Accelerating action against child labour
ILO background report on the current state of global child labour prepared for the Global Child Labour Conference in The Hague, 10-11 May 2010
Fields of Peril
In this 99-page report Human Rights Watch found that child farmworkers risked their safety, health, and education on commercial farms across the United States. For the report, Human Rights Watch interviewed 59 children under age 18 who had worked as farmworkers in 14 states in various regions of the United States.
Girl’s Work, or Dignity
Len and Georgia Morris are traveling to the child labor conference in the The Hague this week, so I’m doing the honors for the next two weeks while they’re gone.
Monique DeJong has written a wonderful post this week, Proposed ILO Convention Could Protect Migrant Domestic Workers’ Rights. Domestic work is perceived as a relatively [...]
Proposed ILO Convention Could Protect Migrant Domestic Workers’ Rights
“They tell us we don’t have rights and want us to beg at their feet. There are often day-to-day threats: ‘If you go out on the streets, they will kill you,’” said Antonia Pena, domestic worker and leader of Casa de Maryland, at a panel discussion last month at American University Washington College of Law. [...]
Slow Reform
Protection of Migrant Domestic Workers in Asia and the Middle East (Human Rights Watch Report)
Dignity Overdue: Decent Work for Domestic Workers
Millions of women and girls around the world turn to domestic work in order to provide for themselves and their families. Instead of guaranteeing their ability to work with dignity and free of violence, governments have systematically denied them key labor protections extended to other workers. Domestic workers, often making extraordinary sacrifices to support their families, are among the most exploited and abused workers in the world.
Produced by Human Rights Watch
Cristina’s Story
Nineteen-year-old Cristina talks about working as a nanny for various wealthy families in Salvador, Bahia in Brazil since the age of fourteen.
The interviewer is Patricia Nascimento.
Gem Slaves
Mererani in northern Tanzania is the only place on earth where the precious stone tanzanite is mined. Every day thousands of children risk their lives in poorly constructed mine shafts for barely a meal a day. Despite efforts to curb this deadly practice, the global thirst for tanzanite continues to drive these children underground.
For Gem Slaves, Part 2 – click here
Gem Slaves – Part 2
Mererani in northern Tanzania is the only place on earth where the precious stone tanzanite is mined. Every day thousands of children risk their lives in poorly constructed mine shafts for barely a meal a day. Despite efforts to curb this deadly practice, the global thirst for tanzanite continues to drive these children underground.
The Harvest
Over 500,000 children labor in agriculture in the U.S., The Harvest tells the stories of five of these children from Texas, Florida, California, Minnesota and North Dakota. Produced and Directed by filmmaker Robin Romano in association with Shine Global. This is the trailer for a feature length documentary to be released in 2010.
CIF Report
Hundreds of thousands of children work as hired labor in America’s fields and orchards.
These children are among the least protected of all working children. Since 1938, exemptions in
the federal child labor law—the Fair Labor Standards Act, or FLSA—have excluded child agricultural
workers from many of the protections afforded to almost every other working child.
This report produced by the Association of Farmworker Opportunity Programs May 2007 sets out the current state of children working in agriculture in the United States.
Leaving the Fields
This is an excerpt from the documentary feature, STOLEN CHILDHOODS, that deals with child labor in the onion fields of Texas. Most Americans are unaware of the fact that our food is often picked by children who are exposed to the hazards of pesticide poisoning, injury and exhausting work without limit. There is presently no federal law protecting children who work in American agriculture. This is a blatant violation of United Nations Resolution 182- which the U.S. has signed. Look at this segment to understand what it means to have your education disrupted, to leave on short notice to work and help your family make ends meet. Yes, we have child labor in America.
