In its annual assessment of progress toward eliminating that kind of exploitation, the 958-page report found that roughly half of the 140-some countries and foreign territories covered by the report had made what it called “moderate” advances in the field. “I’m talking about children who carry huge loads on their backs and wield machetes on farms…who scavenge in garbage dumps and crawl in underground mine shafts,” U.S. Labor Secretary Thomas Perez stressed.
Thirteen countries – most of them in Latin America – were found to have made “significant” progress in eliminating the worst forms of child labor during 2013 compared to the year before. But another 13 nations and territories, notably the Democratic Republic of Congo, Eritrea, Uzbekistan, and Venezuela, were found to have made none at all.
“This report shines a light on children around the globe who are being robbed of their futures, who spend their days and often their nights engaged in some of the most grueling work imaginable,” added U.S. Labor Secretary Thomas Perez, at the release of the “2013 Findings on the Worst Forms of Child Labor.”
The report, which consists mainly of specific profiles of the child labor situation and what national governments are doing about it in specific countries and territories that benefit under the U.S. Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) or other trade-boosting programs, such as the Andean Trade Preference Act or the African Growth and Opportunities Act, has been mandated by Congress since 2002. The report also recommends steps governments can take to improve the situation.
It gains widespread praise from labor and child-welfare activist groups that use it as a way to raise public consciousness and as a source of pressure on foreign governments to do more to eliminate it.
The International Labor Organization (ILO) defines the “worst forms of child labor” as all forms of slavery, such as debt bondage, child trafficking, and forced recruitment of children in armed conflicts; the use of children for prostitution or pornography; their use for illicit activities, such as the production or trafficking of drugs; and “hazardous work” which, in turn is defined as any that “jeopardizes the physical, mental or moral well-being” of a child.
According to ILO statistics, the number of children engaged in the worst forms of child labor or whose age is below the minimum prescribed by national law has fallen from about 246 million in 2000 to 168 million in 2012. The latter figure still accounts for roughly 1 in every 10 children from 5 to 18 years old worldwide. The number of children engaged in “hazardous work” halved – from 170 million to 85 million – over the same period, according to the ILO.
The report divided countries into those where advances in eliminating the worst forms of child labor were “significant,” “moderate,” “minimal,” and none. Progress was assessed according to a number of criteria, including the enactment of laws, efforts at enforcement and co-ordination, the adoption of specific policies, and the implementation of social programs designed to eliminate the problem, and encourage children to remain in school.
The 13 countries whose progress was deemed “significant” included Albania, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cote d’Ivoire, Ecuador, El Salvador, Peru, the Philippines, South Africa, Tunisia, and Uganda.
