Primark has launched a website to promote its ethical practices in response to charges made about its use of child labour in its sweatshops in India, in a BBC Panorama programme this week.

The microsite, ethicalprimark.co.uk, has been set up to promote Primark as a “responsible” organisation.

The move follows the BBC programme aired on June 23, which discovered that three of the discount retailer’s suppliers in southern India were sub-contracting work to child labour. Primark has already announced that it has ditched contracts with the named suppliers.

A spokesman for the retailer says: “Our aim is to make our message available and let people know that we are a responsible retailer. The website is one of the ways to communicate with our customers, and in the run-up to the BBC programme our staff were also trained in ethical trading procedures, and they have been referring shoppers to this website in case of any questions about our trading practices.”

The website lists its code of conduct and the standards that Primark suppliers must follow, such as not using child labour and having safe and hygienic working conditions. It also includes the interview with Primark director Breege O’Donoghue to Panorama and a video entitled “How do they do it at that price?”

The spokesman adds that ethicalprimark is not a “static” website but will continue to evolve and spell out Primark’s commitment to ethical practices.

Primark is owned by Associated British Foods and sources the majority of its clothing from Asia.

Lack of valid statistical data on child labour in Kampala is greatly affecting the fight against the practice in the city, child activists have said.

Addressing Makindye Councillors on forms of child abuse, Platform for Labour Action (PLA) Executive Director Lilian Keene-Mugerwa, said due to absence of data, civil society organisations advocating putting an end to child labour find it difficult to trace the trapped children.

"Despite interventions, the problem of child labour is still prevalent in Kampala and nearest suburbs and cannot be addressed without valid data," Ms Keene-Mugerwa said at a workshop in Kampala on Tuesday.

It is estimated that about 1.76 million children are engaged in child labour in Uganda, of which 1.4 million are below 12 while an estimate of 238,000 (aged 12-13) are working in hazardous forms.

The Kampala Labour Officer, Ms Adriane Namara, admits that the number of working children in the city has grown to worrying levels in the recent past. Ms Namara attributes the increase to the small number of labour officers in Kampala.
"The growth simply lies on under staffing of the labour departments at all local council level and I have continuously reported this problem to those concerned," Ms Namara said. She said people are now taking advantage of inadequate supervision to employ children.

Kampala has only two labour officers and two assistants operating in only three divisions of Central, Rubaga and Nakawa. Kawempe and Makindye divisions have neither offices nor officers. However, Ms Keen-Mugerwa, said the organisation in partnership with Uganda Bureau of Statistics would soon carry out a survey in Makindye to find the out number of children working.

"Results of the survey will help local councils make decisions and find a way to curb any form of child abuse ," Ms Keen-Mugerwa said.

To manage, the PLA has implemented a project to establish a community support mechanism for the protection of child domestic workers from abuse and exploitation.

Ms Keen - Mugerwa said they carried out a minor survey in the division and identify about 330 children in Katwe 1, Kibuye 1 and Makindye 1 at the risk of joining child labour. Fifty seven children were assisted back to schools and some have been unified with their parents, she said.

PLA organised the workshop for councillors to bring them on board since the Local Government Act mandates Local Council at all levels to promote the welfare of the child and fulfil the commitment made by the government through local legislation and international conventions.

Meanwhile, the division Chairman, Mr Moses Kalungi, said the division has been looking for partners to work with in the fight of child abuse. "Though we have the UPE/USE programme, about 30 per cent drop out of school before attaining any qualifications," Mr Kalungi said.

The National Programme for the Elimination of Worst Forms of Child Labour in Cocoa (NPECLC) coordinated by the Ministry of Manpower, Youth and Employment has released two reports in relation to eliminating worst forms of child labour in the cocoa industry.

A press statement on Thursday said the two reports; the Cocoa Labour Survey in Ghana also called scale-up survey and the Hazardous Child Labour Activity Framework, (HAF) were reviewed at separate key stakeholder meetings about three weeks ago.

It said the survey was conducted in the current 2007/2008 cocoa season as a scale up to a pilot survey conducted in 2006 covering 15 cocoa-growing administrative districts within the six cocoa-growing regions that accounted for 60%of cocoa production in Ghana.

It said as part of a National Child Labour Activity Framework being developed for all sectors, HAF was also developed to clearly spell out hazardous conditions of cocoa related activities and determine which ones children should or not perform.

Over 1,700 households, 3,452 children aged between 5 and 17 and 1,391 adults were interviewed as well as 66 focus group discussions involving children and adults were conducted by a team of researchers drawn from the Department of Agricultural Economics and Agribusiness of the University of Ghana, Cocoa Research Institute of Ghana, Ghana Statistical Service, Employment Information Bureau, the University Ghana Medical School and Civil Society Organizations undertook the research which covered it said.

The survey examined specific economic and demographic information on the cocoa sector, child and adult working practices in addition to detailed description of legal frameworks and remediation activities to promote child welfare with analyses and recommendations to improve occupational health and family welfare within the cocoa communities in the country.

It said the government was committed to eliminating worst forms of child labour in cocoa and other sectors as a sure means to achieve overall child development.

The government commended COCOBOD for committing funds for the NPECLC to expand remediation activities to uncovered districts, the World Cocoa Foundation for supporting the survey and UNICEF and the Royal Danish Embassy for supporting remediation activities. Government also expressed appreciation to the support by district assemblies and civil society organizations working to ensure the practice is eliminated.

Journalists in the country have been urged to take a proactive role in unearthing and exposing child trafficking and other related issues as the practice is growing at a faster rate without recognition.

The call comes after the Eye of the Child, child rights NGO uncovered that both internal and cross-boarder child trafficking is becoming a lucrative business across the nation.

Speaking to journalists during a two-day workshop in Blantyre organised by Malawi Network against child trafficking (M-Nact), Coordinator for Child Trafficking Network, Boniface Mandere said there was need to use the media as an advocacy tool in sensitising the general public on the practice.

He said that despite the seriousness of the situation in the country, issues of trafficking against children and their implications receive very little press coverage.

"We view the role of the media as very critical in the fight against child trafficking and related issues. The mass media ought to be a reliable medium in building awareness of these injustices and deprivations," he said.

On the other hand, it was disclosed during the forum that though Malawi has various existing laws that address certain aspects of trafficking, such as kidnapping or sexual exploitation, the country falls short of punishing perpetrators for the crime of trafficking itself.

Assistant Chief Law Reform Officer for the Malawi Law Commission (MLC) Chizaso Nyirongo said the country has no specific laws on child or human trafficking.

He however indicated that MLC is currently drafting a special law, which would effectively deal with perpetrators who have for a long time evaded punishment due to lack of a strong legal framework.

"The absence of a specific law on child trafficking is a serious loophole that undermines both national and global efforts to stop child trafficking and as a country, we have stayed in this situation for the past years.

"Nevertheless, after realising that disjointed general laws failed to take a successful apprehension on a chain of events, the law commission came up with an initiative that will see us formulating a law that will specifically deal with issues to do with human trafficking," disclosed Nyirongo.

According to Mac Bain Mkandawire, Executive Director for Youth Net and Counselling (YONECO), an NGO that addresses social injustice and reproductive health issues affecting the youth, women and children child trafficking is growing due to among other things poverty, need for cheap labour; human organs, ritual and events as well as sexual exploitation.

He further said absence of identities such as birth certificates has tremendously increased the practice, which is commonly taking place along the country's borders.

"Many children in the country have no identities such as birth certificates and because of this we have failed to take positive measures to check child trafficking since we can not protect people we don't know.

"Our borders are also very porous and people can come in and go out so children can be easily trafficked," Mkandawire observed.

The YONECO Director pointed out that with the approaching 2010 World Cup in South Africa, there was need for Malawians to be alert as research has shown that child trafficking will augment.

"2010 soccer World Cup in South Africa should be a factor that we should consider in as far as increase of child and human trafficking in general are concerned.

"Right now there is high demand for labour because there are a lot of constructions taking place, and also during the actual event we should expect the booming of sexual tourism, therefore as Malawians we should be on the alert to protect our children," he said.

THUWANA, Myanmar (AP) — Myanmar's military government reopened many of the country's schools Monday, allowing some children to return to buildings badly damaged in last month's cyclone and raising concerns about their safety.
The junta continued to cope with rebuilding after Cyclone Nargis killed 78,000 people and left another 56,000 a month ago, with soaring prices and limited supplies for materials to rebuild homes, schools and other buildings.

UNICEF said more than 4,000 schools serving 1.1 million children were damaged or destroyed and more than 100 teachers were killed. The government planned to train volunteer teachers and hold some classes in camps and other temporary sites.

Teachers, parents and international aid groups were concerned about the safety risks to students.

"Sending (children) to what can be unsafe buildings with ill-trained and ill-equipped teachers can actually set them back rather than leading them on a road to speedy recovery," said Gary Walker, a spokesman for the U.K. charity Plan.
Khin Yir, a teacher from the northern Yangon suburb of Hlaing Thar Yar, said it was a "bad choice" to reopen so soon. Nargis' 120 mph winds ripped the roofs off two of the three buildings at her junior high and rain flooded the interior.
The regime in Myanmar, also known as Burma, has been criticized for its storm response, with U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates saying the government had acted with "criminal neglect."

Foreign aid workers say the junta is still slow on allowing quick and full access to survivors of the disaster.
"Access remains problematic both for logistic staff inside Burma to the delta and for staff trying to get in from the outside," said Lionel Rosenblatt, president emeritus of the U.S.-based Refugees International.

Myanmar Deputy Defense Minister Maj. Gen. Aye Myint said at a conference in Singapore that the government moved quickly to rescue and provide relief to the estimated 2.4 million survivors.

The government delayed the June 2 start of the new term for several schools in the harder-hit Irrawaddy delta, where entire villages were wiped off the map. But around Yangon, the nation's biggest city, most schools welcomed students.
The teachers did not get any new supplies and were using books they were able to hand dry after the storm, Khin Yir said, asking that her school not be named for fear of government reprisals against her for talking to a reporter.

Khin Yir feared for her students' safety and was concerned about how to help them cope with trauma, she said.

At Primary School No. 20 in the northeastern Yangon suburb of Dagon, the words "Safety First" were printed on white paper and posted on the walls of the school.

The school opened Monday, but some parents said they could not afford school uniforms or books.

Most public schools in and around Yangon charge about $7 in fees for the academic year, the equivalent of almost a week's work for laborers in this impoverished country.

"Sending my daughter to school is a burden to me," said Khin Myo, as she dropped her 6-year-old off. She said the storm damaged the family's home and destroyed the small shop where she sold onions and chilies.

"I still haven't been able to put my life back together," she said.

Anupama Rao Singh, UNICEF's regional director, said reopening schools in the delta "may be too ambitious," since construction materials were still on the way and there was not enough time to rebuild schools and train new teachers.
Meanwhile, demand and prices have soared for the material needed to rebuild homes. Many survivors say they have been forced to pick through the storm debris for supplies.

In Hlaingthayar Township, fisherman Ko Niang has managed to patch together a rickety lean-to from scavenged bamboo bits and soggy palm fronds. He said he tried to borrow money from friends and family to build a new shack.

"There was no one to borrow it from. Everyone is in need," he said.

The Irrawaddy delta region was the center of production for Nipa palm, whose feathery leaves are woven into a low-cost thatch widely used for walls and roofing. The storm destroyed many of the palm plantations and prices have since tripled.

At least 35,000 homes were destroyed, according to an initial estimate by the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, or IFRC. Thousands of other buildings will also have to be rebuilt, UNICEF has said.

Ma Myoe We, the owner of a construction material shop in Yangon, said a sheaf of 100 palm sheets, which used to sell for about $6.50 now goes for $17.50. But she said she has run out of stock and has no idea when more will be delivered.

The price of sturdy bamboo poles, onto which the thatch is anchored, has nearly doubled from 70 cents per pole $1.20.
Ramesh Shrestha, who represents UNICEF in Myanmar, confirmed prices in the country have risen since the cyclone — not only for construction materials, but also for food, petrol and other essentials.

With bridges smashed and roads impassable, supplies can't get to market, said IFRC staffer Eelko Brouwer, who heads a group of international organizations and aid groups working to shelter storm victims.

Brouwer said that if thatch prices remain high, aid groups will consider importing palm from neighboring Bangladesh or Thailand in a bid to drive the cost down.

The International Labour Organisation says it's concerned that Burma's ruling military junta will use forced labour to rebuild areas of the country devastated by Cyclone Nargis.

The ILO says there is an increased risk that the reconstruction of Burma will involve further injustices such as child labour, human trafficking and migrant labour, if it is not closely watched over.

To guard against this threat, the ILO says there's a need to ensure that relief and recovery operations do not inadvertently accommodate forced labour or other human rights abuses.

It says of particular concern is the possibility that displaced and orphaned children are pushed into forced labour.

Rio De Janeiro, March 29 (Xinhua) There were over 1.4 million illegal child labourers aged five to 13 in Brazil in 2006, the Brazilian Geography and Statistics Institute (IBGE) said in a study. The study, based on the National Household Sample Survey, showed that 237,000 child labourers were aged between five and nine (1.4 percent of the total child population in Brazil) and 1.2 million were between 10 and 13 (8.2 percent of the total).

Under Brazil’s legislation and international laws, children aged between 14 and 15 can work only under “apprentice” status, and children aged between 16 and 17 can work in regular jobs as long as they do not work night shifts or take part in any potentially dangerous or unhealthy activity, IBGE economist Cimar Pereira said Friday.

According to the report, there were 1.3 million child labourers aged between 14 and 15 and 2.4 million aged between 16 and 17.

Some 273,000 child labourers aged between five and 17 fell victim to accidents in 2006, the study said.

The office of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) in Brazil said Friday that Brazil must intensify measures to protect child labourers from exploitation.
Xinhua

Rawalpindi, May 7 (ANI): International Labour Organisation (ILO)s National Project Manager in Pakistan, Saba Mohsin Raza has said that the country was experiencing worst forms of child labour with over 3.3 million child workers.

She said that out of the four provinces, Punjab had the highest ratio of child labour, mainly due to lack of education and health facilities.

She also said that the menace was affecting the countrys image worldwide and that urgent steps should be taken to tackle it.

This grave situation is ruining not only the health of child workers but also their future in addition to eclipsing the countrys image in the outer world. This social menace demands of all stakeholders to take more practical initiatives so that the situation could effectively be rectified and in this respect the role that the media can play is worth mentioning, The Nation quoted Saba as saying at a lecture on child labour organized in collaboration with the ILO.

The lecture was part of the ILOs ongoing national media plan of action to sensitise the media persons about the child labour issues in the country and giving basic training to Mass Communication students before entering into their practical field.

She termed these growing statistics a point of serious concern for all the stakeholders and said, It is our collective responsibility to come up with practical steps to control this menace.

She urged the students to know the requirement and seriousness of their profession regarding the sensitivity of different social issues in the country and advised them to adopt a positive approach in their professional life. (ANI)