GENEVA (ILO News) - "It is a gift for our children worthy of the millennium," said United States President William Jefferson Clinton of the new international labour Convention calling for the elimination of the worst forms of child labour, to be adopted by the 87 th session of the International Labour Conference.
In an historic address today, President Clinton became the first US President to address the International Labour Organization's annual Conference in Geneva, which is the largest gathering of international officials, representing governments, workers and employers from the ILO's 174 member States.
"By giving life to core labour standards, by acting effectively to lift the burden of debt, by putting a more human face on the world trading system and the global economy, by ending the worst forms of child labour, we will be giving our children the 21 st century they deserve," said President Clinton.
Addressing the delegates who have been putting the finishing touches on the Convention that will seek to eliminate such abuses as children working in dangerous manufacturing and mining, illegal drug trafficking, pornography and prostitution and forced military service, the US President said he was "proud of what is being done here today" and pledged "that the United States will support your Convention. After I return home I will send it to the US Senate for ratification, and I ask all other countries to ratify it as well."
In remarks welcoming President Clinton, the ILO Director-General Mr. Juan Somavia said that "in a world without causes, few ideals galvanize the entire world. Why not make the time-bound eradication of the worst forms of child labour a cause for all of us? No parent in the world want to see their children caught up in prostitution, pornography, drug peddling or other demeaning situations."
Mr. Somavia praised the active engagement of the Clinton Administration with the ILO, as well as the President's own personal commitment to the ILO's determination that respect for workers' rights and decent work must be a foundation of the global economy.
President Clinton told the assembled delegates and dignitaries, including the First Lady, Hillary Rodham Clinton and their daughter Chelsea, the US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and Secretary of Labour Alexis Herman that "globalization is not a proposal or a policy choice, it is a fact. But how we respond to it will make all the difference."
He said that "we must find a new way, a new and democratic way, to maximize market potential and social justice, competition and community. We must put a human face on the global economy, giving working people everywhere a stake in its success, equipping them all to reap its rewards, providing for their families the basic conditions of a just society. All nations must embrace this vision, and all the great economic institutions of the world must devote their creativity and energy to this end."
The ILO had "taken a vital step toward lifting the lives of working people by adopting the Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Right at Work last year", the President said. He described the document as "a blueprint for the global economy that honours our values, the dignity of work, an end to discrimination, an end to forced labour, freedom of association, the right of people to organize and bargain in a civil an peaceful way. These are not just labour rights, they're human rights."
President Clinton reiterated his call to the World Trade Organization that "as we fight for open markets, it must open its doors to the concerns of working people and the environment."
International agencies "must build a new financial architecture as modern as today's markets, to tame the cycles of boom and bust in the global economy as we can now do in national economies; to ensure the integrity of international financial transactions; and to expand social safety nets for the most vulnerable."
President Clinton called for increased cooperation between the ILO and other multilateral institutions: "The IMF, the World Bank and WTO, themselves, should work more closely with the ILO and this organization must be willing and able to assume more responsibility." The ILO, he said, "must be ready for the 21 st century."
While stating his firm belief "that open trade is not contrary to the interest of working people" and that we need more trade, not less, the US president said that "unfortunately, working people the world over do not believe this. Even in the United States, with the lowest unemployment rate in a generation, where exports accounted for 30 per cent of our growth until the financial crisis hit Asia, working people strongly resist new market-opening measures."
He said that "as we press for more open trade, we must do more to ensure that all our people are lifted by the global economy. As we prepare to launch a new global round of trade talks in Seattle in November, it is vital that the WTO and the ILO work together to advance that common goal."
He pledged that at the upcoming G8 summit in Cologne, Germany, the US would "urge improved cooperation between the ILO and the international financial institutions in promoting social protection and core labour standards. And we should press forward to lift the debt burden that is crushing many of the poorest nations."
President Clinton noted that in his most recent budget proposals, "I've asked for US$25 million to help create a new arm of the ILO, to work with developing countries to put in place basic labour standards - protections, safe work places, the right to organize," and he asked "other governments to join us." He highlighted a range of initiatives, bilateral and multilateral, to eliminate sweatshops and "raise consumer awareness of the conditions in which the clothes they wear and the toys they buy for their children are made."
On the topic of child labour, he said "we will not tolerate children being used in pornography and prostitution. We will not tolerate children in slavery or bondage. We will not tolerate children being forcibly recruited to serve in armed conflicts. We will not tolerate young children risking their health and breaking their bodies in hazardous and dangerous working conditions for hours unconscionably long."
He praised ILO's technical cooperation programme - the International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour (IPEC) - which guides and supports efforts in more than 60 countries worldwide and seeks to reduce child labour and provide education and other alternatives to working children.
The 174 States members of the ILO are to conclude the annual Labour Conference here Thursday with the adoption of the "Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention 1999." The new Convention applies to all persons under the age of 18 and says governments should work together urgently to realize "immediate and effective measures to secure the prohibition and elimination of the worst forms of child labour."
An accompanying Recommendation urges ratifying States to declare the worst forms of child labour criminal offenses and impose penal sanctions on those who would perpetrate them.
The new Convention defines for the first time what constitutes the "worst forms of child labour," including the forced or compulsory recruitment of child soldiers for armed conflict. It also calls for international cooperation on social and economic development, poverty eradication and education to realize its terms, and provides for broad consultation among governments, workers and employers - the"social partners" in the ILO's tripartite structure.
The ILO estimates some 250 million children between the ages of five and 14 work. About half, or some 120 million work full time, while the rest combine work and schooling. In some cases, as many as 70 per cent of these children are engaged in hazardous work.
The Convention defines the worst forms of child labour as: "All forms of slavery or practices similar to slavery, such as the sale and trafficking of children, debt bondage and serfdom and forced or compulsory labour, including forced or compulsory recruitment of children for use in armed conflict; the use, procuring or offering of a child for prostitution, for the production of pornography or for pornographic performances; the use, procuring or offering of a child for illicit activities, in particular for the production and trafficking of drugs as defined in the relevant international treaties; and, work which, by its nature or the circumstances in which it is carried out, is likely to harm the health, safety or morals of children."