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THE WHITE HOUSE

Office of the Press Secretary

For Immediate Release August 6, 1999

         PRESIDENT CLINTON: URGING U.S. RATIFICATION OF THE ILO
                      CONVENTION ON ELIMINATION OF
                     THE WORST FORMS OF CHILD LABOR
                             August 6, 1999

Last night, President Clinton transmitted to the Senate for advice and consent to ratification International Labor Organization (ILO) Convention Number 182 - "the Convention Concerning the Prohibition and Immediate Action for the Elimination of the Worst Forms of Child Labor."

In June, President Clinton was the first U.S. President to travel to Geneva to address the ILO. There he urged the Conference to adopt Convention 182 and pledged to seek its ratification.

The action last night continues the President's efforts to make the United States a leader in the worldwide campaign to abolish the worst forms of child labor.

Convention 182

In his 1999 State of the Union address, President Clinton pledged: "[W]e will lead the international community to conclude a treaty to ban abusive child labor everywhere in the world."
The Department of Labor led the effort to develop a unified negotiating position among the business, labor, and government U.S. delegates to the convention and ensure that the result was a convention that could be easily ratified by the U.S. and widely ratified around the world.
On June 17, 1999, the International Labor Conference (the ILO's annual meeting) adopted Convention 182 unanimously. The ILO is a tripartite body made up of government, labor, and business representatives from 174 countries around the world.
Convention 182 applies to all persons under the age of 18 and requires ratifying States to take immediate and effective measures to secure the prohibition and elimination of the worst forms of child labor, as a matter of urgency.
For the purposes of the Convention, the worst forms of child labor are defined as: all forms of slavery or practices similar to slavery, such as the sale and trafficking of children, debt bondage, serfdom and forced or compulsory labor, including forced or compulsory recruitment of children for use in armed conflict; use, procuring, or offering of a child for prostitution, production of pornography or pornographic performances; use, procuring, or offering of a child for illicit activities, in particular for the production and trafficking of drugs; and work which is likely to harm the health, safety, or morals of children.
The Convention also requires countries to take steps to help children removed from the worst forms of child labor, such as ensuring access to free basic education.
President Clinton spoke to the International Labor Conference on the eve of its vote to adopt Convention 182. There, on June 16, 1999, he said: "We must wipe from the earth the most vicious forms of abusive child labor. Every single day tens of millions of children work in conditions that shock the conscience. The time has come to build on the growing world consensus to ban the most abusive forms of child labor, to join together and to say there are some things we cannot and will not tolerate."
The Tripartite Advisory Panel on International Labor Standards of the President's Committee on the ILO (TAPILS) unanimously concluded that ratification of Convention 182 would not require any change in existing United States law and practice. In addition to government agencies, TAPILS also includes legal experts from the AFL-CIO and the U.S. Council for International Business, respectively the U.S. labor and business representatives to the ILO.

Other U.S. Efforts to Save Children from Abusive Child Labor

The United States is the world's largest donor to the ILO's International Program for the Elimination of Child Labor (IPEC). Last year, President Clinton sought and won a ten-fold increase in the U.S. contribution to IPEC to $30 million a year. Through IPEC, the U.S. is funding dozens of projects including ones to:
Phase thousands of children out of garment factories in Bangladesh and the soccer ball industry in Pakistan, providing them with educational opportunities and monitoring factory compliance.
Prevent children from beginning to work, and withdraw children who are working, making fireworks in dangerous conditions in Guatemala.
Eliminate forced child prostitution in Thailand and prevent trafficking and commercial sexual exploitation of children in Nepal.
A recent Department of Labor study concluded that universal primary education is one of the most effective ways to combat child labor. President Clinton's FY 2000 balanced budget includes $10 million (in addition to $30 million in IPEC funds) for an innovative program at the U.S. Agency for International Development called "School Works!" which will help developing countries improve educational alternatives to child labor
In addition, at the inspiration of U.S. Senator Tom Harkin, President Clinton signed an executive order in June directing federal agencies to ban procurement of goods made by forced or indentured child labor.

The Problem of Child Labor

The ILO estimates that at least 250 million children between the ages of five and fourteen are working in developing countries, almost half of them full time, and tens of millions work under exploitative and harmful conditions.
Around the world, young children in their formative years are exposed to hazardous conditions, including toxic and carcinogenic substances in manufacturing, dangerous conditions in mines and on sea fishing platforms, and backbreaking physical labor.
Other child labor in bondage, are sold into prostitution, or are indentured to manufacturers, working against debts for wages so low that they will never be repaid.
Since 1994, the Department of Labor, Bureau of International Labor Affairs has issued an annual report series: "By the Sweat and Toil of Children, Volumes I-V." These reports detail evidence of the extent of the international child labor problem. Copies of the reports are available at http://www.dol.gov/dol/ilab/public/programs/iclp/.

Next Steps

The Administration looks forward to working with the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and the Senate Leadership to advance the convention to ratification.
The Administration is grateful for the leadership of Senator Tom Harkin in fighting abusive child labor and first bringing the issue to the attention of the President.

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