Secretary of Labor Hilda L. Solis and Sen. Tom Harkin are making available $32.5 million in grants as well as releasing three new reports in an effort to fight exploitative child labor on a global level.
"These reports provide an overview of international efforts to protect children from hazardous work and identify critical gaps in policy and enforcement that leave them vulnerable," says Secretary Solis. "Through increased education and awareness and critical assistance to families and governments, we can help make exploitative child labor a thing of the past."
The Findings on the Worst Forms of Child Labor report, which was mandated by the Trade and Development Act, concentrates on hazardous work performed by children and includes profiles for more than 140 countries. The report also explores major conclusions on each central government's efforts to address the most severe forms of child labor; gaps in legislation, enforcement, policies and programs; and proposed actions for each government to consider in addressing those gaps. Accessibility and education costs are examined by country, as well.
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The List of Goods Produced by Child Labor or Forced Labor, the second report mandated by the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act, increases the amount of goods by two, tallying to 130, and adds another country where they are produced, for a total of 71.
Additionally, Executive Order 13126 has updated the list of goods and products manufactured by forced or indentured child labor to include bricks from Afghanistan as well as cassiterite and coltan from the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
The Labor Department's Bureau of Internation Labor Affairs developed the three reports after it collected data from U.S. embassies, foreign governments, international and nongovernmental organizations, technical assistance and field research projects, academic research and media reports.
The grants were issued to three organizations. The Global Action Program grant in the amount of $15 million was awarded to the Geneva's International Labour Organization to provide help to targeted countries in an effort to promote sustainable livelihoods for vulnerable populations, support pioneering research and monitoring systems to aid with policy development and program design, and encourage new ways to stop the exploitation of children in domestic work. The Philippines' World Vision was also given $15 million to challenge the severe child labor in sugarcane production, and the International Labour Organization was issued $2.5 million to back the Labor Department's programming and execution of impact evaluations to identify best practices for confronting child labor.
According to the International Labour Organization's estimates, more than 215 million children are subject to child labor. Of those, more than half are engaging in dangerous work. The ILO also reveals that more 15 to 17 year olds than before are participating in work that is harmful to their health, safety and morals.
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