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Welcome to SUNS 2008! |
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Committee: UNICEF Topic: Child Labor Director: Luis Farias Elizondo (English), Marina Menchaca (Spanish)
Committee Background: UNICEF was done since 1947 so support the work of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF). It works to protect their rights, improve their health, and helps in their development, and increasing awareness for the challenge in the world for the children. UNICEF is lead United Nations (UN) agency for the global control of the child-related Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The members of this committee are all but Bahamas, Malta, Monaco and Singapore. UNICEF was created by the General Assembly for giving in case of an emergency food and medical sources for the hurt children from the Second World War. UNICEF works with teenagers to get involved with life activities and made them appreciate the sources.
Topic Background: Child labor is considered the employment of children in any countries economic production, religion region and the economic maintenance of a family group. Child labor mainly affects developing countries but that doesn’t mean industrialized countries don’t have cases of child labor. The International Labor Organization or the ILO, defines child labor as “some types of work” done by children under the age of 18. The ILO also says that child labor includes full time work done by children under 15 years of age that prevents them from going to school. Other sources and organizations disagree on what child labor is. Some say that it is only hazardous work or work that interferes with a child’s education, while others say child labor is what includes any work done by children working for pay. UNICEF, decided to draw a line between child work, which depending on what definition you use, can consist of light work done by children above the age of 12, and child labor. Child labor involves child exploitation, but what is the difference between them? In child labor exists forms of work in which girls, boys and teenagers that not necessarily applied exploitative or abuse forms as formative works or temporary vocational works from schools in the urban societies.
You can refer to child exploitation when:
Any children under 16 years who carry out an economic production activity which affects their personal development as the enjoyment of their rights. Children who are forced to maintain any constant work without getting the obtained economic benefit. A child between the ages of 12 and 14 years that does a work that applies a risk and it is evidently dangerous. All the ones who are victims of the worst forms of children exploitation as the followings: Child victims of traffic. The ones that suffer any slavery form. Prostitution obligation. Force or teach them to realize illegal activities or that affects their integrity.
UNICEF established that there are approximately 250 million children from the ages of 2 to 17 involved in child labor around the world without counting domestic work. It helps to ensure that children are in school, laws are in place to punish those who exploit children, but many cases, breaking the law, never get caught or authorities don’t do something to them. Childhood is considered a time to play, learn grow up and a time that every child should have the opportunity to develop his potential as much as he can. Unfortunately the children involved around the world in child labor can‘t enjoy of those aspects. Children work because their survival and that of their families depend on it family which means that without the economic contribution of the child the family will not be able to enjoy the basic needs for a family.Child labor continues even where it has been declared illegal, and is frequently surrounded by silence, indifference, and apathy. But that is beginning to diminish. While the total elimination of child labor is a long-term goal in many countries, certain forms of child labor must be confronted immediately. Nearly three-quarters of working children are engaged in the worst forms of child labor, including trafficking, armed conflict, slavery, sexual exploitation and hazardous work. The effective abolition of child labor is one of the most urgent challenges of our time Nearly 90 % of the world countries involve, face and have child labor. That is a lot of people around the world depending or earning money out of a child’s work. What will it happen if you stop all child labor? Is it an answer leaving families around the world without a certain amount of money which they already count on for sustaining? That’s the controversy of the topic. A lot of people around the world may stop eating if child labor is stopped, families will be destroyed and other children as siblings from the ones that work, cant even have an opportunity to receive an education because they will not have the money to receive it. A lot of people will be affected and stopping child labor without affecting others will be very difficult, for that countries will need job opportunities for parents and education for children. It is also considered that child labor is part of the world economy. Industries will go down with the stop of the issue and governments will not lead that happened. And if you let children work, many of them suffer, they don’t receive a good treatment as they should. How can delegations avoid mistreatment of children without stopping child labor at all?
Causes: Economic globalization creates patterns among different national economies, in which developing countries makes more common child labor than developed countries. At the same time the process of globalization that allows developed countries to be part of the child labor that occurs in developing countries, also pressures their social economies and structures intensifying in this form child labor. Evidently a relation exists between child labor and poverty. But it is not the poverty the main cause of child labor, the fact is that the opportunity or the proportion of work for kids is the one that makes child labor occur. It exists because it is treated as acceptable culturally or politically. In many countries there exists a strong tradition of tolerance for child labor, that mainly it is combined with isolated populations. The result is the child labor expansion among some poor ethnic groups. In a similar form discriminatory attitudes for women and girls can enforce their parents will to send their daughters to serve in homes or to prostitute themselves. Where the education is mandatory, available and understood as important, the proportion of child labor is lower. Even poverty is not the main cause but certainly an important cause, influences a lot in child labor. Why would a child prefer to get an education or go to school when staying in work can make them eat on that day? Or even worse, not even have the opportunity of chose between go to school or work. Poverty makes children work but are the society in countries which sometimes tolerates or accept this. They also are part of it by getting money from it even they are at the end of an economic chain, children working must be the start of that chain.
The incentive benefit: Industries prefer children because they are easier to exploit. They can pay them less salary for more work. The industries just obtain more money since they spend less. The governments are sometimes directly or indirectly involved at this since is them responsibility if the adult employers receive insufficient salaries to maintain their families. Sometimes children work to help maintain their families. Of course they prefer to work that to pass trough hunger.
History of the topic: Although, child labor was not new to the world, it is believed that during 1780 and 1840, there was a great increase in child exploitation. During the Industrial revolution, it was very common to find children working in factories. In 1788, more than 60% of workers in textile mills of England and Scotland were children. Many laws were made to end with child labor, but hardly succeeded. Action: UNICEF has done many things to stop child labor, programs have been done all around the world protecting children and providing them some help. Giving the opportunity of education has been present on most of the time in UNICEF movements against child labor. In specific places in countries where child labor rate is too high is where UNICEF acts, personally with each child they can help. They help children giving them an opportunity of education giving them time to work so they can still get the money earn in order to eat that day. UNICEF also investigates the cases and “taboos” and if there’s a problem it try to fix it. The International Labor Organization acts against child labor. The international community has committed itself, within the Millennium Development Goals, to ensure that by 2015 all children, boys and girls, complete a course of primary education. It had priority on African poor countries in which children are out of school systems. Programs in these countries have already started and include curses to underage children that are over the age limit to get primary education. Other countries in the world also receive help from the organization but it hasn’t end with child labour at all. Institutions and organizations all around the world had help to fight the issue. Many of them help because once they had involved a child labor case and they help it because of them reputation. But there are also the ones that do it just for helping the world and those needs to be recognized. Delegations must know its institutes industries or organizations that fight the problem how they have helped and if it had worked.
Africa Since Africa is the poorest continent of earth it is often considered the one most affected by child labor. Of the 250 million children working around the world 32% work in Africa. Agriculture is the most common work for children there. Once was make a huge scandal since almost half of the purchased chocolate in the United States come from cocoa fields’ child labor in Africa. A researcher of Human Rights Watch establishes that trafficking child labor occurs on numerous routes in West Africa and governments aren’t working enough to stop it. Interviewed girls said that they were told to board ships bound for Gabon, where they were to work as servants and house-maids. China Clearly child labor in China had grow and increased but it doesn’t exist or it isn’t officially a number of the workers around the country that are children. About 10 million children in China Skip school and from those about 5 million are estimated to work in factories. 85% of children that skip school work in different places, that was from a report of Sichuan, China`s most populated province. Also in less populated provinces about 20% of the work is done by children. Kidnapped children are sold to factories, since the rate of kidnapped children has increased, the past is believed. Russia In Russia the employment of children under the age of 16 is prohibited, this is printed in the Labor Code since the laws for child labor are very specific in this delegation. Working at night or overtime is not a permitted position to anyone under 18 years of age. But also happens that some children are forced to work more than the time limit. There exist conditions that approve children working up to the age of 14 which one of those is the parental approval. Forced child labor is prohibited. A problem this country face is that many children are involve in drug sale and this children many times will be giving drugs so they follow the given directions. Bangladesh Since Bangladesh is a developing third-world state, a lot of child labor exists on it. A 1995-1996 survey by the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics found that approximately 6.6 million children worked as child laborers in Bangladesh most of the children in exploitative jobs that keeps them away from getting a good education. From these children 30,000 are considered working in “hazardous” jobs classified by UNICEF and the Ministry of Labor and Manpower. The most common work for children in Bangladesh is the ones related to agriculture, 65% of the children working in Bangladesh involve agricultural work. Most child laborers in Bangladesh work around 43 hours per week or even more.
Latin America In Latin America, Child labor continues to be an important and a big issue since a lot of children are estimated to work in this region. About 200 million children of the years of 5 to 14 are working and from those 18 million are of 10 to 14 years old. Agricultural work is common here and the 26% of children in Latin America are forced to work. Colombia In Colombia child labor has a huge impact since there it’s very common that parents make their children work. An estimated 2.5 million children are forced to work to support their families and 40% from the children in Colombia don’t have a primary school diploma. On average, child laborers work six to nine hours a day. Their payments are low and most of them receive no health or unemployment benefits. Guatemala 5000 children between the ages of 6 and 14 were found in secret at illegal workshops in the capital region of Guatemala. They were making fireworks and other explosives. In their work they where exposed to toxic, flammable, and explosive materials. The place of work didn’t have hygiene or safety measures taken. A total of 13 children were affected there, 9 of them dead and 4 of them survived their damage. It is believed that there are more workshops in Guatemala. Pakistan Since the economy of Pakistan it is very difficult to earn enough money to feed a family. The greatest case of child labor in Pakistan is on a lace called Sialkot. Child labor exists in both the export and domestic sectors of the economy in Sialkot. This has been well documented internationally, and it is documented that child labor is against Pakistan's law, but neither the government nor anyone else chooses to do anything about it. Nike has been accused repeatedly of using exploitative child labor in the production of its soccer balls. Over half the world's soccer balls are produced in Pakistan, and all of those pass through a production line. This production line does not involve a lot of adults; mostly these balls are made by children. So that’s why Pakistan is possibly the most well known by the United Sates. United States of America Child labor in the United States is also present and has almost all types of it. Agriculture, factory work or even sexual slavery are examples of this but debt bondage and working in garbage are not common forms of work made by children in this country. Even in the United States a small number of children work in factories the danger in this work is extremely high which also causes injuries. Most child laborers work on farms in the west. According to a Human Rights Watch report, over half of interviewed farm workers worked in a recently sprayed field and a third had been sprayed themselves. Also the workers are commonly beaten, whipped, and threatened for low quality work
Possible Solutions: Evidently most of the countries agree that education is the base of any country future. With education there’s preparation which allows people to develop their abilities and desires. Improving education is the most open solution for this issue. Job opportunities will have also a great impact in this since many children work to help maintain their families. Governments should establish laws that protect children from exploitative forms of work, of course this needs to be accomplished and followed by the society or population. Punishments to the ones exploiting children should also be considered by governments. There are also the ones that agree that children work under conditions that don’t hurt them psychologically or physically, allows them to study, and gives them time to develop their childhood. These since economy from a lot of families around the world depend from the money earned by the child. International laws which establish those conditions must be made by delegations. Letting children work, but establish a time for it and a time for education. It will be very hard to stop child labor but to establish international laws and conditions under the ones allowing child working can make a change on the issue. The committee invites delegations to present, made, and support solutions in order to attack the problem.
Important questions: What is the child labor percentage in your country? Has your country done something to stop child labor, what has it done? Has your delegation received any kind of support from UNICEF or any other country? Has your country supported any movement from UNICEF to stop the issue? Which is the country most affected by child labor? Does your country have the economic resources to carry out your solutions?
Bibliography http://www.buzzle.com/articles/child-labor/ http://library.thinkquest.org/03oct/01908/800/indianregion.htm SIRS/ child labor articles/ The debatabasebook /the editors of IDEA/ third edition/ child labor |
