Approaches to Reducing the Use of Forced or Child Labor Summary of a Workshop on Assessing Practice (2009) / Chapter Skim
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2 SCOPE OF THE WORKSHOP
2 SCOPE OF THE WORKSHOP
Pages 9-18
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From page 9... ...
Berkowitz continued by noting that context matters. She stated it was essential to think about the importance of context in which business practices operate and to use some flexibility in the application of criteria, arguing that "we always need to be sensitive to the particular context in which any of these criteria would be utilized to identify, help ameliorate, modify, or respond to either child or forced labor.
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From page 10... ...
As shown in Figure 2-1, ILAB is composed of an Office of the Deputy Under Secretary comprising senior officials and three operating offices: the Office of Trade and Labor Affairs; the Office of International Relations; and the Office of Child Labor, Forced Labor, and Human Trafficking. The mission of OCFT is to support the labor and foreign policy objectives of the President and the Secretary of Labor, meet congressional mandates, and perform public outreach by promoting the elimination of the worst forms of child labor and increasing knowledge and information on child labor, forced labor, and human trafficking.1 The Office's portfolio consists of three areas: (1)
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From page 11... ...
Ms. Rigby then presented a selection of research initiatives currently being funded4: • The current project, through the National Academies, for the development of criteria for the standard set of practices under the TVPRA; • ILO-IPEC for research that includes national child labor surveys, child labor data collection, methodological developments, baseline surveys, impact assessment, and thematic research;5 • Understanding Children's Work Project, a partnership between the World Bank, the ILO, and UNICEF, that conducts work on impact evaluation, indicator development and country-level research;6 • Macro International, which conducts research in India, Pakistan and Nepal on children working in the carpet industry -- a three year research project;7 • Verité, which is undertaking research on forced labor in eight countries in the production of specific goods; and • Tulane University, which oversees public and private initiatives to eliminate the worst forms of child labor in the cocoa sector in Côte d'Ivoire and Ghana.8 2 According to Ms.
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From page 12... ...
, a trade preference program primarily aimed at developing countries.12 Subsequent amendments to the Trade Act required annual reports to Congress on the status of internationally recognized worker rights, including country efforts to uphold their commitments to combat the worst forms of child labor. The 2000 Trade and Development Act was passed, which called on DOL to report annually to Congress with specific information on beneficiary countries and how they were upholding their commitment to combat the worst forms of child labor.
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From page 13... ...
Convention 138 stipulates that the minimum age for work should be no less than 15 or 14 in certain less developed country contexts and Convention 182 lays out the internationally recognized worst forms of child labor that no child under age 18 should be involved in, including work that could be harmful to the health, safety, or morals of children. For forced labor, guidance is taken from ILO Convention 29.
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From page 14... ...
Rigby highlighted the close tie between the list that DOL is producing under the TVPRA, which may or may not contain agricultural goods, and the guidelines that will be produced by this group to reduce the likelihood that agricultural goods will be produced using forced labor and child labor. 19 For a record of the hearing, please see: http://www.dol.gov/ilab/programs/ocft/pdf/20080423g.pdf (accessed September 28, 2009)
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From page 15... ...
23 Dr. Castro noted in her presentation that the DOL follows international standards and in particular ILO conventions in defining "child labor" and "forced labor." The actual definitions were not presented in the speech, but can be found in the boxes in the first chapter.
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From page 16... ...
The audience member noted that under the executive order contractors are supposed to provide a good-faith examination of their supply chains to determine whether there is forced labor or child labor.27 The question for DOL 26 One participant then added, "The original act says all goods, wares, articles and merchandise mined, produced, or manufactured wholly, or in part, in any foreign country by convict labor and or forced labor and/or indentured labor under penal sanctions. That was the 1930 law and then it was later amended to include child labor." The full text is: "All goods, wares, articles, and merchandise mined, produced, or manufactured wholly or in part in any foreign country by convict labor or/and forced labor or/and indentured labor under penal sanctions shall not be entitled to entry at any of the ports of the United States, and the importation thereof is hereby prohibited, and the Secretary of the Treasury is authorized and directed to prescribe such regulations as may be necessary for the enforcement of this provision.
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From page 17... ...
One participant asked: "Considering that we have extensive privately owned prisons in the United States and quite a number of them produce under contract to the U.S. government, I am wondering how that is going to fit into these standards or the criteria." Another audience member noted "the fact that the TVPRA talks about imported agricultural products but of course we have very significant problems with forced labor in domestic agriculture products." We have to talk about wages and hours.
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From page 18... ...
Dr. Castro noted that DOL receives similar questions when its staff travel overseas.
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