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Fight Against Worst Form Of Child Labour

HIDDEN in the back rooms of bars, tourist hotels, private homes, and the virtual back rooms of cyber-space, millions of children are sexually exploited as cheap and docile commodities for commercial sale every day. As the Global March’s Report on the Worst Forms of Child Labour shows, child prostitution, pornography and trafficking are widespread around the world. There are at least 97 countries with reported cases of commercial sexual exploitation of children.

The world has seen some progress since international organisations, civil society organisations and 125 countries met in 1995 at the first World Congress on the Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children in Stockholm. Since then, we have witnessed encouraging signs of a steady increase in government, NGO and private sector projects in investigating and combating child prostitution, pornography, trafficking and sex tourism. However, in the eyes of the sexually exploited children, we have made very little progress in the efforts to eliminate this increasingly growing and complex crime.

There have been many efforts to a ncover the root causes of this problem. The unbalanced development caused by neoliberal globalisation and the resulting income disparities and widespread poverty have created the conditions for society’s most vulnerable members to be exploited for their flesh and robbed of their dignity for little or no money. Indeed, greed is the engine driving this new and highly complex global system of commercial sexual exploitation. Tour operators bring customers from all over the world to make profit from children forced to prostitution. Human trafficking is the most profits-driven illicit trade after drugs and small arms, cultivating up to US$ 7 billion per year.

Much has been said about this issue in these last five years, since Stockholm, however little action has been seen on the ground to acknowledge that the current situation is, in fact, a crisis. Each day the call for action becomes another broken promise to a child lured into commercial sexual exploitation-unless we immediately begin to act with a concrete, measurable, and determined strategy and with a clear sense of urgency.

In calling for immediate action against the commercial sexual exploitation of children, the Global March Against Child Labour calls for early ratification and implementation of ILO Convention 182 on the Worst Forms of Child Labour. ILO Convention 182 on the Worst Forms of Child Labour gives a clear guideline of action to end the most exploitative and hazardous forms of child labour as a matter of urgency. The Convention specifically defines "procuring or offering of a child for illicit activities, in particular for prostitution, for the production of pornography or pornographic performances" as one of the worst forms of child labour.

The first article of the Convention calls for "immediate and effective" measures for the elimination of the worst forms of child labour, including commercial sexual exploitation of children. Countries ratifying the convention are obliged to draft National Action Plans within one year of the ratification with immediate effects to implement. It further stresses the importance of all sectors of society, including government, employers’ and workers’ unions and civil society to participate in the implementation of the National Action Plans. The Convention obliges governments and other implementing agencies to take all possible measures to end commercial sexual exploitation of children without any day being wasted.

Since its adoption in 1999, 108 countries have already ratified the Convention, making it the fastest ratified international convention in the ILO history. An accelerated and ultimately a universal ratification will spread the message of urgency for ending commercial sexual exploitation of children across the world and it is a foreseeable goal with the ILO and civil society partners campaigning and closely monitoring the ratification process.

The past five year since Stockholm, there has been a great lack of urgency in taking decisive action against commercial sexual exploitation of children. A lot has been said and it is now time to act with the sense of urgency and call for immediate action of ILO Convention 182, all stakeholders should concretise their collaborated action in ending commercial sexual exploitation of children without delay.

Time-bound goals for the elimination of commercial sexual exploitation of children: As of today, only 34 countries have met the first deadline for the submission of Action Plans by the year 2000, which was set at Stockholm. Five years have passed while we sit and calculate how many children will enter into prostitution as a result of our negligence.

We must focus on conveying the urgency of the problem while lobbying governments to come up with time-bound goals to be implemented and strictly monitored by governmental and non-governmental partners. As ILO Convention 182 insists, this exploitation against children must end immediately.

Poverty is too often cited as an obstacle in the elimination of child labour when, in fact, at least this exploitation of poverty can be ended with the strict implementation of international and national laws. The greed of exploiters and enforcement authorities who form a criminal partnership should be punished. We must mobilize political will and legal instruments for immediate action to end commercial sexual exploitation of children.

Children can wait no longer. We propose for all states to set time-bound goals within their National Action Plan according to their current situations and with the ultimate goal of eliminating commercial sexual exploitation of children as soon as possible and no later than in the next five years. We have already seen five years go by in front of our eyes and another five years is too much to lose. We must accelerate our efforts and bring an immediate end to the commercial sexual exploitation of children.

Full Implementation of the Dakar Framework of Action on Education for All: Education is a key step for ending commercial sexual exploitation, as providing quality education and hopes and alternatives for the future will keep them away from the hands of exploiters.

In 2000, over 180 countries came together in Dakar and promised that by the year 2015, all children will have a complete free, compulsory and quality education. The deadline set by the Dakar Framework of Action must be one of the priorities in eliminating all forms of child labour. Without the provision of free, compulsory and quality education, children will always remain vulnerable to exploitation. Moreover, through education we can ensure that all children are informed of their rights in order to protect themselves.

The Dakar Framework of Action also sets a time-bound goal which reaffirms the sense of urgency, education holds a key to breaking the cycle of illiteracy, poverty and exploitation of the vulnerable.

Time-bound commitment to achieve the target of 0.7 per cent of GNP as overall development assistance, including at least 0.1 per cent for children: Many of the possible measures to end commercial sexual exploitation of children are neglected due to a lack of resources. The needs of children, our future, must be sufficiently met through the concrete and measurable commitment of funds. To end the commercial sexual exploitation of children, resources must be sufficiently mobilised in the coming years for preventative measures such as education, birth registration, income alternatives for parents, legal support for victims and rehabilitation.

Designating 0.1 per cent of countries’ GNP for children’s development would mean US$25 billion annually for the world’s most neglected children. For the richest countries in the world which generate US$ 25 trillion each year, this small fraction should not be too much to ask for our children.

The Second World Congress on Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children presents challenges and opportunities for us all. The commercial sexual exploitation of children is too pervasive a problem for any country to ignore. We must strengthen our global partnership by sharing common challenges in order to create the international will to stop this inhumane crime against children.

The World Congress in Yokohama must urgently call for immediate action with measurable and concrete commitment of resources and political will to end this inexcusable crime against children. Five more years is already too long to wait. Imagine the thousands of innocent lives in the next five years that will be forever scarred due to our dawdling. Is even one innocent life enough for us to lose?

(Position Paper of the Global March Against Child Labour presented at the Second World Congress on Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children)

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