Office of the Inspector General had acknowledged that the Department had addressed its concerns over the Wal-Mart settlement, and that it now considered the matter closed.

Concerning the issue of the employment of children under 18 in work determined to be hazardous in the agricultural sector, the Committee noted the information provided by the government representative that it was true that the Fair Labour Standards Act set a lower minimum age of 16 for agricultural occupations determined to be hazardous, than for hazardous non-agricultural occupations. However, in the government’s view, this differentiation was not in conflict with Articles 3(d) and 4(1) of the Convention that allowed governments to establish standards that treated children of different ages differently, and that treated classes of occupations differently. The government representative had also pointed out that in the United State, laws and regulations relating to the prohibition of hazardous child labour in agriculture were supported by government initiatives to find ways to better protect the health and safety of children working in the agricultural industry. These included programmes to protect farm workers and their children from pesticides, to educate young workers about safety and health in agriculture, and to prevent injuries among children working in agriculture. While taking note of this information, the Committee shared the concern expressed by many speakers with regard to the hazardous and dangerous conditions that were and could be encountered by children under 18, and indeed in some cases under 16, in the agricultural sector. The Committee also noted the statement of the government representative that, although child labour violations across industries continued to decrease, violations in agriculture had increased the previous year.

The Committee emphasized that by virtue of Article 3(d), work which, by its nature or the circumstances in which it was carried out was likely to harm the health, safety or morals of children, constituted one of the worst forms of child labour and that, by virtue of Article 1 of the Convention, member states were required to take immediate and effective measures to secure the prohibition and elimination of the worst forms of child labour as a matter of urgency. While Article 4(1) allowed the types of hazardous work to be determined by national laws or regulations or the competent authority, after consultation with the social partners, the Committee noted that the Fair Labour Standards Act authorized children aged 16 to undertake, in the agricultural sector, occupations declared to be hazardous or detrimental to their health or well-being by the Secretary of Labour.

The Committee accordingly requested the government to indicate, in its next report to the Committee of Experts, the measures taken or envisaged (including but not limited to legislation) to ensure that work performed in particular in the agricultural sector was prohibited for children under 18 years where it was hazardous work within the meaning of convention.

The worker member of the Netherlands (Mr. Etty), in addition to raising an editorial point, noted that the length of the Committee’s conclusions was constantly increasing. He said that it would be more productive if the Committee focused more closely on the most important substantive matters in shorter conclusions.

Child labour, forced labour and trafficking in human being is shameful matter for any country. This is continued from the time immemorial, so, it has become a chronic problem to irradiate. It should be removed from its roots. Before eradication of this problem it is necessary to give the priority for the removal of poverty, starvation, illiteracy, insecurity etc. There are certain limitations for every country to cope with this burning problem. This is a global one and it can be removed by the global attempt only.

Grownups sometimes say that kids today are apathetic, but is this true? Nick News with Linda Ellerbee presents Rebels With A Cause!, airing Sunday, January 28 at 8:30 p.m. ET/ PT on Nickelodeon. The program showcases kids who aren't afraid to rock the boat for causes they believe in. These are kids who have taken a stand, and are willing to fight for change on issues such as child labour, the war in Iraq, animal rights, and human rights violations.

"Kids are natural rebels, whether it's 1967 or 2007," Ellerbee said. "There are kids out there who are committed to challenging that which they believe needs challenging. They want to change the world. And they understand that although they may not succeed, making the attempt was-is-worth it."

Rebels With a Cause features:

* Fiona and Hanna live in Brattleboro, Vermont. The girls oppose the exploitation of children in sweatshops. As one of them puts it, "Kids younger than I am shouldn't be making my clothes." They decided to do something about it, beginning with taking on their local school board over where it buys school uniforms. This was their first taste of going up against those in power in order to try to change the world around them.

* Micah is 14. He lives in California, and although he isn't old enough to vote, he's old enough to know his rights as an American, one of which is to speak his mind. Micah believes the torture of people who are suspected of terrorist connections is a crime in itself, and that his government is wrong to participate in such practices. And he isn't afraid to say so. Out loud-and in public. Micah has taken to the streets wearing orange prison clothes and carrying a bullhorn. What Micah's doing isn't making him popular, he still thinks it's the right thing to do.

* Amina and Athena have taken on the state of Washington over the issue of standardized testing, especially the new test the state says a student must pass to graduate high school. The test, according to the girls, isn't fair to minorities, and what's more, they say, it leads to teachers teaching the test instead of the subject. They mean to change the state law. And they just might.

* Blake lives in Chicago. His cause is animal rights, and his target is an American tradition-the circus. Nick News followed Blake and his group as they greeted circus-goers, plead with them-and were threatened by police. Blake didn't win, but he did learn that he had a voice, and he could use it.

* To be a rebel is to be different. It may make you unpopular. It may even be dangerous. Long before the majority of Americans began to question US involvement in Iraq, there was a kid named Ava in Alabama. A kid who got death threats, Ava still didn't quit, throwing an anti-war party on her birthday -- on the steps of the Alabama State Capitol. "It's natural for young people to be rebellious just because it's in our nature-and that way, we progress a little bit every generation."

In the words of Margaret Mead, "never doubt that a handful of committed people can change the world." Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has. Boat-rocking isn't easy. Still these kids have stood up to the system, and put their time and energy where their hearts are. They have made the world listen. And a few have changed their world.

Nick News, which recently celebrated its 15th year anniversary, is the longest-running kids' news show in television history, and has built its reputation on the respectful and direct way it speaks to kids about the important issues of the day. In 2005, it won the Emmy for Outstanding Children's Programming for its show, From the Holocaust to the Sudan. In 1994, the entire series, Nick News, won the Emmy for Outstanding Children's Programming. In 1998, "What Are You Staring At?" a program about kids with physical disabilities, won the Emmy for Outstanding Children's Programming. In 2002, "Faces of Hope: The Kids of Afghanistan," won the Emmy for Outstanding Children's Programming. In 2004, two Nick News Specials, "The Courage to Live: Kids, South Africa and AIDS" and "There's No Place Like Home," a special about homeless kids in America, were both nominated for the Outstanding Children's Programming Emmy. In fact, Nick News has received more than 20 Emmy nominations. Nick News, produced by Lucky Duck Productions, is also the recipient of three Peabody Awards, including a personal one given to Ellerbee for her coverage, for kids, of the President Clinton investigation; two Columbia duPont Awards; and more than a dozen Parents' Choice Awards.

Nickelodeon, in its 27th year, is the number-one entertainment brand for kids. It has built a diverse, global business by putting kids first in everything it does. The company includes television programming and production in the United States and around the world, plus consumer products, online, recreation, books, magazines and feature films. Nickelodeon's U.S. television network is seen in almost 92 million households and has been the number-one- rated basic cable network for more than eleven consecutive years. Nickelodeon and all related titles, characters and logos are trademarks of Viacom Inc

More than 200 children, mostly orphans from the Ketu District in the Volta Region, have been rescued from child labour and trafficking and handed over to their families.

The hand over of the children, whose ages range from five to 14-years, forms part of the first phase of a two-year project being undertaken by Volta Care, a non-governmental organisation (NGO), in collaboration with the International Labour Organisation (ILO) under the United Nations International Programme for the Elimination of the worst forms of Child Labour (IPEC).

In his address at the launch of the project at Adina, near Denu in the Ketu District, the paramount chief of the Aflao Traditional Area, Togbe Amenya Fiti V, denounced the non-commitment of society, particularly some parents and guardians, to the plight and care of children.

"Last year alone, 56 stranded children at the Aflao border who escaped various forms of atrocities under heinous jobs they performed in Togo and Benin were brought to me," he said.

Togbe Fiti, who is also a member of the Governing Council of Volta Care, called on the government and security personnel to strictly enforce the laws that promoted the security and rights of children.

Launching the project, the Ketu District Chief Executive, Mr Justice Cudjoe, estimated that 33, 714 children in the Volta Region were engaged in various forms of labour, mainly in fishing and farming.

He noted that the assembly had instituted a Child Labour Monitoring System (CLMS) to be managed by the District and Community Child Labour Committee in partnership with Volta Care to implement social protection activities, including the provision of education and skills training programmes for the rescued children.

The DCE, therefore, pledged his assembly's support to Volta Care in the execution of the ILO/IPEC project.

In his remarks, the President of the Governing Council of Volta Care, Dr Emmanuel Srofenyo outlined some projects implemented last year in the Volta Region in partnership with the World Health Organisation (WHO), the National Malaria Control Programme and the Ghana AIDS Commission, noting that the organisation was committed to the welfare and development of the vulnerable in the Ghanaian society.

Presenting an overview of the project, the Executive Director of Volta Care, Mr Seth Ofori, explained that under the first phase of the project, the 200 child labourers would be resettled in schools or any form of apprenticeship of their choice in communities including Adafienu, Tetekope, Agavedzi, Salakope, Blekusu, Denu and Aflao.

He said the opportunity would also be given to families of the children to determine what they required for a better and productive livelihood.

Mr Ofori thanked the ILO for the sponsorship and the communities for the support in making the project a success.

New Delhi: President A P J Abdul Kalam on Wednesday asked the Union Labour Ministry to fix periodical targets to reduce the number of working children in the country.

Concerned over the increase in their number of working children in the last decade, Kalam told Labour Minister Oscar Fernandes that rehabilitation should be made part of the programme to eliminate child labour.

The President handed over a stamp album on child labour to Fernandes at a function at Rashtrapathi Bhavan.

The four stamps on the theme "Stop Child Labour" were released a few days ago for creating public opinion against employing children for work.

Fernandes told Kalam that his ministry was taking pro-active steps to eliminate child labour from the country.

LAHORE, 3 January (IRIN) - Every morning, Aziz, 12, cycles to school, his satchel balanced carefully over the handlebars. His life has changed dramatically over the past year and the former camel jockey, who spent five years in the Gulf until his return in 2005, is beginning to adapt to a different way of life.

"I will never forget the camels and being strapped onto those beasts. But I now hope I can put that behind me, get an education and go on to work in an office," Aziz said in his village near the southern Punjab town of Muzaffargarh.

Muzaffargarh district, with a population of around 3 million, is among the poorest districts of Pakistan's populous Punjab province. Over the years, families from southern Punjab, as well as neighbouring Sindh province, have sold small boys, most aged between four and eight years, for use as camel jockeys in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and other Gulf countries, where the sport remains a popular pastime.

The children are used because they are light, which allows the camel to run faster. Their screams of terror spur on the animal. The children are deliberately underfed to keep down their weight, and many have suffered terrible injuries after falling off the camels.

The use of the child camel jockeys, usually bought from their parents or other relatives for around US $1,500, was banned in the UAE under a new law passed in May 2005, with violators facing jail terms of up to three years and/or a fine of almost $14,000.

Since then, under a Pakistan government initiative supported by the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), at least 600 former child jockeys have returned home. Others have been repatriated to Bangladesh or Sudan, the two other home countries of the jockeys.

Most are now back with their families, with some of the parents claiming they had no idea that the children would be used as jockeys.

"We thought they would be given jobs and would gain an opportunity to escape misery and poverty here," said Muhammad Khurram, an uncle of one of the boys sent to the UAE from Muzaffargarh.

All the families selling the children, in exchange for either a lump sum or monthly payment of the children's 'salaries' are extremely poor – often with six, seven or eight other children at home.

The return of a child from the Gulf, in some cases after five or more years away, is not easy to adjust to for either party.

The Lahore-based Child Welfare Protection Bureau (CWPB), run by the Punjab government, has been engaged from the start to receive and rehabilitate the returning children. It continues to keep a close watch on the situation of those who have returned.

According to data maintained by the CWPB, 227 children have returned to their homes in Rahimyar Khan, 131 to Muzaffargarh, 18 to Multan, 50 to Dera Ghazi Khan, and the rest to other areas in the southern Punjab or the neighbouring province of Sindh. Six of the children remain at the CWPB, which has facilities to house over 200 children. Efforts continue to trace their parents, but Dr. Faiza Asghar, who heads the centre, explained, "these children were very young when they were sent to the Gulf. They have no idea who their parents are, or where they formerly lived. We will keep them until they are at least 18, and of course provide for their education, if their families cannot be tracked down."

Today, the six boys at the CWPB don smart uniforms for school and at the centre's playground, smile broadly and confidently at the cameras – a change from the terrified expressions many child camel jockey victims wore when they first returned home in 2005.

In other cases, DNA testing has been used to reunite families. Parents taking back children have also frequently been warned of criminal action should they attempt to sell off children again. Sixty people involved in human trafficking have, according to official figures, been arrested and are being tried under the relevant laws.

"We are continuing to monitor most of the children who have returned, including the 325 brought back by the CWPB who are now with their families," Asghar explained. Some children had considerable difficulty in adapting to the environment they had left behind before going to the Gulf, and were traumatised by their harsh experiences there, she added.

"Each case is different. Some of the children are still undergoing psychological treatment and facing problems, while others are not," the doctor said.
In some cases, the relatives of former jockeys interviewed by IRIN stated that the children seemed "distant and resentful" and were unwilling to attend school or perform household chores. In fact, some of these children aged six or seven years when they left, returned as angry, embittered teenagers – with siblings or parents in some cases not pleased to have them back in cramped family homes, where food and resources were already scarce.

A Community Action Plan (CAP) to create awareness about the trafficking of children, and to aid the rehabilitation of former camel jockeys, is being carried out by UNICEF, in cooperation with the CWPB and its sub-office in Rahimyar Khan.
The programme includes the education of children, and focuses on providing healthcare facilities, micro-financing, safe water, and social uplift schemes within communities.

On 18 December 2006, UNICEF welcomed the allocation of US $9 million by the UAE government to assist former camel jockeys who have returned home to their communities.

The UAE also agreed to extend until May 2009 its partnership with UNICEF to assist in the repatriation and rehabilitation of child camel jockeys.
Almost all the children now resettled in the Punjab are back at school. Six hundred bicycles have been provided to returning children by the CWPB to enable them to reach schools, help them resume something resembling normal life, and gain an education that could in the future help them to lead normal lives.
However, officials at the CWPB warned that some of the children – estimated at around 20 percent of those who have returned – continue to face difficulties adjusting to life in their homes and at school, and therefore are not able to attend classes every day.

A few of the older children are also being given vocational training, and organisations in Pakistan are continuing efforts to secure employment for the former jockeys in the UAE.

But despite these efforts, the challenges are far from over. Two weeks ago, Pakistan's Minister of State for Information, Tariq Azeem, stated that there had been a recent attempt to take three children back to the Gulf for camel races, and that these children had been brought back with the cooperation of the UAE authorities.

He promised that the Pakistan government would "continue to pursue" this humanitarian matter at all costs.

Meanwhile, the Karachi-based Ansar Burney Trust, which has also been closely involved with the effort to repatriate and rehabilitate the child camel jockeys, is also continuing efforts to locate those that still remain in the Gulf.
"An intensive search and identification of underage jockeys is continuing," Ansar Burney, the group's chairman, said recently.

But while the efforts of governments and welfare organisations have helped highlight the issue, bring about necessary changes in law to end the use of children as jockeys and undertake rehabilitation efforts, the socio-economic issues which underpin such abuse of children remain in place.

"Families are so poor, they barely survive. In despair they take desperate measures, including the sale of children. Until this issue of deprivation is addressed, there can be no guarantee more children will not be trafficked to the Gulf or elsewhere, either as jockeys or for other kinds of slave labour," said Abbas Akhtar, a Multan-based social activist who has closely followed the issue of the child camel jockeys, and the difficult task of giving the returning children the childhood they missed out on while on the camel racing tracks of the Middle East.

Two temporary job-placement agencies in Gifu Prefecture hired 12 children of Brazilian immigrants of Japanese origin to work in factories in violation of labor laws, officials of the labor ministry's Gifu bureau said Friday.

The discovery highlights a serious problem: An increasing number of immigrants in Japan are sending their kids to work, rather than school, due to language problems and economic hardship.

The local labor standards inspection office has already told the two firms to stop hiring children and the 12 are no longer working, officials at the Gifu Prefecture Labor Bureau said.

The two firms hired 12 boys and girls aged 13 to 15 beginning about February, with the lowest paid receiving 850 yen per hour. The placement companies sent them to factories operated by several Gifu companies, including manufacturers, the officials said.

The Labor Standards Law bans the hiring of anyone under age 16.

Acting on a tip, the Gifu labor standards inspection office visited the firms in November and determined that they had hired the children, officials said.

They were supposed to be enrolled in junior high school but were not attending. They told the officials they wanted to supplement their families' income rather than go to school because their classes, which are taught in Japanese, are difficult to understand and boring.

The firms involved said they knew the ages of the children but hired them at the request of their parents, who were struggling to make a living.

In 1990, Japan began accepting immigrant workers of Japanese descent, mostly Brazilians, whose numbers had swelled to around 350,000 by the end of 2005. Many work in factories in central Japan.