Archived News Release — Caution: Information may be out of date.

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF LABOR

ILAB, ILO SIGN AGREEMENT TO DEVELOP PROGRAMS TO ELIMINATE CHILD LABORMon., August 7, 1995

For more information call: (202) 208-4843.

The Department of Labor's Bureau of International Labor Affairs (ILAB) today announced the signing of an agreement with the International Labor Organization (ILO) to support projects aimed at reducing child labor. ILAB will fund a $2.1 million grant to the ILO's International Program for the Elimination of Child Labor (IPEC) to fund programs in Bangladesh, Thailand, Africa, and the Philippines. Funding for projects was provided in the FY 1995 Labor Department Appropriations.

Jack Otero, the Deputy Under Secretary of ILAB, said: "This agreement marks a major commitment by the Clinton administration to combat the growing problem of child labor. Not only is it tragic that in many parts of the globe children must forfeit their education in order to work, but many of them work in brutal, slave-like conditions. This ILAB-ILO agreement shows the high priority that these two organizations place on ending this shameful practice."

The ILAB-ILO program in Bangladesh is aimed at removing children from the workplace and placing them in schools. Under an agreement negotiated with the support of ILAB and the American embassy in Bangladesh between ILO, UNICEF, and the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA), ILAB, through ILO, will provide technical and financial assistance for the development of an inspection and verification system to insure children are not in the garment factories.

The project in Thailand is aimed at strengthening existing programs that seek to prevent children from being lured into exploitative child labor, especially child prostitution. The ILAB-ILO project will bolster existing educational opportunities for children at risk. This will be done by working with rural school teachers, by improving skills training programs developed by NGOs, and by enlarging programs that work with girls who are at risk of being sold or lured into prostitution.

In the Philippines, ILAB's funding will be used to develop and implement a nation-wide statistical survey on child labor.

The program in Africa will formulate measures and activities to improve working conditions of children on plantations. Special emphasis will be placed on examining low-cost measures that can reduce the incidence of exploitative child labor.

ILAB and the ILO also are considering a proposal to reduce bonded child labor in India, as well as a program to eliminate child labor in Brazil's footwear industry.

The agreement was signed today by Deputy Under Secretary Otero, and Anthony Freeman, Director of the ILO's Washington Office.

ILAB has been actively involved in international child labor since 1993, when Congress directed the Secretary of Labor to conduct a study identifying those foreign industries and host countries that utilize child labor in the production of goods imported to the United States. In 1994, ILAB's International Child Labor Study published its first report, "By the Sweat and Toil of Children: The Use of Child Labor in American Imports," which focused on children in the mining and manufacturing sector. The 1995 report, to be published in September, examines the use of child labor in commercial agriculture and children in conditions of forced and bonded labor.

Copies of "By the Sweat & Toil of Children (Volume I): The Use of Child Labor in American Imports," are available by contacting the International Child Labor Study, Bureau of International Labor Affairs, U.S. Department of Labor, Room S- 1308, 200 Constitution Ave., N.W., Washington, D.C. 20210; by phone, at (202) 208-4843; or by fax: (202) 219-4923. It also can be accessed on the Internet, on the World Wide Web, Gopher, and FTP at the following sites:

Archived News Release — Caution: Information may be out of date.