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Mr. Chairman, I offer you my best wishes as you lead the
historic task before us--to draft a new convention to prohibit
the worst forms of child labor. You have the able and effective
support of the workers group led by Mr. Trotman and the employers
group led by Mr. Botha.
But most of all you have the combined inspiration and
determination that I know each and every person in this committee
brings to the challenge of protecting the world's children. And
I am confident that, together, we will succeed.
I am grateful to the participants here for allowing
me a few minutes to speak in this hall today. I know that this
committee is now fully engaged in its discussions and I do not
wish to divert you from this important work, but I very much
wanted to personally address the group and reinforce the message
I made at the Plenary Session--the United States places great
importance in this effort to eliminate the worst forms of child
labor.
As I look to that challenge, I can't help but see in
my mind's eye all those who took part in the Global March Against
Child Labor. I had the honor of welcoming the Marchers to
Washington, D.C. only two weeks ago. They help remind us what
our work is about. It is that human face we must remember.
Mr. Chairman, our work here is about those children.
It's about the future. But our challenge is deeply rooted in the
past--in the founding principle and focus of the ILO. Indeed,
the struggle to stop the exploitation of children was central to
the very creation of this institution. Some of the earliest ILO
conventions came in response to the child labor abuses then
confronting the conscience of those who sat where we sit today.
And while much has been accomplished by the ILO to
stop the workplace from being a threat to children--clearly, very
clearly much more needs to be done. And we, together, are about
the business of doing it.
Moreover it is well worth noting that action on child
labor is often a window onto other areas and priorities for this
organization. Yesterday, I attended the forum on the ILO's
program on "More and Better Jobs for Women". It was made quite
clear in that discussion that the economic and employment
prospects for women have a very important relationship to
conditions that lead to child labor.
In fact, I am reminded of my prior service, some two
decades ago, as the Director of the Women's Bureau of the
Department of Labor. A Bureau that was originally founded as the
Children's Bureau in the beginning of this century--when the
shame of child labor compelled a response--and also led to
international action by the ILO.
Because of the interrelationship between the
conditions for our children and those for our women--this Bureau
became devoted over time to the circumstances of women at work--and a change in its name followed.
Today, we are rededicating ourselves to our children.
And we have a rare opportunity to take the struggle for the
world's children to a new and higher level of commitment and
action. We join together here in the absolute certainty that
this is a challenge we can and must meet.
Indeed, it seems to us that if there is anything that
we all agree upon it is something as basic and fundamental as the
abolition of the worst forms of child labor. When we talk of
child labor in this sense, we surely do not mean that no child
should ever do work of any kind.
We mean no child should be placed into forced or
bonded labor...no child should be brutalized by exploitation in
the commercial sex trade...no child should be placed in hazardous
work.
We recognize that economic opportunity for parents
offers the best hope for children. But we reject the claims of
those who declare that in its absence, children face only two
roads--equally bleak. A road to poverty--or a road to
exploitation. That is a false choice.
Child labor will not cure poverty--it is far more
likely to perpetuate it. Nations cannot rise on the backs of its
children. There is another way, a better way. It is the path we
must find--the path that leads children to classrooms not
workrooms so that they have the education and skills to perhaps
enjoy a better life than their parents and grandparents.
I am pleased to be able to say that President Clinton
is helping to blaze that trail. In his State of the Union
address earlier this year, the President spoke for my entire
country when he committed us to the struggle against abusive
child labor. And I came to Geneva with clear instructions
directly from the President: to underline our strong support for
the negotiation of a new convention to end the worst forms of
child labor.
We are engaged with you in this struggle in three
ways.
First, we know that if we want to be full and
effective partners in the global campaign to end intolerable
child labor--we must start at home. One child working in abusive
conditions is one too many. And the President has both increased
resources to enforce our own laws, and added funding to help
those children most at risk--particularly in agriculture--stay in
school.
In addition, our Administration will work closely
with Senator Tom Harkin and others in our Congress to modernize
our own domestic child labor laws. We have made great progress,
but in parts of my country and parts of our economy, abusive
conditions persist. So we are stepping up our efforts to root
out it out.
Second, we want to invest in promoting positive
changes in the many countries around the world turning commitment
into action. Once again, the ILO--through its International
Program on the Elimination of Child Labor (IPEC)--has provided
hope and inspiration.
That is why President Clinton has asked the Congress to
increase our IPEC contribution by ten-fold. IPEC has shown that
innovative approaches to ending child labor can be found--and
they can work.
Whether it is moving children from factories to
schools, working to stop young girls from entering prostitution,
or just getting the data that we need to better measure the
problem--IPEC has helped lead the way.
Third, we understand that eliminating the worst forms
of child labor will take the best efforts of us all. And that's
why we support a new convention that is clear in its purpose,
concise in its text and targeted to ending the worst forms of
abuse. Through this convention we can help make sure that our
children are nurtured not neglected--educated not exploited.
As I conclude, let me commend you once again for your
work in this Committee, and wish you every success in negotiating
a convention that can be both widely ratified and effective in
meeting our goals. After all, there is no more defining issue
for the ILO than child labor--and there is no more demanding
challenge to act on behalf of the international community.
Let us remember that this issue was one of the
founding objectives for the ILO and as we seek to adopt a
declaration recommitting ourselves to those objectives, we should
work for an outcome that reaffirms a primacy and progressive role
for this institution into the next century and a declaration that
unites all of us.
Some may say that much of what occurs at conferences
like these won't long be remembered. But what happens in this
room will. Because when our task is done--and done right--we can
return to our homes, our families, our countries--and tell our
children what we did here was larger than ourselves and lasting
in its value.
It will live on. It will endure. Not just in words
or even a convention--but, most of all, in the faces, the hopes
and the dreams of children. And there is no better legacy than
that.
On behalf of President Clinton, I thank you for your work
and your service and I offer you our full commitment to the
effort.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
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