What Young People Are Saying AUGUST 2003 NO. 6 The Bimonthly Newsletter of Voices of Youth http://www.unicef.org/voy/ YOUNG PEOPLE SPEAK OUT ON CHILD LABOUR Since January 2001, young people have posted more than 1000 new messages on Voices of Youth’s Children & Work discussion board. Their postings provide insight into how young people perceive this complex issue, and their suggestions for how the worse forms of exploitative labour can be mitigated or stopped. Through personal testimonials, opinions and reflections, young people remind us once again that they are the experts at being 10, 15 and 18 years old and at battling the complex realities directly impacting their lives. This Month on Voices of youth Intergenerational Dialogue Chat VOY teamed up with ICRW to hear what practitioners and young people are saying about IGD. Read more! WEBSITE SPOTLIGHT Tell Us What You Think! So far 800 responses to the VOY survey. Have you filled out the survey yet? Click here to fill it out now! UPCOMING Chats with Asian Youth Network for Human Development! A follow-up to a regional human rights workshop! Get ready! Complete upgrade of VOY Sep 03! Look out for VOY’s new design, more interactive features and updated content! INSIGHT OF THE MONTH “As a young generation, we have our own rights to speak, and give our idea to the government. Well…if the government raise their hands (give up) we can find another idea. We can use our knowledge to help them. We can build an organization, and recruit all the young people as volunteers, to help them.” girl, 20, Indonesia OVERVIEW Since its launch in 1997, the Children & Work discussion board has remained one of the most active and passionate. During the first four years, 2500 messages were posted from over 100 countries (click here for PDF summary). Since January 2001, the rate of participation has nearly doubled with 1100 messages from 71 countries in just 18 months. Young people on Voices of Youth devoted a great deal of attention to understanding why child labour exists. They identified many different “causes” or “reasons”, including poverty ? lack of effective laws and enforcement ? low wages for parents and caregivers ? self-interest among employers ? and third world debt. Independent of the cause, however, all participants agreed that exploitative child labour contributes significantly to the vicious cycle of poverty. Noting that children who are forced to work are denied the right to an education, as well as to being a child. Participants also talked of the potential benefits of working in a safe and supportive environment, reminding us that the opportunity to work can be an empowering and confidence building experience. Participants suggested actions that directly addressed child labour, such as enforcing laws that protect children and punish employers, as well as steps to improve overall quality of life and opportunities, such as employment opportunities for parents and ensuring access to quality education for all. Young people called on their leaders, their parents and their peers to end exploitative and harmful child labour practices. Following is a brief summary of young people's thoughts and reflections on child labour from Jan 2001-Aug 2003. For more information contact: Amber Oliver, Coordinator, voy@unicef.org CHILD LABOUR ISSUES IN CONTEXT August 2003 Click on a link to read what Young People Are Saying about Child Labour Why do kids work? Dignity & growth What about my rights? Ban or Regulate? What can young people do? What can leaders do? Conclusion WHY DO KIDS WORK? Most participants focused their messages on exploitative child labour practices and on understanding the reasons why an estimated 246 million children and adolescents are forced into child labour today. In addition to exploring the individual reasons, such as poverty and employment, many young people felt it necessary to see child labour as a consequence of the overall and interconnected, reality. NIGERIA “The issue being addressed is very common in the African nations. The reasons however are not far fetched, economic instability, poverty, lack of vision for children on the part of the government, unemployment to mention just a few. The above factors combine in many ways to force children out of their homes to help earn more money to keep the family together.” boy, 21 Poverty: “child labour has to do with poverty if poverty can be 'erased' from the face of the earth child labour will also vanish…” (boy, 19, Nigeria) Young people felt that poverty was the primary reason children and adolescents are forced to work. They saw poverty as taking away families’ and children’s options and putting them in a position where they have no choice but to work in order to survive. CANADA “First of all, most of the children who are forced to work are the product of poor families. Their parents hold debts dating from before their lives, even, and they cannot work it off alone. Their only other option is for all of the family to work, unfortunately including the children.” girl, 14 Employment: Participants focused considerable attention on the reality that without employment opportunities at sufficient wages parents and adults are unable to support their families, and therefore need their children to contribute to the household income by working. THE PHILIPPINES “children have to work to add to the very meager income of their parents in order to buy food for them to exist…I was a product of child labour…No parent wishes to see their children in factories working instead of studying but they have no options...they must work in order to exist.” boy, >21 Another point raised was that in many countries children and adolescents have greater job opportunities than adults because they cost less to employ. Many participants blamed multinational companies from industrialized countries for this practice, accusing them of being overly concerned with profit margins. VIETNAM “When they [businessmen] open a company [in the poor world], they always just expect only workers who accept the lowest salary. These workers with their low salary could do anything but survive. The second generation grows up with nothing except poverty. Now, if they don't work, they won't have enough money to keep them alive. if you're in this situation, what would you do?? Work or Die?? Clearly, the answer is Work” boy, 20 Young people called for the improvement of wages and an increase in employment opportunities. They also advocated for civil society to publicly denounce child labour and employers of child labourers. Laws & enforcement: The need for properly enforced laws that protect children and adolescents from exploitation as well as punish employers of child labourers was a constant topic of discussion. Young people asked their leaders to clearly set out and uphold policies on the minimum age a child can work, and demanded that offending companies and employers be fined and imprisoned. Participants also recognized the role of the companies themselves, demanding a culture of corporate responsibility. Lack of vision: DR CONGO “les enfants c'est l'avenir du demain, si aujourd'hui tous les enfants sont dirigés aux travaux veux dire qu'il y aura pas d'avenir car tous ces enfants ne vivront pas longtemps.” ?, 12 Young people felt that by not cracking down on child labour, leaders demonstrated a lack of vision for children, and a disregard for the value of educating and protecting young people. Participants asked to be taken seriously and appreciated and their right to grow and develop be protected. MALI “Si les autorités politique prenait les enfants aux sérieux et leur donnait les moyens, à la date d'aujourd'hui beaucoup de projets aurai déjà été terminer;…mais encore une fois les autorités politique ne font pas leur travail.” boy, 16 DIGNITY & GROWTH Young people on Voices of Youth felt that it was very important to recognize that not all forms of child labour are harmful or exploitative. When in a safe and supportive environment, working can contribute to a young person’s personal development and self-esteem, and be an important part of growing up and taking on responsibility (boy, 14, USA). GUATEMALA “En mi paiz el trabajo infantil es un tema muy grande y afecta mucho en el deasarrollo del mismo asi es que me siento muy util estando trabajando para el paiz como un adolecente de bien.” boy, 15 CHILD LABOUR IN SOUTH ASIA… BANGLADESH “I am Bangladeshi, rich, and am educated in a western school. My father is an employer quite recently he has sent all the under 15 workers to school and they still come everyday begging him to let them work. He pays for their schooling, but the money is not enough they still need to feed their families. Rather than banning child labor altogether we need to find a middle ground. The reality on the street is that these children need to work. To eat, to live, to struggle. But they need to go to school as well. They need well paid jobs that offer them safety, rather than work in dangerous situations such as brick breaking and factories they need to work in shops, in houses. So that while they work they can do their homework as well. Employers need to be taught how to deal with children.” boy, 16 PAKISTAN “I have recently visited my parents, and I was very surprised to see afghan & tribal area children working in the Rugs & carpet Factories all around Pakistan. Kids were about 5 to 11 year old and most of them were very young. They make 20 cents per day. I have also seen many kids who had damaged their fingers and their finger bones were seriously injured. The weather was really hot and those kids were sitting under a single roof with no fan or air-cooling system sitting on the floor. There are more factories of these rugs than ever before. I used to live in that area where they have all the factories mostly in the regular homes now, but four five years ago it was very rare in the area to have rugs factory.” boy, 23 WHAT ABOUT MY RIGHTS? The right to education: Of all the negative consequences of exploitative child labour, participants were most outraged by the fact that child labourers are prevented from going to school and getting an education. By denying young people their right to an education, participants saw child labour as directly contributing to the vicious cycle of poverty. AUSTRALIA “a child who works cannot go to school, so when a child labourer grows up he/she is uneducated and is also weak and worn out, from working so hard as a child. This means that he/she like his/her parents will have only a poorly paid job or no job at all. Therefore he/she will again rely on the money made by the children to support his/her family...it just goes on and on! children need to be educated, but that is impossible when they need to work to keep their family alive. Somehow we need to break this loop. It is a vicious circle that cannot be stopped easily.” girl, 17 Young people also saw child labour as preventing the virtuous cycle of development from taking hold. BRAZIL “So that children grow happy it is necessary to give them education of high level, so that they can see the good side of life and have the capacity to develop an intelligence that can help the next one and themselves.” boy, 18 Participants offered many different suggestions for what governments, leaders and their peers can do to ensure that every child has access to a quality education. Recognizing that many child labourers do not have the option to stop working, the majority of suggestions focused on finding ways for children to work and also go to school. Educational stipends: “Maybe governments should put in place a system where children are paid to go to school. That way children from poor families would be able to go to school instead of working to earn money for their family.” (girl, 17, Australia) Flexible schools: Offer schools that have flexible schedules and curricula that do not conflict with working hours. (girl, 11, Canada) Mobile schools: Fund mobile schools that offer basic numeracy and literacy and offer flexible hours. (girl, 17, Australia) The right to be a child: Many participants expressed outrage that child labourers are denied their fundamental right to be a child, “to play, to study, to run, learn to love and don’t hate the others…to be free to enjoy the life!” (boy, 15, Brazil). Young people were particularly upset that these basic rights were not available to every child and adolescent, and spoke of feeling privileged and wanting to take action to protect all children’s rights. CROATIA “I don’t know what to say. I can’t watch this small children how they live! I have home, parents, I studying . I have everything, but that children don’t have nothing. My God! I must do something for them.” girl, 17 BAN OR REGULATE? Generally, participants fell into two categories: Those who felt that child labour should be banned in all instances, and those who felt that child labour is a necessary evil that must be regulated as long as the current reality remains. Proponents of banning child labour felt that it should be considered independently from other issues, and on the basis that it denies children their basic rights. They faulted parents, governments and employers for not protecting young people. INDONESIA “Parent's must realise that they are responsible for their children's welfare. A child isn't responsible for parent's welfare. Stop using children to earn money.” girl, >21 Their counterparts felt that given the current state of the world, child labour remains a necessary evil that will not be stopped until other issues are dealt with. This group therefore advocated for mitigating the harmful practices of child labour as an acceptable interim measure. WHAT CAN YOUNG PEOPLE DO? Be aware of your self worth and fight for your rights: “children must see child labour as a threat to their development and the absence of it is replaced by a better life that offers more benefits than the former.(boy, 21, Nigeria) Join together to make a difference: “Only with the help of other young people we can solve a little part of this big problem. That's why the children that have discussed this problem should work together and try to put forth their own ideas.” (girl, 13, Italy) WHAT CAN LEADERS DO? Build awareness: “Je pense que l`exploitation des enfants peut etre combattu par une sensibilisation des personnes…Par les medias et des seances d`animation dans les communautes elles memes,on pourrait faire toucher du doigt les consequences bien facheuses de ce phenomene.” (girl, >21, Benin) Employment opportunities for parents: “Child labour occurs because most families are suffering from poverty…Job opportunities should be created so as to avoid child labour.” (girl, >21, Kenya) Recognize the value of young people: “I strongly believe that if this problem is to be solved, the government must understand that children are the future of the nation and without them there is no future for any nation.” (boy, 21, Nigeria) Give priority to youth development & education: Young people asked their governments to make education the focus of all programs for children, including sensitizing communities to the importance of education. (girl, >21, Madagascar) Reduction of debt & provision of services: “The developed countries should share a part of prosperity they're having for the poor. In turn, the Poor countries should realize their responsibilities to build their society a wealthy and happy one.” (girl, 20, Vietnam) YEMEN “It is really a bad and sad thing to see young boys and girls work the whole day. I am sure that is not his or her fault to work in that small age for many hours among cars, rude people, harassment, and other social illnesses. I am sad that also they are so far from their childish life. For me, the childhood is the most essential and most important period that effects the whole establishing of characters” boy, >21 VOICES OF YOUTH http://www.unicef.org/voy/ Since 1995, VOY has focused on exploring the educational and community building potential of the Internet, and facilitating the active and substantive participation of young people on child rights and development related issues. Through web boards, interactive quizzes, youth leadership profiles, live chats and more, Voices of Youth provides more than 20,000 young people from over 180 countries with an opportunity to self-inform, engage in lively debate, and partner—with their peers and decision makers—to create a world fit for children. CONCLUSION Young people on Voices of Youth clearly understand the many different facets of child labour and how it fits into the larger framework of child rights and development. They recognize that it is a complex issue that requires a multi-faceted and collaborative effort to be stopped. For the participants on VOY, child labour remains one of the greatest obstacles to child and adolescent development. They call for its end and for every child to have the right to an education and to being a kid.