Child Labor is a major assault on Human Rights in the present day world. The progress and achievements possible for a human being are curbed by the evil of child labor. This inhibits the mind of the child physically and psychologically. An attitude of servitude becomes dominant part of the child’s personality and even if facilities are offered at a later stage, the concerned individual’s life can never make up the earlier loss and his mental and intellectual growth becomes stunted.
The International Labor Rights Forum, a nonprofit organization advocating for humane treatment of workers has revealed that there are 211 million children between the ages of 5 and 14 laboring in dirty, dangerous jobs around the world. According to the U.S. Department of Labor, the majority of the world’s child laborers are employed in commercial agriculture, where they are exposed to many health and safety hazards.
In 2007, a $5.2 million program with the International Labor Organization’s International Program on the Elimination of Child Labor was able to withdraw more than 19,000 Philippine children from exploitative labor and prevent more than 11,000 other minor children from entering the work force.
Fully realizing the adverse effects of child labor on human welfare and progress, many countries have passed legislations against it. Poverty and lack of opportunities are the main reasons for the continuance of Child Labor as a blemish on any nation’s Human Rights scenario.
The U.S. Department of Labor has found out recently that even though many countries have laws against exploiting children, enforcement is hindered by corruption and a lack of trained child-labor inspectors. But some governments are increasing enforcement efforts. The government of the Philippines, for example, rescues minors from exploitative labor as part of its Rescue the Child Workers Program.
At the direction of the US Senate an award has been established to recognize the service rendered by individuals and organizations to curb the social menace of Child Labor including all forms of slavery, debt bondage, forcible recruitment into armed conflict or drug trafficking and commercial sexual exploitation. This is Iqbal Masih Award for the Elimination of Child Labor. The award has been named after Iqbal Masih, a Pakistani carpet weaver. He was sold into slavery at age 4 but escaped when he was 12 to become a vocal critic of child slavery. A recipient of the Reebok Human Rights Award in 1994, Masih was killed a year later at the age of 13 in Pakistan.
The International Labor Rights Forum, a nonprofit organization advocating for humane treatment of workers has revealed that there are 211 million children between the ages of 5 and 14 laboring in dirty, dangerous jobs around the world. According to the U.S. Department of Labor, the majority of the world’s child laborers are employed in commercial agriculture, where they are exposed to many health and safety hazards.
In 2007, a $5.2 million program with the International Labor Organization’s International Program on the Elimination of Child Labor was able to withdraw more than 19,000 Philippine children from exploitative labor and prevent more than 11,000 other minor children from entering the work force.
Fully realizing the adverse effects of child labor on human welfare and progress, many countries have passed legislations against it. Poverty and lack of opportunities are the main reasons for the continuance of Child Labor as a blemish on any nation’s Human Rights scenario.
The U.S. Department of Labor has found out recently that even though many countries have laws against exploiting children, enforcement is hindered by corruption and a lack of trained child-labor inspectors. But some governments are increasing enforcement efforts. The government of the Philippines, for example, rescues minors from exploitative labor as part of its Rescue the Child Workers Program.
At the direction of the US Senate an award has been established to recognize the service rendered by individuals and organizations to curb the social menace of Child Labor including all forms of slavery, debt bondage, forcible recruitment into armed conflict or drug trafficking and commercial sexual exploitation. This is Iqbal Masih Award for the Elimination of Child Labor. The award has been named after Iqbal Masih, a Pakistani carpet weaver. He was sold into slavery at age 4 but escaped when he was 12 to become a vocal critic of child slavery. A recipient of the Reebok Human Rights Award in 1994, Masih was killed a year later at the age of 13 in Pakistan.
Flores-Oebanda hails from a very poor family, as the second of 12 children. She had to support her impoverished family by scavenging and selling fish when she was a child. As a teenager, she advocated for the rights of youth and farm laborers.
Maria Cecilia Flores-Oebanda of Philippine is ardently devoted to the mission of preventing exploitation of children. She has dedicated her life for this cause. She is the president and executive director of the Visayan Forum Foundation Inc. (VFF), a nonprofit organization she helped found. Based in Quezon City, VFF has rescued and helped more than 32,000 victims and potential victims of trafficking since it was established in 1991.
VFF began with community-based programs aimed at tackling the root causes of child labor and trafficking by raising awareness among poor urban communities and running micro-credit and savings plans.
VFF gives the victims temporary shelter in halfway houses located at a number of seaports as well as at the Manila International Airport. Trafficking victims receive legal assistance, counseling and life-skills training.
Flores-Oebanda also serves as the Southeast Asia coordinator for the Global March Against Child Labor. She has organized several events that allow the voices of the region's former and current child laborers to be heard.
Flores-Oebanda found the link between vulnerable workers and human trafficking. She has been instrumental in negotiating an agreement between the Philippine Port Authority and the National Coast Guard aimed at intercepting children being trafficked from rural areas of the country and other nations to major port areas in the Philippines.
In 2005, she received the Anti-Slavery Award from Anti-Slavery International, the world’s oldest human rights organization. In 2008, she was named one of the Heroes Acting to End Modern-Day Slavery by the U.S. Department of State.
The world needs many service minded persons like Flores-Oebanda to save millions of children, especially in many poor countries from exploitation. The Global Youth should pay special attention to the prevention of child labor and slavery of any kind; and ensure that Human Rights are guaranteed to every human being everywhere.
Sourcehttp://www.america.gov/st/hrenglish/2009/January/20090128141723ajesrom0.1934473.html
Maria Cecilia Flores-Oebanda of Philippine is ardently devoted to the mission of preventing exploitation of children. She has dedicated her life for this cause. She is the president and executive director of the Visayan Forum Foundation Inc. (VFF), a nonprofit organization she helped found. Based in Quezon City, VFF has rescued and helped more than 32,000 victims and potential victims of trafficking since it was established in 1991.
VFF began with community-based programs aimed at tackling the root causes of child labor and trafficking by raising awareness among poor urban communities and running micro-credit and savings plans.
VFF gives the victims temporary shelter in halfway houses located at a number of seaports as well as at the Manila International Airport. Trafficking victims receive legal assistance, counseling and life-skills training.
Flores-Oebanda also serves as the Southeast Asia coordinator for the Global March Against Child Labor. She has organized several events that allow the voices of the region's former and current child laborers to be heard.
Flores-Oebanda found the link between vulnerable workers and human trafficking. She has been instrumental in negotiating an agreement between the Philippine Port Authority and the National Coast Guard aimed at intercepting children being trafficked from rural areas of the country and other nations to major port areas in the Philippines.
In 2005, she received the Anti-Slavery Award from Anti-Slavery International, the world’s oldest human rights organization. In 2008, she was named one of the Heroes Acting to End Modern-Day Slavery by the U.S. Department of State.
The world needs many service minded persons like Flores-Oebanda to save millions of children, especially in many poor countries from exploitation. The Global Youth should pay special attention to the prevention of child labor and slavery of any kind; and ensure that Human Rights are guaranteed to every human being everywhere.
Sourcehttp://www.america.gov/st/hrenglish/2009/January/20090128141723ajesrom0.1934473.html
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