Chump Change and Smoke
I’ve just attended the Global March Conference on Child Labour in Agriculture in Washington DC.The room was filled with people committed to ridding the world of products made by child labor labor. They have their work cut out for them.
Stolen Innocence: Poor Children at Risk for Child Prostitution
This past weekend, a three-day sweep by law enforcement rescued 79 children from prostitution. 104 alleged pimps were arrested. More than 2,500 state, local and federal law enforcement officers in 57 cities took part in Operation Cross Country, the culmination of a widespread effort to begin putting a stop to teenage prostitution. The operation, which [...]
India Country Profile
from the US Department of Labor’s 2010 Findings on the Worst Forms of Child Labor
Kenya Country Profile
from the US Department of Labor’s 2010 Findings on the Worst Forms of Child Labor
The Kenyan Schoolhouse
I was rummaging through a pile of old photos yesterday and came across this one, sent from Kenya in 2002. Has it really been 10 years? These faces looking to the future and proudly showing off their school uniforms were in a very different condition when we met them on a coffee plantation in Kiambu [...]
Global Child Labor Developments: Measuring Trends from 2004 to 2008
The latest trend report from ILO/IPEC provides new global and regional estimates on child labour for the year 2008 and compares them with the previous 2004 estimates. It also explains in detail the underlying estimation methodologies and gives an overview of the datasets used. The report shows that globally child labour continues to decline, albeit at a lower rate. Key findings are presented according to: form of children’s work, age group, sex, region, sector of activity and status in employment.
No Place For Children
2012 Human Rights Watch report on unlawful recruitment and other laws-of-war violations against children by all parties to the conflict in Somalia since 2010. The report is based on over 164 interviews with Somali children, including 21 who had escaped from al-Shabaab forces, as well as parents and teachers who had fled to Kenya.
Jamaica Country Profile
from the 2010 US Department of Labor report on the worst forms of child labor
Children in Mines
The boys look tired and determined. From their appearance, we can tell they worked deep below the ground where their small bodies would conveniently fit in the narrow shafts, mining coal twelve hours a day, hundreds of feet below the surface. The picture at left was taken in the anthracite region of Pennsylvania, around 1900 [...]
The Price of Gold
At least 20,000 children work in Malian artisanal gold mines under extremely harsh and dangerous conditions. These children literally risk life and limb. They carry loads heavier than their own weight, climb into unstable shafts, and touch and inhale mercury, one of the most toxic substances on earth. Courtesy NBC Rock Center
Tanzania Country Profile
from the 2010 US Department of Labor report on the worst forms of child labor
Haiti Country Profile
from the 2010 US Department of Labor’s Findings on the Worst Forms of Child Labor
Down on the Farm
This week at Media Voices, Julia Perez highlights the Congressional Farm Belt resistance to changing labor regulations in a way that extends the same protections to youth working in agriculture as we have in all other labor sectors. Her piece, The Parental Exemption on Family Farms: If Corporations Are People, Are They Parents Too?, points [...]
A Rude Surprise!
I’ve never considered myself a slave owner. My house is filled with normal stuff; some furniture, clothes, quite a bit of music and books and an 80-year-old piano. So imagine my surprise when I recently completed the survey at SLAVERY FOOTPRINT, a new web site and mobile app, to discover that my lifestyle is made [...]
Forced to Flee: Liberia’s Child Soldiers
A piece from IRIN Films about ex-child soldier Emmanuel, who witnessed his own parents’ murder, and as a consequence, can never go back to his childhood village in Liberia.
Bravo! A Good Month for Children’s Rights
June 12th saw the annual observance of World Day Against Child Labor. When it comes to protecting children’s human rights, progress can seem painfully incremental and slow. But this year, there are many substantial efforts that merit our respect and admiration and get a BRAVO from Media Voices.
Missing the Boat: 60 Minutes Reports on Children in the Fields
Generally, when 60 Minutes reports on a topic, there’s a sense that the best in American television journalism has taken the subject head-on. Not so, with last Sunday’s broadcast, Children in the Fields, a deeply misleading report on child labor in U.S. agriculture.
Caring for the Victim
This week at Media Voices, Reid Maki of the Child Labor Coalition covers a hearing on the Capitol to gather support for the Domestic Minors Sex Trafficking Deterrence and Victims Support Act (S.596). The bill would establish funding for “a comprehensive framework of specialized treatment and mental health counseling that addresses post-traumatic stress, depression, and [...]
Tolerating Injustice
This week at Media Voices, we have a beautiful photo gallery from Dutch photographer Michael Ballak documenting children at work in a variety of industries in Peru, from middle school-age girls making straw hats as tourist mementos, to girls and boys making bricks and children working in mining operations without safety equipment of any kind.
Trafficking: Renting Out Children’s Bodies for Fun and Profit
This week at Media Voices, we’re focusing on various forms of exploitation of children covered under the neutral and innocuous term of trafficking. Robert Bilheimer spent four years filming on five continents to make Not My Life, a new documentary on trafficking and sexual exploitation of children around the world. For those of you who [...]
HIV & AIDS Fueling Child Trafficking in Kenya
HIV & AIDS has not only turned children into orphans and laborers, but has also fanned the flames of trafficking in children.
