Match making industry,
Shivakasi. India, © ILO,
Photographer: Khemka A.
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International Conference on Child Labour and Child Exploitation
We ask you to join us at the International Conference on Child Labour and Child Exploitation, Sunday 3rd - Tuesday 5th August 2008, Cairns, Australia. The International Conference will evaluate the progress and achievements made in relation to the eradication of the worst forms of child labour and will explore the challenges ahead in securing rights for children in the 21st century and meeting the UN Millennium Goals by 2015.
The Conference will reflect on whether the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and the International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour (IPEC), as defined by the ILO in Forms of Child Labour Convention No.182 (C182) and its associated Recommendation (R190), address the right issues, in the light of 21st century concerns with nationalism, identity and globalisation, or whether new approaches to protecting children’s rights are needed. The Conference will focus on the role of the organizations representing employers and workers, non-government organisations as well as governments. The Conference will engage the corporate sector with a view to bringing a concrete reality to the much vaunted concept of responsible corporate citizenship. It will highlight steps taken by some companies and organisations operating internationally to address the worst forms of exploitation in their labour obligations and their attempts to try to set higher standards.
We have become increasingly concerned about the position of children in countries where economic boom conditions has created an enormous demand for labour and particularly cheap labour, which children can provide. We are also naturally concerned about the other forms of labour exploitation of children involving sexual exploitation, trafficking and servitude which come hand in hand with the new technologies, the globalised world and the increasing movement of economic refugees across international borders. We look forward to your participation.
Click here to go to the Conference web site,
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Children in Mwembe Cathedral refugee camp Kisii Kenya 2008 |
Eric Ombassa won CRI’s first Human Rights Award for his work with the Nyankongo Youth Group in Kisii, Kenya
Eric Ombassa is a member of the Children’s Rights International Network. He won CRI’s first Human Rights Award for his work with the Nyankongo Youth Group in Kisii Kenya. The Group works to make coffins for poverty stricken aid victims and runs educational workshops aimed at reversing the insidious practice of female genital mutilation. The views expressed below are Eric’s observations of the current political crisis in Kenya and the effects on the children. We thank Eric for his contribution.
See
Tribal Politics and what it does to Innocent Children (PDF Document)
Journal Issue No.6: Working Children - an Indian perspective
CRI Journal Issue 6 (2008)
Exploitative Child Labour, still a harsh reality
By Bill Jackson, Margaret Harrison, Sasha Trikojus and accredited sources
Both India and China are increasingly used by the west as sources of cheap manufactured goods, as emerging economic tiger states and, particularly in the case of China, as consumers of raw resources. However, the profits that flow from the export industries of both countries are heavily dependent on the supply of cheap labour. There is, however, a fear that the Indian and Chinese hunger for global success is increasing the chances of worker exploitation in those countries through competition to produce goods at ever-lower cost.
Click here for the full set of articles of Journal Issue No.6: Working Children - an Indian perspective
 Australia's Children: Does the Law Offer Them Sufficient Protection? The 21st Lionel Murphy Memorial Lecture, Parliament House, Sydney, Wednesday 28 November 2007
By The Honourable Alastair Nicholson AO, RFD, QC
Former Chief Justice, Family Court of Australia
Honorary Professorial fellow, University of Melbourne
I commence by paying my respects to and acknowledging the Gadigal clan of the Eora Nation and its elders, the traditional owners of the land that we stand and meet on today.
I am greatly honoured to be asked to give this lecture tonight, particularly given the distinguished nature of those who have preceded me as lecturers and the stature and reputation of the person that it honours.
Coming as I do from another State, I only met Lionel Murphy several times and appeared before him I think once as a junior in the High Court. They were fleeting meetings only, the first being when I was an ALP candidate in the 1972 election in a safe Liberal seat and therefore not of great political significance. My High Court appearance was equally insignificant, as my leader did all the talking.
However, anyone who was close to the Labor party of those days could not fail to have been affected by him and speaking for myself, I greatly admired him, both as an Opposition politician, Attorney- General and as a High Court Judge.
In each of those capacities he made a significant mark. To mention just a few of his achievements, as Opposition leader in the Senate he pioneered the system of committees in the Senate and made it a much more significant house of review than had hitherto been the case. He was also an integral member of the team that won government in 1972.
As Attorney-General he introduced the Family Law Act, which revolutionised family law in Australia, the Trade Practices Act and many other reforming statutes during that extraordinary period of reform that characterised the Whitlam government. He was also the driving force behind the introduction of Federal legal aid.
Click here for a copy of this paper (PDF Document)
 No Kids Without Education: We Can All Make a Difference!
Defence for Children International, through the Child Labour Desk and in coordination with the International Secretariat, is putting in place an International Campaign on Inclusive Education. This Campaign is one of the achievements of the three year programme that we implemented with the kind support of the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
In this first phase and in the frame of the above-mentioned programme, there were four sections involved: Cameroon, Togo, Ecuador and Paraguay. In this second phase we would like to invite you ALL to take part in the DCI Campaign on Inclusive Education, and to strengthen the voice of DCI as much as we can by working together.
For this campaign, inclusion means developing ways to enable schools to help all children to learn effectively and with the same opportunities. Inclusive education focuses on all students to ensure that those children who are traditionally excluded from educational opportunities have access to education and can stay in school. Examples of marginalized students are those with disabilities, children from different cultural backgrounds, child workers, and others. Inclusive schools celebrate diversity and learn from students’ differences, and this makes the learning environment more effective and enjoyable as a whole. The overarching goal of the Inclusive Education Campaign is to have States guarantee that 100% of school-aged, working children and adolescents effectively exercise their right to access and complete a quality education. Additionally, there are three specific goals that the Campaign hopes to achieve.
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The first is to ensure that all working children, particularly invisible child workers, are recognized and registered in improved State databases.
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The second objective involves the transformation of current education systems into inclusive ones, which focus on the prevention and detection of child labour, promoting flexible school schedules and using integrative educational models.
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Thirdly, the Campaign hopes for inclusive educational systems to be self-managed and sustainable. This will occur through improving teachers’ abilities to institutionalize inclusive education.
Click here for more information about the DCI Campaign
 The United Nations Secretary General’s Study on Violence Against Children
Report of the independent expert for the United Nations study on violence against children
This report, which is based on the in-depth study of Paulo Srgio Pinheiro, independent expert appointed by the Secretary-General pursuant to General-Assembly resolution 57/90 of 2002, provides a global picture of violence against children and proposes recommendations to prevent and respond to this issue. It provides information on the incidence of various types of violence against children within the family, schools, alternative care institutions and detention facilities, places where children work and communities. The Study is accompanied by a book which provides a more detailed account of the Study.
The Study was prepared through a participatory process which included regional, subregional and national consultations, expert thematic meetings and field visits. Many Governments also provided comprehensive responses to a questionnaire transmitted to them by the independent expert in 2004.
The independent expert is grateful for the broad support for his work provided by Governments, regional bodies and intergovernmental bodies, as well as from United Nations entities, civil society organizations and children.
Click here for The United Nations Secretary General’s Study on Violence Against Children,
Children’s Rights International Mission is:
 a. To promote, protect and advance across the world, the human rights of children and without limiting that aim, in particular to promote the meaningful implementation of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (“the Convention”).
b. By bringing together eminent judges, lawyers, psychologists, medical practitioners, mediators, counsellors, mental health workers, media representatives, child carers, teachers & allied professionals to contribute their specialised expertise in a practical manner through education, legal and other advocacy to, promote, protect and advance the interests of children.
c. To monitor and encourage the application of the principles of the Convention by relevant laws, policies, treaties, judicial decision-making, legal practice, and by service-delivery, immigration and law enforcement agencies
d. To train and assist relevant persons in children’s rights advovacy and in the promotion, protection and advancement of those rights at a regional level.
e .To defend where possible pro bono the right of children in particular instances where they might otherwise go unrepresented or where the action may set standards that will protect other children’s rights and promote legal reform .
And to do all as may be necessary to achieve these objects or objects that may present themselves at a future time pertaining to the rights of children by establishing a truly international organisation with regional reporting networks.
Welcome from the Hon. Alastair Nicholson AO RFD QC.
Founding Patron of the Children’s Rights International.
The Convention on the Rights of the Child is the most widely ratified treaty in human history. Despite the good will of the signatory nations the sad truth is that the basic rights of children are still not universally recognised and children suffer violence, abuse, exploitation and discrimination in increasing numbers every day.
See Click here to read more
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