US issues report on child labour

The US Department of Labour has highlighted the problem of child trafficking and labour in a report covering countries with which the US has trade relations. Released in Washington on Friday, 'The Department of Labor's 2001 Findings on the Worst Forms of Child Labor' presents information on the extent of the problem and reforms to curb it in 143 countries and territories that have commercial ties with the US government, a State Department news report said. The 400-page report does not rank countries in order of child labour violations or assess their efforts to meet international obligations to end child abuse. It is mainly to serve as a guiding document in determining eligibility for various US trade benefits programmes, the department said. The document was prepared in response to new requirements under the US Trade and Development Act of 2000 which require beneficiary nations to implement international commitments to eliminate the worst forms of child labour. Child labour continues to be a major problem in West Africa although various initiatives are underway to contain it, the report said. In Burkina Faso, about 45 percent of children aged 10 to 14 worked in agriculture, mining and domestic services in 1999. However, the country had no specific legislation forbidding child trafficking and the government had minimal resources to combat the practice, the report says. A national child labour survey was due to be conducted in 2004. In Senegal where 28.11 percent of children between the ages of 10 and 14 were working in 1999, the government had implemented activities to remove children from the workforce and place them in schools or training programmes. The government was also working to revise national child labour laws to make them compatible with international standards, and planned to conduct a national child labour survey in 2004 with assistance from the International Labour Organisation. Cameroon, "a source, transit and destination country for the trafficking of children", is on the verge of developing a national plan. It was estimated that 23.4 percent of minors (10-14 years old) were employed in numerous activities, including car washing, domestic servants, prostitution. Despite the existence of laws, the report said, the country lacked resources for fighting child labour and trafficking. Various other African countries are also mentioned in the report. [The full report is available at http://www.dol.gov/ILAB/reports/iclp/pubs_reports_ilab_iclp.htm]