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OPA News Release: [07/31/2002]
Contact Name: Bob Zachariasiewicz
Phone Number: (202) 693-4686

Labor Department Issues Seventh Report on Child Labor

Report Profiles Efforts to Eliminate Child Labor in 33 Countries

WASHINGTON – The Labor Department today released a Congressionally mandated report profiling efforts being made to eliminate the worst forms of child labor in 33 countries. This is the seventh such report prepared by the department’s Bureau of International Labor Affairs, and builds on the 1998 report which studied the efforts of 16 countries to counter exploitative child labor.

“This report provides useful information for tracking progress in efforts to eliminate child labor around the world. Today we have a good idea of the nature and scope of the problem. Now we need to see what kind of progress is being made. This report is an initial step in that direction,” said Tom Moorhead, Deputy Under Secretary for International Affairs.

Advancing the Campaign Against Child Labor: Efforts at the Country Level identifies 33 countries in which the problem is present and documents the laws, policies and programs adopted by those countries to combat abusive child labor. The countries profiled in the report reflect various levels of economic development and a wide range of efforts to address the problem of child labor. The report also includes information on the economically active population, unemployment rates, education, and government expenditures on the military, health and education in each country.

The bureau’s International Child Labor Program collected data from a wide variety of sources, including the State Department, U.S. embassies and consulates, foreign governments, nongovernmental organizations and international agencies. In addition, bureau staff conducted field visits to many of the countries covered in the report.

A limited number of printed copies of the report are available from the International Child Labor Program, Bureau of International Labor Affairs, U.S. Department of Labor, Room S-5307, 200 Constitution Ave., N.W., Washington, D.C. 20210. Telephone: (202) 693-4843; Fax (202) 693-4830; E-mail: GlobalKids@dol.gov. Also, the report will be available by July 31 on the Internet at http://www.dol.gov/ILAB/programs/iclp/main.htm.

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