The United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) campaign to Protect children from exploitation in travel and tourism has received a boost from the chairman of the World Travel Market, Fiona Jeffery.

 Jeffery said that children labour and sexual exploitation in the global travel industry must end, insisting that children must come first in every consideration. 

Jeffery, who made the declaration  at a pre-launch meeting at the on-going World Travel Market in Excel, London said that the campaign would make people realise that abuses against children were totally unacceptable and cannot be tolerated anywhere in the world. ''I hope World Travel Market's support in some modest way  will help to give the campaign more public profile, influence and, of course, publicity. Clearly, that is what we need, to signal loud and clear our total abhorrence of what can only be described as something straight out of the pages of a dark Charles Dickens novel. 

''It's about children's rights, rights to safety and protection at all times, enabling them to lead normal lives,'' she said , adding that ''the terrible fact remains that despite increased reporting of sex offenders who are arrested for child abuse abroad, governments are not working to stop child sex tourism. '' 

Jeffery also appealed to the 45,000 delegates attending the meeting to join the UNWTO initiative and spread the word globally. According to an estimate by the International Labour Organisation (ILO), 246 million children are engaged in child labour, while millions are vulnerable to exploitation and abuse.

GURGAON: Around 150 protesters, including children, students of law faculty, Delhi University, Delhi High Court lawyers, members of some NGOs and residents took out a candlelight protest march in Sector 56 on Wednesday evening demanding that laws on child trafficking and violence be more stringent. 

This came in response to Debok Das and Poromita Sharma getting bail. The couple were arrested on November 8 after their domestic help, 13-year-old Lakhi, was found subjected to severe physical abuse. 

Lakhi was rescued from their clutches in a joint operation by National Commission for Women and Child Line, Gurgaon. 

The demonstrators held placards with messages against child trafficking and marched from the Sector 56 police station to the house of accused Debok Das in Kendriya Vihar and also lit candles in front of his house. 

Demands to sack DCP, west, Jagdish Nagar, were also raised against his non-cooperation in the case and remarks to the media that Juvenile Justice Act should be applicable for children only up to thirteen years of age in Haryana just as it is in rest of the country. 

" When he does not know laws how can he be given charge to enforce them,'' demanded Nishikant, director, child line, Gurgaon. 

The protesters also condemned the role of district administration in the case. "Deputy commissioner is also head of district Juvenile Welfare Committee. We had hopes that as a woman she will show more sensitivity towards the victim, but despite our repeated efforts, we have not even had a response from her office,'' said Nishikant. 

Demonstrators also alleged that at first, police had booked both the accused under Juvenile Justice Act among others but later changed the draft of the FIR which meant that all other sections were bailable and hence they are no more behind the bars. 

A law student who had come out to protest said,"After Nithari, PM had said that special attention will be given to the needs of the children and those who violate their rights will be punished stringently. In a Congress-ruled state we had hopes that government will take the case seriously but their attitude so far has been pathetic.''
sumi.sukanya@timesgroup.com

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Delhi/Protest_against_bail_for_couple_
who_abused_maid/articleshow/3701150.cms

The Police in Kampala are to hand over nine school children to the Tanzanian high commission for repatriation after they were trafficked into Uganda.

The officer-in-charge of the child and family protection unit at the Central Police Station, Ketty Nandi, said they were in talks with the Tanzanian high commission to receive the children, who have been kept at the station for over a week.

Nandi said the children were brought to Uganda by Jovans Kamanzi, a Tanzanian.

She added that Kamanzi, who was charged with child trafficking, had got money from the children’s parents in Karagwe in Tanzania after lying to them that he would get them good schools in Uganda.

“But he failed to pay their fees and abandoned them in a dilapidated house in Nakukuba village in Wakiso district for almost eight months without food and other necessities,” Nandi said.

The children, aged between 10 and 17 years, said their parents were not aware of their fate because Kamanzi had been telling them that they were doing well.

“He told us not to bring personal effects like mattresses, saying he would provide them. However, we have nothing to sleep on,” 16-year-old Pience Nikolawusi told the Police.

Nikolawusi said Kamanzi took them to various schools, but failed to pay their fees and they were sent away. The children said they would go picking people’s food in the gardens until villagers threatened to lynch them. This is when they resorted to working in the villages to get food.

Kawempe Police later picked the children and arrested Kamanzi.

Nery Castañeda tackled a job that was never intended for kids his age.

One afternoon last fall, the 17-year-old Guatemala native ran a machine to grind damaged pallets into mulch. When a co-worker at the Greensboro plant returned from another task, he didn't see Nery – until he looked inside the shredder. “A person shouldn't die like this,” said older brother Luis. “…He came with a dream and found death.”

Decades after the enactment of regulations designed to prevent such tragedies, thousands of youths still get hurt on American jobs deemed unsafe for young workers. On a typical day, more than 400 juvenile workers are injured on the job. Once every 10 days, on average, a worker under the age of 18 is killed, federal statistics show.

Enforcement has waned, despite new evidence that many employers are ignoring child labor laws. U.S. Department of Labor investigations have dropped by nearly half since fiscal year 2000.

“There are lots of kids being asked to do work that's been prohibited for them – and it's been prohibited because it's dangerous,” said Carol Runyan, who heads UNC's Injury Prevention Research Center. “…Our system is failing them.”

More than 3 million youths under age 18 have jobs. Regulations prohibit them from doing a variety of hazardous jobs, including most meat-processing work.

But last month, at an immigration raid at a House of Raeford Farms poultry plant in Greenville, S.C., six juveniles were among the workers detained. Three young workers told the Observer they were under 18 when they held jobs at House of Raeford plants requiring them to make thousands of cuts a day with sharp knives. The company says it requires job applicants to present identification showing their age, but not all the documentation is accurate.

At Agriprocessors, a large meatpacking plant in Postville, Iowa, authorities recently charged owners with thousands of child-labor violations after finding that teenage employees were asked to use circular saws, clean floors with powerful chemicals and perform other dangerous tasks.

“The raids in Postville and Greenville show that 15- and 16-year-old kids are doing some of the most dangerous jobs in America,” says Reid Maki of the National Consumers League. “ … It's time for the U.S. Department of Labor to investigate slaughterhouses and poultry plants.”

A study of 16- and 17-year-old construction workers in North Carolina, published in 2006, found that more than 80 percent did tasks that were clearly prohibited. A national survey of young retail and service workers, published in 2007, found that more than half of males and more than 40 percent of females performed prohibited tasks.

Runyan, who co-authored both studies, says much of the blame lies with employers.
“I suspect there are employers who flagrantly disregard the law,” she said. “And I suspect there are others who are clueless.”

Little to deter employers

Employers who flout child-labor rules often face few consequences.

Federal law allows a maximum penalty of $11,000 for each violation, but in 2006 the average penalty was less than $1,000, according to the National Consumers League. Total federal penalties for child labor violations dropped 29 percent from 2000 to 2007.

Federal child labor laws cover large employers, as well as smaller companies engaged in interstate commerce. Most states also have their own child labor laws, which usually cover small employers and impose additional restrictions. But state fines tend to be smaller.

Under N.C. law, the maximum penalty for each violation is $250. When employers fail to ensure juvenile workers get youth employment certificates, the maximum fine is $50 for each violation. That “doesn't seem to be a whole lot of deterrent,” says N.C. wage and hour director Jim Taylor, whose office is in charge of enforcing – but not writing – the state's child-labor laws.

In South Carolina, the maximum penalty for violations is $1,000 per person per job.
Federal labor department officials say much has been done to help improve conditions for young workers. Alexander Passantino, administrator for the wage and hour division of the U.S. Department of Labor, told a congressional committee in September that officials have worked to strengthen child-labor laws, raise public awareness and target industries where young workers are likely to be killed or injured. The number of youths killed on the job has declined over the past decade, he noted.

But critics say government has made little progress. Since 2001, injury rates among young workers have remained virtually flat, according to the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health.

Witnesses at the recent congressional hearing were asked whether regulators are doing enough to protect children. Several said the answer was no.

“Much more can and must be done to better protect our young people from hazards and dangers they confront in the workplace,” testified Sally Greenberg, executive director of the National Consumers League.

The perils of poultry

Meatpacking plants are among the workplaces where better protections are most needed, child advocates say. Many of those plants hire illegal immigrants with false papers, excacerbating the challenge of stopping juveniles from being employed.
In poultry plants, workers are surrounded by dangerous machines and chemicals. And they're often required to make thousands of cuts with sharp knives each day, work that can leave them with lacerations and debilitating nerve and muscle problems, such as carpal tunnel syndrome.

But youths are finding work in such plants, the Observer found.

Elena Luna said she was 16 when she went to work at the Mountaire Farms poultry plant in Lumber Bridge, N.C. At first, she said, a human resources official told her she wasn't old enough. But when she returned with a recommendation from a cousin at the plant, the official asked her whether she could do the work, she said.
“He said, “I don't want to see you in the nursing station or they'll fire me,” she said.
On the processing line, she said, she got little training and worked with a supervisor who often yelled at her to hurry up.

Making thousands of cuts with dull knives every day, her hands began to hurt. “Sometimes I couldn't hold the knife,” she said.

Luna, who worked under the name Rosaura, said she often wanted to quit, but endured because she needed to repay family members from Mexico who financed her trip to the U.S. – and she thought it was one of the few jobs she could get.
Luna, now 20, said other juveniles also worked at the plant. “I was not the only one,” she said. “… Everybody knew.”

Mike Tirrell, vice president of operations for Mountaire Farms, said Luna signed paperwork indicating she was 18 when she was hired in 2005. She was fired about 15 months later, after company officials discovered false information on her application, Tirrell said.

He said he could not speak to Luna's specific allegations, but noted that the scenario she described with the human resources official would violate company policy. He disputed that the company has employed numerous underage workers.

The company participates in a voluntary federal program that helps employers determine whether job applicants are legally authorized to work in the country. “We take every step that we can reasonably take to ensure the eligibility of applicants …,” Tirrell said.

Nery's last day

Nery Castañeda lived a healthy life. He loved to play soccer and steered clear of alcohol, cigarettes and confrontation, his brother Luis said.

In June 2007, he went to work for Pallet Express, a manufacturer in Greensboro with about 80 employees. He presented his ID, which showed he was 17, his brother said.

Several months into the job, he was asked to operate the pallet shredder, a massive machine that turned damaged pallets into mulch.

On the day of the accident, Nery's co-worker stepped away to get a forklift, Luis said. By the time the co-worker returned, Castañeda had been devoured by the shredder.

N.C. OSHA cited the company for eight serious violations, including its failure to put required safety guards on the machine. The agency fined Pallet Express $12,000. The state labor department has also fined the company $250 for putting a juvenile without a youth employment certificate in a hazardous job he shouldn't have been doing.

The family, meanwhile, has filed a lawsuit alleging, among other things, that the company failed to provide Nery with the proper safety gear, training and supervision.

Company vice president Lynn Bell said she could not comment on the case because it is still under investigation.

Luis vividly remembers seeing his brother-in-law's pale face that afternoon in October 2007 when he came to deliver the news that there had been an accident. Luis sank deep into a chair. “No,” he recalled moaning.

“I didn't believe it,” Luis said. “…He was a kid.”

http://www.charlotteobserver.com/597/story/315580.html

Speakers at a press conference have urged the government to approve and implement the draft national child labour policy immediately to eliminate child labour. 

The press conference was organised by Social and Economic Enhancement Programme (SEEP), a non-government organisation, at Dhaka Reporters' Unity (DRU) auditorium in the city on Thursday.

Tahmina Jasmin, project organiser of SEEP, presented a keynote paper at the conference underscoring the need for implementing the policy for the welfare of the children, specially for those coming from the underprivileged section of the society.

She said 94 percent of formal and informal sectors including agriculture are using child labour. 

The children mainly go for work for financial support of their family and being engaged in work they become detached from their families and get involved in different crimes, she added. 

Besides, Tahmina said, working inhumanly for a long time, these children are also facing many health hazards. 

She said the proposed policy drafted by the Ministry of Labour and Employment deserves appreciation. 

The policy includes both non-formal and formal sectors and plans to reduce awful type of child labour coupling with special employment plan for underprivileged, ethnic and handicapped children, she added.

Tahmina said the policy is still waiting for the approval of the government. 

She hoped with the approval and implementation of the policy the existing child labour law could be amended to curb the child labour in a proper manner.

She said children are working in so many risky jobs at an age when they should go to school and play.  SEEP is working with the children who are working at Benarosi Palli in Mirpur and the children of Bihari community in that area to bring them to the mainstream and give them a normal life. 


It has also been working to raise consciousness among the people, guardians and children to eradicate child labour since 1994. 


Tarikul Kabir, training and campaign manager of SEEP, and working children were present at the programme.

ENUGU, Nigeria (AFP) — Neighbors were suspicious of the daytime silence at the maternity clinic that came to life only after nightfall, though never suspected its disquieting secret -- it was breeding babies for sale. But recent police raids have revealed an alleged network of such clinics, dubbed baby "farms" or "factories" in the local press, forcing a new look at the scope of people trafficking in Nigeria.

At the hospital in Enugu, a large city in Nigeria's southeast, 20 teenage girls were rescued in May in a police swoop on what was believed to be one of the largest infant trafficking rings in the west African country. The two-storey building on a dusty street in Enugu's teeming Uwani district now stands deserted, shutters down. Neighbours had long found something bizarre about the establishment, where there was virtually no activity during the day, they told AFP.

The doctor in charge, who is now on trial, reportedly lured teenagers with unwanted pregnancies by offering to help with abortion. They would be locked up there until they gave birth, whereupon they would be forced to give up their babies for a token fee of around 20,000 naira (170 dollars, 135 euros).

The babies would then be sold to buyers for anything between 300,000 and 450,000 naira (2,500 and 3,800 dollars) each, according to a state agency fighting human trafficking in Nigeria, the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP).
But luck ran out for the gynaecologist, said to be in his 50s, when a woman to whom he had sold a day-old infant, was caught by Nigeria's Security and Civil Defence Service (NSCDS) while trying to smuggle the child to Lagos, the security agency said.

Statistics on the prevalence of baby breeding are hard to come by, but anti-trafficking campaigners say it is widespread and run by well-organised criminal syndicates.
"We believe the scope is much wider than we know," said Ijeoma Okoronkwo, head of NAPTIP.

"It has been happening over time, but we did not know. The first indication we had about this came in December 2006, when an NGO raised the alarm and told us babies were being exchanged for cash and that there were a number of hospitals involved," she told AFP.

The practice takes varying forms. One is where desperate teenagers with unplanned pregnancies, fearing ostracism by society, get lured to a clinic and are forced to turn over their babies.

The girls are so intimidated many can hardly relate their experience freely.
But one brave victim, an 18-year old, who asked not to be named for fear of reprisal, recounted her week-long ordeal when she was trapped inside one of the clinics days before it was raided by police.

"The moment I stepped in there, I was given an injection, I passed out and next thing I woke up and realised I had been raped," the girl, who was five months pregnant at the time of her ordeal, told AFP. When she asked if she could telephone her family to let them know of her whereabouts, the doctor slapped her on the face. She was shoved into a room where 19 other girls were kept; all had been through a similar experience. She said the doctor raped her again the following day.

A week later police swooped on the clinic.

Another category of young women, driven by deep poverty, lease out their wombs and volunteer themselves, as regularly as is biologically possible, to produce babies for sale.
"When we raided the hospital, we found four women who had been staying at the clinic for up to three years, to breed babies," NSDCS boss for Enugu state commandant Desmond Agu told AFP.

The doctor, whom police named, "had been inviting boys to come and impregnate girls," said Agu. This was just one of around a dozen centres -- masquerading as maternity clinics, foster homes, orphanages or shelters for homeless pregnant girls -- unearthed in recent months where babies were swapped for cash, said the NAPTITP boss.

Last month police swooped on a so-called foster home, not far from the Enugu police headquarters, where seven teenage pregnant girls and five workers were rounded up, residents said.

In 2005, a Lagos-based orphanage suspected of ties to child trafficking rings, was shut down. There, charred baby-bones were discovered on the rubbish tip, leading to suspicion the orphanage was involved in the peddling of human body parts, possibly for use in rituals or for organ harvesting.

In other cases observers say babies are purchased to be raised for child labour and sexual abuse or prostitution.

Trafficking in humans has become a lucrative trade.

Globally, it is estimated that billions of dollars exchange hands annually for payment of humans, according to the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and several UN agencies.

Witchcraft rituals also fuel baby trafficking, but experts say it is other motives that predominate, at least in this region of Nigeria.

Communities frown on children born out of wedlock and childlessness in marriage remains a curse for the woman.

"In the Igbo society, the price to remain childless is too high," said a clinical psychologist Peter Egbigbo.

"Childless people want to pay any amount for a child and doctors become rich overnight," he said, adding that those who are ready to adopt a baby would rather hide the fact that it is not their biological child.

Exchanging babies for cash is widespread in the region and in many cases locals do not see anything wrong in so doing.

"Many people don't even know what they are doing is criminal. They just think it's adoption -- you walk into a clinic, pay a fee and you have a baby," said Okoronkwo.
Buying or selling of babies is illegal in Nigeria and can carry a 14-year jail term.
It is estimated that globally hundreds of thousands of people are trafficked annually. UNICEF, the United Nations Children's Fund, estimates that at least 10 children are sold daily across Nigeria, where human trafficking is ranked the third most common crime after economic fraud and drug trafficking, according to UNESCO.

"There is so much profit in this business. There is so much to be made in trafficking and that is why it is thriving.

Gurgaon, November 9 The couple arrested in Gurgaon on Saturday on charges of brutally beating up their 13-year-old domestic help were released on bail on Sunday.

Debokjyoti Das, senior manager in Genpact, and his wife Paromita, assistant director in a Delhi-based private firm, were arrested from their Kendriya Vihar house in Sector 56 early on Saturday morning after the National Commission for Women (NCW) and Shakti Vahini, an NGO, had rescued Lakhi, their domestic help. Lakhi’s eyes were swollen and red, two fingers broken and had blisters on her hands. A team was sent to Das’ house following a complaint to the NCW from a neighbour.

A medical test on Lakhi confirmed a broken upper jaw and teeth and bruises below the right eye, advising opinions of a dental surgeon and an eye specialist. The report found a deformed little finger on her right hand and healed wounds and scars all over her body, besides pain in the back and other external injuries. The report also confirmed that all the injuries were inflicted by a blunt object within 72 hours before her rescue.

Debokjyoti and Paromita were charged under Sections 323 (voluntarily causing injuries), 342 (wrongful confinement) and 374 (unlawful compulsory labour) of the Indian Penal Code and Section 15 of the Child Labour Regulatory Act. While Debokjyoti got bail on Sunday, his wife had got bail late on Saturday night.

DCP (East) Jagdish Nagar said the sections related to “beating”. When asked why charges under the Juvenile Protection Act were not brought against the couple, he said it was applicable to cruelty against children up to the age of 13 years. “I do not have a medical report as of now but I was told she is 14 years old,” Nagar said, adding that he was yet to personally look into all the matters related to the case.

Investigating officer Hawa Singh said the sections were decided after long discussions. “I had only heard of such cases. This is the first time in my 32-year-old career that I have seen such a case. Getting bail does not mean they have been acquitted. If her eye report says she may lose vision, we will include Section 326, which is non-bailable.”

When asked why Paromita was released on Saturday, Singh said according to directions from the Supreme Court, a child or a woman could not be detained overnight unless they were arrested for a heinous crime.

Srinagar, Nov 2: ‘The lost childhood,’ a documentary in Kashmiri language has been selected for Tehran International Short Film Festival (TISFF) to be held on Nov 12 till 17. The film highlights the issue of child labour in the Valley.

“This is for the first time that any documentary film in Kashmiri has been selected for screening in TISFF,” said Bilal A Jan, director of the film.

According to Jan, TISFF head of international relations, Hassan Dezvareh, in a communication has acknowledged the selection of the film and has said, “We are pleased to announce that your film The Lost Childhood has been chosen for the International competition section at TISFF.”

Iranian Young Cinema Society (IYCS) is organizing the festival and has asked Jan to submit original format of the film in (DV cam or Beta SP Pal), dialogue list of the film in English and stills of the film (B&W or color).

Jan said some films from the Valley might have made it to the national and international film festival, but those films were in languages other than Kashmiri.  “This time it is an honour to our native language,” he added.

“The film highlights the problem of child labour in the Valley, which is more of an economic problem than social,” Jan added.

Financial support to the needy could rid the state of this menace, he said.

Earlier, the film was screened at Kashmir University in November 2007.

According to the census of 2001, in J&K there are over 1,75,000 child laborers. “At present the number of child laborers in the Valley alone may be around two lakh, which shows the sorry picture of the state,” he said.

“The state politicians and authorities are portraying a rosy picture of the state, while the actual position is quite different,” the film director said.

Jan has worked with noted film directors like Shyam Bengal and Vidhu Vinod Chopra.

He said, “While making the film I did not pay much attention to the data or statistics rather my focus was on the subject.”

“While making the film I came across numerous cases. We went to places where I think nobody has reached and captured the sufferings of the children in our camera,” Jan said.

The film was produced by M Maqbool Lone, who has been in the field for past many years.

The film producer said, “It is the maiden attempt ever made by any Kashmiri. There could be lot of loopholes, but over all it is a good attempt.”

Lone said he produced the film because he himself had “lost” his childhood. “I am one of the victims of the child labour and know how painful it is,” Lone rued.

http://www.greaterkashmir.com/full_story.asp?Date=3_11_2008&ItemID=40&cat=21

Baku. Kamala Guliyeva – APA. Friedrich Engels, one of the founders of Marxist philosophy, was the first to protest against child labour. Engels writes if socialists come to power, one of the first problems they will fight against, will be the use of child labour. But there was no need to wait for the socialists to come to power, in order to fight against child labour. The first law banning the use of child labour was adopted in Great Britain in 1833. Most think that child labour is more urgent in undeveloped countries. Actually, child labour is considered more profitable, since it is cheap. From Soviet republics Uzbekistan is mostly mentioned for child labour. Even some British companies wanted to impose veto on buying cotton fiber from Uzbekistan, since child labour was used in cotton production in the country.

Now June 12 is marked as the World Day against Child Labour. The convention of the International Labour Organization adopted on January 1, 1970, bans employment of children under 15. But according to the assessments of International Labour Organization, the labour of over 250 million children aged 5-14 is used in developing countries. 120 million of them work full time and 130 million part time.

-How is the situation in Azerbaijan?


According to the law on “Children’s rights” adopted in Azerbaijan in 1988, everyone under 18 is considered a child. The existing laws of the country – Constitution of Azerbaijan Republic, Labour Code, Family and Marriage Code, law on “Children’s rights” regulate children’s rights and their labour in Azerbaijan. Though laws impose some restrictions on the child labour, children are still broadly exploited in Azerbaijan. Nabi Shukurlu, chief of State Labour Inspection of the Ministry of Labour and Social Protection of Population told APA that the national labour legislation does not allow employing persons under 15 in Azerbaijan. The legislation bans to employ children aged 16-18 in workplaces with difficult and harmful conditions, underground jobs, night clubs having negative influence on the children’s morals, bars, casinos, places producing, selling and storing tobacco, narcotics, toxic agents. According to the investigations of State Labour Inspection, mainly children of low-income families work in the places banned for them. Employers have various reasons in using child labour. Employers mostly use child labour, since children’s work is cheaper and they are easily managed.

Nabi Shukurlu said the legislation allows use of child labour in exceptional cases. Pupils of secondary and vocational schools reached 14 can be employed in the jobs with harmless and easy conditions with the permission of their parents, or any person of authority. The chief of State Labour Inspection says that the persons employing children under 18 make them responsible for the employees. An employer is to ensure increase of skills of such employees and additional conditions and commitments should be envisaged in employment agreements. The legislation covers some prohibitions and responsibilities. But employing children without any paperwork, “frees” the employers from these responsibilities.

Despite the events for the protection of child labour, State Labour Inspection revealed improper use of child labour in 11 cases last year. 5 of the facts were related to transport. 4 children under 18 suffered in the aftermath of industrial accidents in 2007, 2 of them were injured, 2 died. Injuries were recorded in construction and industries, fatal casualties in the construction. No casualties were recorded among children under 18 in January-September this year.

-Baku, Ganja, Sumgayit, Shaki amd Lankaran are leading


“A child labor exists in Azerbaijan, but does not spread widely”, concluded Nabil Seyidov, leader of NGO Alliance for Children Rights. The child labor is widely used in the agricultural regions of Azerbaijan, as well as in Baku, Sumgayit, Ganja, Lankaran and Shaki, Seyidov told APA. It is interesting that neither the governmental, nor non-governmental organizations working with the children can specify the number of street children and children involved in illegal labor, it is impossible to estimate such statistics. “We can make some calculations. Usually the international organizations multiply the figures they have by ten. There are approximately 4000 street children in Azerbaijan. Their number is changing seasonally”.

The NGO Alliance’s attitude to the child labor in the agricultural field is not simple. Seyidov said there was nothing bad that children were working in the farms to support their families if it didn’t damage their health and education.

“However there are some fields of the agriculture like tobacco plantations where children can not work. The children are working in the tobacco plantations mostly in the north-western regions”.

According to ILO Convention, if children are involved in labor they have to receive same salary with adults. Non-signing of labor agreement with the children violates their rights. 90 per cent of children involved in labor in Azerbaijan have no such contracts. They have no idea about the labor agreements. Such cases widely spread in restraints and cafes.

Seyidov said parents and employers should be educated, which was responsibility of the local executive powers’ commissions for work with the under-ages. “This commission is former soviet organization and its restricted activity is not useful. These commissions are not working. There are protection and patronage institution and psychological- medical-pedagogical commissions near the Ministry of Education. These institutions need to unite as Children Protection Department, which has to operate in all regions and to subordinate to the Ministry of Education, because teachers meet with the children within a week for 5-6 hours a day and they can fix first changes in the children. If children avoid the school, it means the situation is very serious”. Seyidov said the Children Protection Department would cover 1.5 million children and it should be supported and controlled by the government.

-Why child police is not established?


According to the law on prevention of homelessness and right violation among the under-age children adopted in 2005, a child police should be established in Azerbaijan. However there is still no child police in the country. Absence of juvenile police tackles effective methods against the street children and registration of children rights violation and child labor exploitation. The under-age children commit nearly 500 crimes, including theft, robbery, rape, deliberate wounding and drugs, a year. Nearly 4000 children were registered by police. 30-40 per cent of them are hard-road children. According to the official statistics, 10-15 children face with sexual exploitation every year. In fact this figure is more than 10-20 times. Most of them are girls.

-Working girls are involved in prostitution

The State Program for solution of the problems of homeless and street children in 2003-2006 in Azerbaijan was already completed, said deputy chief of the Children Problems unit of the State Committee for Family, Women and Children Problems Jeyran Rahmatullayeva. “Level of this problem had to be specified at first. There are no exact statistics of street children yet. ILO researches show that homeless children working in the streets and the children working in the streets, but living with the family are street children in Azerbaijan. The children working in the streets, but living with the family dominate among them. It related with the refugee and IDP problem, migration from other countries and poverty. Recent fall of poverty level shows that irresponsible parents also contributed to this problem”. The committee official said age limit for the boys was 12-14, for the girls 12-16. The girls at this age are involved in the prostitution mostly. The boys are working as auto washers or bus conductors. “The researches show that monthly earning of the street children is 20-50 dollars. The highest figure is 100 dollars, which is earned by the prostitutes. Only 2 per cent of these children spend their earnings to education. Most part of them spends only for daily foods. 64.7 per cent of these children are living with the single mothers and brothers and sisters”. Rahmatullayeva said a risk of various disease infections was higher among these children. “There are street children among the AIDS-infected people in the country”.

According to the report of AIDS Prevention Center, this year 13 children at age 0-14 and 5 at age 15-18 were infected with AIDS.

98 per cent of street children avoid the education. Rahmatullayeva called it as very painful fact and said indeed there were talented children among them. “These children may become victims of child trafficking, violence and sex exploitation in future”.

-Is it possible to prevent child labour by administrative measures?

“We are forward than European norms in terms of legislation on child labour. Sahib Mammadov, Head of Citizens’ Labor Rights Protection League stated that there was not child labour in Azerbaijan in comparison with Southeast Asia and Latin America. To him, usage of child labour is decreasing in Azerbaijan gradually. Child labour is used in non –state sectors.

“Child labour has decreased in trade, transport. Child labour occurs in catering. There are many reports on the facts that many young girls are involved in disco-bars and dance in restaurants. The legislation bans to involve young children in works damaging them mentally and physically,” he said. Mammadov considers that it is impossible to prevent child labour by administrative measures.

“One of the toy fabrics used child labour in India. Campaign was conducted against it and the fabric stopped it. According to next observations, most of children and their family members died of starvation. There is such child that if he does not work, he or his family will be hungry. Therefore, the government should give salaries to poor children. Social assistance is a good way out of situation. There are serious problems on it. Firstly children should be satiated with the prevention of the problem,” he said.

-There is a condition for children, but what else do they need?

It is true that children are involved in labour at present. We can approach to this fact from various aspects. But there is a serious factor on this issue. There are only paid circles, where children can use their times productively. Sometimes the parents have not money to send their children to these circles. In such case, young children want to earn money themselves. In such case there occur several situations:

First, they earn money and spend it to sport and circles.

Second, usage of money changes after earning money. New and attractive ways are found (cigarette, alcohols, narcotic substances etc.).

Third, the parents make them spend earned money to needs of the family. Sometimes there occur a cleft between the parents and children.

It is undesirable situation that the child is obliged to earn money. If we seek the ways out of this problem, then children should be paid attention to spend productive time. Otherwise, children, who want to spend productive time, can go astray.

Lomé, Togo - UNICEF and the International Labour Office (ILO) have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to strengthen the fight against child labour in Togo, according to a statement by the UN agency here. "The MoU aims at fighting against child trafficking and upholding the principles set out in the UN Convention on Children's Rights," the statement noted.

According to UNICEF, every year, many Togolese children are trafficked to the capital, Lome, and to Central Africa mainly not only as domestic workers but also as cheap workforce for stores or farms.

Under the agreement, the two organisations will implement joint strategies for combating child trafficking mainly by emphasising access to education.

YEREVAN, 30 October 2008 – UNICEF announced today that rapidly increasing student absenteeism and drop-out rates are closely linked to child labour as well as quality of education in Armenia.

Findings of the two UNICEF-supported studies, “Child Labour in Armenia” and “School Wastage Study Focusing on Student Absenteeism in Armenia” reveal that between 2002 and 2005 school dropout rates increased at an alarming rate of 250 per cent a year. Therefore, if the 2002-2003 total dropouts were equal to 1,531 students, this number increased to 7,630 in 2004-2005.

The studies also revealed that students in higher grades are more likely to be absent than students in lower grades.
“The prevalence of child labour can be directly correlated to children not attending school at all, or dropping out of school before they complete their basic education,” UNICEF Representative Laylee Moshiri-Gilani stressed.

According to the findings an average of 6.1 per cent or about 3,500 children aged 7-18 are involved in some kind of work in Armenia and more than 40 per cent of  children interviewed during the study were not attending school at all.

Although the Armenian Labour Code stipulates the minimum age for working to be 14 years, 30 per cent of working children interviewed during the study were below 14.

“Needless to say, child labour robs children of their childhood. But another saddening feature of child labour is that although it often arises because of poverty, it serves only to perpetuate the poverty trap by keeping children away from school,” Ms. Moshiri-Gilani emphasized.

The two UNICEF-supported studies complement each other in stressing that efforts to eliminate child labour go hand in hand with improvements in the quality, relevance and affordability of education.

“The ongoing education reform should guarantee every child access to education and ensure that children who for various reasons fall out of the schooling process can be re-integrated into schools at any stage,” UNICEF Representative emphasized, adding that every country, including Armenia, has a continuing responsibility to ensure that our children and young people are protected, their voices are heard, and their rights are upheld.

Associated Press of Pakistan

DASKA: More than eight percent surgical instruments vendors' shops in Sialkot have been completely purged from child labour under the child labour elimination programme of surgical industry as the programme has successfully entered into its final phase. The programme was launched by the International Labour Organization (ILO) in active collaboration with Surgical Instruments Manufacturers Association (SIMA) to end child labour in the export-oriented surgical industry of Sialkot.

Surgical Instruments Manufacturers Association (SIMA) leader Ch Amjad Ali Cheema disclosed this while talking to newsmen. He said that ILO had launched the child labour elimination programme to purge the more than a century old surgical industry from child labour by signing a pact with SIMA seven years ago on August 17, 2001. Under the first phase of this programme, the ILO conducted as survey with a cost of Rs.5.01 million to collect date about the child labour in surgical forging units and surgical vendors' shops and had declared that there were more than 5000 children involved in surgical forging units in 2001.

He said that SIMA signed the second phase of child labour eradication programme with ILO on December 23, 2003 for elimination of child labour and admission of children, involved in labour, at different schools.

Ch Amjad Ali Cheema said that now the programme was in the final phase and it was not wrong to say that the surgical industry would soon be purged from child labour under the supervision of International Labour Organization (ILO).

He said that as many as 121 leading surgical instruments manufacturing and exporting companies had donated for this programme. 

He said that more than eight percent surgical instruments vendors' shops had been completely purged from child labour, while the rest shops were also under the process of child labour eradication. All the children, who were labouring at these, are now getting education in different schools under supervision of ILO and SMA, he added.

New Delhi, October 30 While the legal fraternity continues to delve upon the admissibility of sting operation tapes as evidence in court, a city court has sentenced a person to two years in jail in a child trafficking case, based on a sting aired on a television news channel.

Chander Shekhar was arrested by the Delhi Police in September 2006, when a television journalist made a written complaint after conducting a sting operation, exposing the trafficking racket.

Shekhar, an employee at Prayas Kendra in the Nabi Karim area, had allegedly been selling off the children residing in the NGO.

On September 23, 2006, Harish Sharma, a journalist, conducted a sting operation. He allegedly got in touch with Shekhar through two middlemen, Raja and Ravi, saying he required children to help him smuggle gold.
According to the complaint, Shekhar agreed to give him three children from the NGO for Rs 30,000. He brought them (names withheld) to Sharma at Connaught Place after the latter paid an advance of Rs 7,000.
Sharma later handed over the children to the Connaught Place police along with a copy of the CD and the script containing details of the entire episode that was aired on Star News the same day.

Shekhar’s counsel argued that he should be let off as there was no evidence to suggest that the children were to be employed in “harmful” or “abusive” activities and since Shekhar had no previous criminal record.
Additional Sessions Judge S K Sarvaria, however, dismissed the arguments and convicted Shekhar under penal provisions pertaining to trafficking and criminal conspiracy.

The court held that the sting tapes, the credibility of which could not be impeached during the trial, could very well be relied upon to secure the conviction of the accused.

The judge also ordered that a separate chargesheet be filed against the two middlemen, Raja and Ravi, who were yet to be traced.]