Child Labor

THE opening of the World Cup in South Africa today, Friday, has caught the International Labor Organization (ILO) as it celebrates the World’s Day Against Child Labor on June 12.

THE INTERNATIONAL Labor Organization (ILO) is backing a plan to hold an annual survey on the state of child labor in the country in line with efforts to curb the practice of employing minors by 2016.

On May 22, newspapers all over the world carried a story saying UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon had urged the UN Security Council to consider taking tough measures against countries and insurgent groups that recruit and use child soldiers.

MANILA, Philippines – The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) yesterday said the annual report of the secretary-general to the United Nations Security Council on Children and Armed Conflict regarding isolated incidents committed by the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) have been investigated and were found to be false.

Millions of Filipino children and youth are in one or more ways suffering the ill effects of poverty. Malnutrition, lack of access to good quality education and health care, parental neglect, exposure to domestic violence and drug abuse, sexual abuse and other forms of exploitation, are more common than most of us would like to…

MANILA, Philippines—The New People’s Army (NPA) does not recruit child warriors or brutalize children caught up in its struggle with government forces, a leader of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) on self-exile in the Netherlands said yesterday.

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United Nations (UN) Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon has expressed deep concern over grave human rights violations against Filipino children as both rebel and government forces have killed and recruited them during ongoing conflicts in the country.

MANILA, Philippines – The United Nations (UN) named yesterday three active insurgent groups in the Philippines as persistent users of child soldiers in armed conflicts and expressed serious concern about national armed forces using children for military intelligence and interrogation purposes.

Brussels, 14 May 2010 (ITUC OnLine):  The ITUC has welcomed the adoption of a new child labour “Roadmap” http://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/—dgreports/—dcomm/documents/meetingdocument/wcms_127018.pdf at an international conference in the Dutch capital The Hague this week, which will give a new push to reach a target set by the International Labour Organisation to eliminate the worst forms of child labour…

In 2006, the ILO’s second Global Report on Child Labour showed that significant progress was being made in the fight against child labour . Encouraged by the positive trend, the ILO established a visionary target – to eliminate child labour in its worst forms by 2016. Four years on, the third Global Report paints a…

When people talk about child laborers, they generally refer to juvenile sakada workers, house-help, watch-your-car boys, little sampaguita vendors, port area baggage kids and beggars. Some people in show business, however, hope that child stars and starlets will soon be added to that list.

MANILA, Philippines – A neophyte party-list group yesterday called on Congress to pass a bill that will criminalize the act of training children to be assassins as this is not covered by any existing child protection laws.

MANILA, Philippines – Police arrested yesterday the alleged leaders of a gang that employs minors to prey on shoppers in Divisoria, Manila. This developed as police doubled its patrols in the area following an upsurge in robberies and thefts reported by shoppers.

MANILA, Philippines – A man who admits to have worked as a child assassin for the powerful Ampatuan clan based in Maguindanao province came forward with “shocking” testimony of mass murders carried out by young boys in the service of the Ampatuan family.

MANILA, Philippines – The Quezon City Police District (QCPD) warned the public yesterday that criminal syndicates are recruiting minors to stage crimes such as robberies, then killing them once they have served their purpose.

The Department of Labor and Employment (DoLE) has issued guidelines stating that any business, firm or establishment violating any of the provisions of Republic Act 9231 more than three times may be ordered closed by the secretary or the regional directors.

While the watery floods killed and damaged hundreds of people in the Philippines, many of them children, another kind of flood is continuously destroying the innocent lives of children and youth. That’s the flood of child pornography coming into the Philippines and more of it made here with Filipino children being abused, videotaped and transmitted…

Camp Crame has received reports that government troops arrested three minors during an encounter with the communist rebels in Catanduanes province on Tuesday morning. The New People’s Army (NPA) has consistently denied using minors in their combat exercise against the state.

The United States has called for a boycott of a dozen Philippine exports because of the widespread use of child labor in agriculture, tobacco, pig raising, fireworks and the making of child pornography.

MANILA, Philippines – The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) yesterday protested the inclusion of the Philippines in the United States’ list of countries with goods produced with child labor.

The Philippines, Liberia, Burma and Cambodia use child labor to produce everything, the US Department of Labor said in a report published Thursday.

WASHINGTON – Children are used to produce everything from pornography in Ukraine to fireworks in the Philippines and diamonds in Sierra Leone, the US Department of Labor said in a report published Thursday.

TUCP Statement to the Asia Region Tripartite Consultation on Draft Guides for the Preparation of  National Child Labour Policies and Action Plans and on Mainstreaming Child Labour Concerns in Broader Policy Frameworks 23-25 November 2009, Bangkok, Thailand Sis. Susanita Tesiorna Informal Sector Coalition of the Philippines (ISP/TUCP) On behalf of the Workers’ Delegates On behalf…

MANILA, Philippines – The United Nations Secretary General’s Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict said compliance to the action plan signed by the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) on Friday to prevent the continued recruitment of child soldiers requires close follow-up.

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SEPARATIST group Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) has agreed to remove child soldiers from its ranks, the United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef)-Philippines reported Friday.

KORONADAL CITY, Philippines  – Police and military operatives are on the lookout for child bombers reportedly being used by the al-Qaida linked Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) to stage bomb attacks while the South Cotabato province is celebrating its 43rd foundation anniversary from July 10 to 18.

Various task forces from areas with high prevalence of child labor met in June in a unique assembly meant to inspire people to continue upholding child labor education as a priority issue.

Despite the progress of the global fight against child labor, the economic crisis still threatens to increase the number of child laborers, the International Labor Organization (ILO) said Monday. In its report titled “Give Girls a Chance: Tackling child labor, a key to the future,” the ILO said girls in particular are in danger of…