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Preliminary Draft Resolution on the issue of Child Labour
UNITED NATIONS
General Assembly
First session
Agenda item 2
DRAFT RESOLUTION ON CHILD LABOUR
The States Parties to the present Convention
(Australia, Austria, Belguim, Bangladesh, Canada, Eritrea, Germany, India, Izrael, Namibia, Nepal, Nigeria, Pakistan, Poland, United States of America)
The General Assembly,
Recalling the Convention on the Rights of the Child adopted by the United
Nations General Assembly on 20 November 1989,
Recognizing the importance of achieving universal ratification of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, Resolution 44/25 and annex,
Recalling the Convention No.182, the Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention adopted by the International Labour Organization on 17 June 1999,
Recalling the Convention No.138, the Minimum Age Convention adopted on 26 June 1973,
Further calling on all states to ratify as soon as possible all ILO conventions related to the eradication of child labour,
Reaffirming that all member states have an obligation to promote and protect human rights and fundamental freedoms, as stated in the Charter of the UN and as elaborated in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Convention on the Rights of the Child,
Bearing in mind that children are the most vulnerable category that can not protect itself and is therefore often an object of violence and exploitation,
Deeply concerened about the increasing problem of child labour in developing countries as well as in developed world, which deprives children of their right to live a normal childhood,
Alarmed by the many cases of gross violations of the basic rights of the children as stated in the Convention on the Rights of the Child,
Realizing the need to address the issues concerning a particular form of child abuse and child labour,
Deeply conscious that poverty is one of the main couses for child labour,
1. Accepts the general definition of child labour and that is: work that is damaging to a child's physical or psyhological health or work that interferes with schooling and stress-free environment and the definition of worst forms of child labour as stated in the Article 3 of the Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention,
2. Condemns all forms of child labour,
3. Emphasizes the need to gradually eliminate all forms of child labour,
4. Calls upon all member states to eliminate the worst forms of child labour as a first step towards the abolishment of child labour,
5. Advocates that the exact working definitions on forms of child labour and worst forms of child labour, needed for action to combat child labour in individual states are made by UNO and its special agencies: the ILO and UNICEF in cooperation with governments of member states,
6. Condemns the exsistence and increase in the new form of child abuse - the internet abuses which lead to the worst forms of child labour and calls for international action in prosecuting, preventing and eliminating it,
7. Welcomes the efforts of all governments of member states in eliminating all forms of child labour through adoption of apropriate national legislation as well as awareness campaigns,
8. Further supports the need for implementation of special programme for registration of every child born in developing countries cunducted by UNICEF,
9. Recommends the ILO to create and monitor, in cooperation with the government of the concerned state, a minimal set of labour standards for each state as restrictions to child labour,
10. Emphasizes the need for compulsory, affordable and equally accessible basic education regardless to gender, race or religion and useful vocation training as an essential tool for child labour prevention, calls upon all governments to insure this kind of education and urges international cooperation to financially and advisory contribute to the implementation of such education,
11. Invites multinational cooperations and other international businesses to adopt individual strategies and programmes to eliminate child labour,
12. Further recommends to WB, IMF and developed countries for debt relief for all developing countries in order to free country's resources and allow those resources to be devoted to the social benefit of children,
13. Strongly supports International Programme on The Elimination of Child Labour (IPEC), implemented by the ILO in participating countries,
14. Calls for creating other similar international technical cooperation plans for the progressive elimination of child labour like IPEC by other international governmental organizations and NGO's under condition that they are created, implemented and monitored in cooperation with the ILO or UNICEF and are in accordance with the UN Charter,
15. Further calls for creating additional international initiatives for eliminating poverty, corruption and for promoting social development, which would all contribute to already established programmes making them more effective in pursuing their goal,
16. Recommends that labeling programmes are implemented only under the condition that an independent monitoring system is created in order to determine if particular labeling programme is indeed being effective in achieving its aims,
17. Requests that sanctions and boycotts of the products made by child labour expoitation are performed only if simultaneously additional educational and vocation training programms are introduced,
18. Calls for the establishment of an UN Child Fund in the framework of UNICEF to which financial means would be donated in order to perform child labour elimination programmes. This UN Child Fund would need to incorporate monitoring and inspection mechanisms in order to assess efficient use of donations.
19. Emphasizes the important role of all relevant actors: United Nations and its agencies, especially the UNICEF and the ILO, international governmental organizations and non-governmental organizations.
The following Amendments have also been adopted:
THE AMENDMENT NO. 2 TO THE DRAFT RESOLUTION 2/1 ON THE ISSUE OF CHILD LABOUR CONCERNING THE PARTICIPATION OF CHILDREN IN ARMED CONFLICTS (proposed by Colombia, Italy, Uganda, Zambia and supported by Algeria and Zimbabwe)
6. Expresses its concern at the recruitment of children and their participation and use in armed conflicts, reminds that more than 300,000 children under 18 years of age are currently participating in armed conflicts worldwide and calls for:
(a) Member states to take all feasible measures to ensure that members of their armed forces who have not attained the age of 18 years do not take part in direct hostilities,
(b) Member states to ensure that persons under the age of 18 are not compulsorily recruited into their armed forces,
(c) Armed groups that are distinct from the armed forces of a State not to, under any circumstances, recruit or use in hostilities persons under the age of 18 years,
(d) Member states to take all necessary measures to put pressure to armed groups and movements to release all children held as captives or child soldiers,
(e) Member states to strongly condemn the targeting of children in situations of armed conflict, including killing, sexual violence, abduction and forced displacement, to stop the spread and illicit trafficking of small arms and light weapons across borders and to take all necessary legal, administrative and other measures to prevent such recruitment, including the adoption of legal measures necessary to prohibit and punish such practices;
(f) Member states (in co-operation with specialised agencies that set up programs for psycho-social counselling and therapy) to help the children come to terms with the violence to which they have been subjected and which they have perpetrated,
(g) All parties in armed conflicts to respect the provisions of international humanitarian law that protect children;
(h) All parties in armed conflicts to ensure that the protection, welfare and rights of children are taken into account during peace negotiations and throughout the process of consolidating peace and the personnel of peace keeping, peace making and peace building forces to be given appropriate training to deal with child soldiers;
(i) Member states and relevant parts of the United Nations system to intensify their efforts to ensure an end to the recruitment and use of children in armed conflicts.
THE AMENDMENT NO. 3 TO THE DRAFT RESOLUTION 2/1 ON THE ISSUE OF CHILD LABOUR
The World Summit for Children with emphasis on problem of Child Labour
Addition of the articles from No. 20 to No. 27 as second part of the R2/1:
20. Decides to convene at high level a World Summit for Children with emphasis on problem of Child Labour in 2002 with the following objectives:
(a) to review and assess the progress that has been made since the last World Summit for Children, with special attention to Child Labour,
(b) to examine ways and means to improve the implementation of existing mechanisms, mentioned in conventions, signed by United Nations members,
(c) to formulate concrete recommendation for improving the effectiveness of the United Nations activities and mechanism in the field of Child Labour through programs aimed at promoting, encouraging and monitoring respect for rights of children and prevention of the worst forms of Child Labour,
(d) to make recommendations for ensuring the necessary financial and other resources for United Nations actives in the promotion and protection of
children.
21. Further decides to establish a Preparatory Committee for the World Summit for Children, which shall be open to all States Members of the United Nations or members of specialized agencies, with participation of observers, in accordance with the established practice of the General Assembly.
22. Authorizes the Preparatory Committee to have the mandate to make proposals for the consideration of the General Assembly regarding agenda, date, duration, venue of and participation in the Summit, preparatory meetings and activities at the international, regional and national levels, which should take place this and next year (2001 and 2002), and on desirable studies and other documentation.
23. Also decides that the Preparatory Committee, at its first session, shall elect a six member bureau, composed of Chairman, four vice-chairmen and rapporteur, with due regard to equitable geographic representation.
24. Instructs the Preparatory Committee to deal with the substantive preparations for Summit in accordance with the goals and objectives set out in paragraph 1 above.
25. Requests the 3rd Commission (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural) and International Labour Organization to make recommendations to the Preparatory Committee on the above issues during those sessions that will take place prior to the Summit.
26. Encourages the chairman of the 3rd Commission and ILO, the chairmen or other designated members of child rights and child labour expert bodies, as well as special rapporteurs and chairmen or designated members of working groups dealing with problem of child labour to take part in the work of the Preparatory Committee.
27. Requests the Preparatory Committee to report to the General Assembly at its 2nd session on the progress of its work.
THE AMENDMENT NO. 4 TO THE DRAFT RESOLUTION 2/1 ON THE ISSUE OF CHILD LABOUR Art.4 (Proposed by Honduras, Turkey and Zambia)
a) Emphasises the need for Governments of Member States to recognise links between trafficking, prostitution, child abuse, drug abuse, poverty, racism and the huge profits earned by the sex and other illegal industries.
b) Calls upon Member States to criminalise all forms of sexual exploitation of children, including commercial sexual exploitation, and to condemn and penalise all those offenders involved, whether local or foreign, while ensuring that children victims of this practice are not penalised.
c) Further calls upon Member States to eliminate sexual exploitation and the demand of child trafficking by:
- starting to focus on the link between trafficking, migration and criminal networks;
- developing, strengthening and implementing legal framework, laws, programmes and policies to protect human rights of children nationally and internationally;
- setting international standards and mechanisms with regard to sale and trafficking to ensure not only reporting but also monitoring State activities;
- developing or strengthening and implementing laws with regard to sex tourism which would criminalise the acts of nationals of the countries of origin when committed against children in the countries of destination ("extra-territorial criminal laws") and promoting extradition and other arrangements to ensure that a person who exploits a child for sexual purposes in another country (the destination country) is prosecuted either in the country of origin or the destination country;
- preventing as much as possible the unstable situations where national governments are not able to control their territories and the abduction of children, sexual abuse or any other form of violence could take place;
- reassuring a special protection for orphaned children as they are defenceless and therefore an easy target for criminals and also through sexual abuse subject to mortal diseases like AIDS;
- enforcing existing laws and if necessary to amend these laws to protect the victims and bring the offenders to justice;
- punishing traffickers and other perpetrators of sexual exploitation of children and confiscate the profits from trafficking;
- adopting a non punitive approach to child victims of commercial sexual exploitation and providing the victims with legal, psychological and medical support and alternative means of livelihood;
- widely publicising mechanisms for reporting crimes against children and protecting, supporting persons that are willing to co-operate with authorities to bring the offenders to justice.
d) Supports the need for international and regional registers for missing children, containing all the pertinent information for identification.
e) Emphasises the need for preventive programmes to be multi-disciplinary on a national, regional and international level - including NGOs - and targeted on society as a whole.
f) Further requests information campaigns and support of victims in both receiving countries and countries of origin through:
- health care centres,
- shelters,
- safe housing,
- counselling centres,
- education centres,
- rehabilitation and reintegration programmes.
g) Calls for the establishment of the Co-ordination forum in the framework of UNICEF, that shall provide an effective collaboration between UN system and local operational agencies on various levels, for the purpose of selecting issues on the ground, providing and exchanging information, co-ordinating governmental and non - governmental organisations on the issue of sexual exploitation of children and elaborating proper strategies to cope with the problem. In this way the lack of co-ordination in the past which led to duplication, overlapping activities in one sector and neglecting other areas for providing support to children, can be efficiently prevented.
h) Calls upon the developed countries to assist developing state financially and in other ways to implement laws that prohibit child labour, child trafficking and other exploitation of children and enforce appropriate mechanisms.
THE AMENDMENT NO. 5 TO THE DRAFT RESOLUTION 2/1 ON THE ISSUE OF CHILD LABOUR (Proposed by Canada and the United States of America):
This amendment is an addition to the Point 13 and a modification of the first sentence of the Point 18 of the Draft Resolution 2/1.
13. Strongly supports the International Programme on The Elimination of Child Labour (IPEC), implemented by the ILO in participating countries, as well as the Statistical Information and Monitoring Programme on Child Labour (SIMPOC) of the ILO, with a purpose to extend data collection on and monitoring of the child labour,
18. Calls for the establishment of a Child Labour Elimination Fund within the United Nations to which financial means would be donated for the child labour elimination programmes that are performed by the United Nations and other IGOs and NGOs as well. This Child Labour Elimination Fund would need to incorporate monitoring and inspection mechanisms in order to assess efficient use of the donations;
Please note:
Be sure to check out the final Resolution on the issue of Child Labour in the Adopted Resolutions Section.
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