The issues before the Special Political and Decolonization Committee 2014 are: Child Labour and Corporate Influence in Africa. The Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia fully expresses its desire to assist and support efforts in resolving both concerns. We are strongly committed to building a political community founded on the rule of law and capable of ensuring a lasting peace, guaranteeing a democratic order, and advancing our economic and social development, as is laid down in the Constitution of Ethiopia.
1. Child Labour
In 2003 Ethiopia ratified the two core ILO conventions regarding child labour: Convention 138 on minimum age, adopted in 1973, and Convention 182 regarding the worst forms of child labour, adopted 1999. However, children have always been a part of the economic infrastructure and role of societies in Ethiopia. The problem stems from the ever prevailing poverty which Ethiopia aims to reduce as our foreign policy focuses on diplomatic activity that should serve our economic agenda and advance sustainability.
Article 89 of Ethiopia’s Labour Proclamation No.377/2003 prohibits the employment of children less than 14 years of age. Additionally, Article 36 of the country’s Constitution states that every child has the right ‘not to be subject to exploitative labor practices, neither to be required nor permitted to perform work which is hazardous or harmful to his or her education, health or well-being’. Nevertheless, children of Ethiopia are still engaged in child labor that includes performance of physically demanding tasks and long hours. According to the 2007/8 report of the CSA the fertility rate is 6.7, and when this is combined with backward farming techniques and the cultural belief that children should st...
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...development and execution of customized economically-forward strategies that center on employee training, financial risk analysis, corporate responsibility and accountability, country specific political risk analysis, multi-stake holder engagement and management, and information system security. This will strengthen Ethiopian and African corporations and may even someday give them a level playing field with Asian and Western corporations. Ethiopia realizes that living up to promises is essential to success, and urges African corporations to implement commitments and develop healthy work relationships with both national and international consumers. Ethiopia calls on other African countries to support businesses in this way. The delegation believes that only through self-sustainability will Ethiopia truly be able to focus on fostering trade and bonds internationally.
While we, as Americans, are currently living in the most advanced civilization up to this time, we tend to disregard problems of exploitation and injustice to nations of lesser caliber. Luckily, we don't have to worry about the exploitation of ourchildren in factories and sweet shops laboring over machines for countless hours. We, in the United States, would never tolerate such conditions. For us, child labor is a practice that climaxed and phased away during and then after the industrial revolution. In 1998 as we approach the new millenium, child labor cannot still bea reality, or can it? Unfortunately, the employment and exploitation of children inthe work force is still alive and thriving. While this phenomenon is generally confined to third world developing nations, much of the responsibility for its existence falls to economicsuper powers, such as the United States, which supply demand for the cheaply produced goods. While our children are nestled away safely in their beds, other children half way around the world are working away to the hum of machinery well into the night.
"ILO." Child Labour in Agriculture (IPEC). N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Dec. 2017. (-- removed HTML --) .
“60% of the world’s 215 million child laborers work in the agricultural sector (agriculture, livestock-raising, forestry, and fishing). In Ghana one in six children aged six to 14 are involved in child labor. 88% work on farms and 2.3% work in fishing.” Although a small portion of children in Ghana are sent to work in the fishing sector of agricultural work it is clearly creating a problem. A majority of the children brought to work at Lake Volta are trafficked from surrounding areas in Ghana. Poor famili...
Child labor is any work that harms or exploits them in some way (physical, mental, moral, or blocking access to education). UNICEF ...
Based on a relatively current study conducted by the Department of Labor in 1994, the use of children in this particular sector extend from China, a majority of countries in Southeast Asia, Guatemala, Morocco, and even Portugal (“The Apparel Industry and Codes Of Conduct”). Most of them are considered to be third-world countries and some former colonies, e.g. India. Developing countries often have a high poverty rate and are struggling to get out of the ruin war has caused them. Populations are thrown off equilibrium—the number of adults declined so all that is left are the young and the old. There is no means of support for either, except perhaps the children, who are hungry and so desperate that they would agree to just about any job that would promise them some money. Family or no family, children in these conditions will have to work to survive or
... practice of harmful child labor obsolete. The institution of education is the most important aspect to building economies to a point where they may rise out of the child labor trap. Education must be gradually intra nationally and internationally be subsidized, while simultaneously providing some form of economic aid or reform to these countries that make it possible for the families in these poor countries in Asia and Africa to keep their child out of dangerous labor, and in school. What is in essence proposed, is a gradual effort of the international community.
Throughout time children have worked myriad hours in hazardous workplaces in order to make a few cents to a few dollars. This is known as child labor, where children are risking their lives daily for money. Today child labor continues to exist all over the world and even in the United States where children pick fruits and vegetables in difficult conditions. According to the article, “What is Child Labor”; it states that roughly 215 million children around the world are working between the ages of 5 and 17 in harmful workplaces. Child labor continues to exist because many families live in poverty and with more working hands there is an increase in income. Other families take their children to work in the fields because they have no access to childcare and extra money is beneficial to buy basic needs. Although there are laws and regulations that protect children from child labor, stronger enforcement is required because child labor not only exploits children but also has detrimental effects on a child’s health, education, and the people of the nation.
We are often unaware or pick to disregard the problem of child labor in sweatshops. However, even though most people are not conscious of this, it is a reality that many children are deprived of their childhood and are enforced to work. It has been estimated by the International Labor Organization (2013) that 250 million children between the ages of five and fourteen work in emerging countries. More than half of these child laborers are hired in Asia, others work in Africa and Latin America mostly.
Child labor laws need to be enforced more because governments are paying little attention to those who abuse the laws; therefore children are being abused physically by long hours and economically by low pay. Farmers and many businesses in third world countries are accused of taking major advantage of these laws. This topic is highlighted as one of the highest controversial issues in labor politics. Child labor is a major issue in countries such as Africa, Argentina, and Bangladesh. For example, in Africa, some children do the work of a grown man for as little as one dollar a day. On the other hand, in the United States some studies show that child labor is a bigger problem in the U.S than some third world countries (Barta and others). Many farmers are facing a huge problem; the government is attempting to keep children from working long hours on their family farms.
By the end one should be able to understand why child labor is in violation of human rights and should not be accepted and what is currently being done to put an end to it. Many people want to put an end to this plight, but they feel overwhelmed by the complications and the enormity of it that it becomes difficult to find a the right way to tackle it. There have been many implications that have succeeded in aiding this predicament and enabled progress to be ma...
Introduction: No one ever thought that the issue of child labor would ever get this out of control. In Somalia, in 2011, the Transitional Federal Government (TFG) of Somalia made small advancement in their effort to eliminate the worst forms of child labor. The Chief Defense Forces made an order in 2011 that prohibits the recruitment and use of child soldiers, and this was distributed to the armed forces. In addition, the TFG came together with the UN and the African Union Mission in Somalia to produce procedures to screen recruits of the Somali Security Forces’ for underage applicants. In addition, Somalia lacks a coherent, functioning government and the legal framework, law enforcement, policies and programs necessary to address the worst forms of child labor. Children in Somalia still continue to work in the worst forms of child labor today. The Somali people are worried about their children's health because some children can be involved in many dangerous situations such as planting roadside bombs or serve as human shields or suicide bombers. Many of these children are from very poor families and work to pay for their family and their own educations. Taking their income away from them has led to some children to seek different, lower paid work, and even prostitution in some cases. Continuous conflict has led to hunger, slaughter, and displacement of thousands of Somalis. Child labor in Somalia is 2nd worst on the worldwide list of child labor countries and rightfully so. Due to their fall of government after their Civil War in 1988, Somalia has fallen to a harsh work community and lack of an enforcement of certain rules and laws; most specifically, for children and their lack of educa...
Child Labor is not an isolated problem. The phenomenon of child labor is an effect of economic discrimination. In different parts of the world, at different stages of histories, laboring of child has been a part of economic life. More than 200 million children worldwide, some are as young as 4 and 5 years old, are slaves to the production line. These unfortunate children manufacture shoes, matches, clothing, rugs and countless other products that are flooding the American market and driving hard-working Americans out of jobs. These children worked long hours, were frequently beaten, and were paid a pittance. In 1979, a study shows more than 50 million children below the age of 16 were considered child labor (United Nation labors agency data). In 1998, according to the Campaign for Labor rights that is a NGO and United Nation Labor Agency, 250 million children around the world are working in farms, factories, and household. Some human rights experts indicate that there are as many as 400 million children under the age of 15 are performing forced labor either part or full-time under unsafe work environment. Based upon the needs of the situation, there are specific areas of the world where the practice of child labor is taking place. According to the journal written by Basu, Ashagrie gat...
So I believe that the issue of child labour is not simple. As Unicef’s 1997 State of the World’s Children Report argued, children’s work needs to be seen as having two extremes. On one hand, there is the destructive or exploitative work and, on the other hand, there is beneficial work - promoting or enhancing children’s development without interfering with their schooling, recreation and rest. ‘And between these two poles are vast areas of work that need not negatively affect a child’s development.’ My firm belief is that there is a difference between child labour and child work and that in both cases the issue is whether or not the child is deliberately being exploited.
The majority of the continent of Africa has not been as economically progressive as the other continents in today’s world. However, over the past few years, it has been rapidly growing. Although there have been multiple countries in Africa that have reflected a strong growing economy, such as South Africa and Botswana, there are many other countries that are still corrupt and are still struggling to grow as a nation. There are many challenges that are facing Africa currently. Some of these major challenges being, corrupt governments, vicious cycles of aid, and poverty traps. However, among these challenges, there still lies to be great opportunities for Africa within their technology and business sectors.
Child labour is an issue that has plagued society since the earliest of times. Despite measures taken by NGOs as well as the UN, child labour is still a prevalent problem in today’s society. Article 23 of the Convention on the Rights of a Child gives all children the right to be protected from economic exploitation and from performing any work that is likely to be hazardous or to interfere with the child 's education, or to be harmful to the child 's health or physical, mental, spiritual, moral or social development.1 Child labour clearly violates this right as well as others found in the UDHR. When we fail to see this issue as a human rights violation children around the world are subjected to hard labour which interferes with education, reinforces