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Labour Commissioner Draws Attention to Child Labour

Contact: Claudia Monlouis

Monday, November 11, 2002 - Labour Commissioner Andrew James has been drawing attention to the issue of Child Labour, saying that it is a development in the Caribbean and other parts of the world; which is of serious concern to the International labour Organisation, the ILO.

“The concerns of which I speak are Child Labour. New global estimates for the year 2002 indicate that some 352 million children work. Of these 247 million children are involved in child labour for abolition and 187 million of whom are between 5 and 14 years of age. A staggering 180 million are working in the worst forms of Child Labour,” said James in an address to mark the official opening of Civil Service Association (CSA) week recently.

James names child prostitution, forced labour and armed conflict as being among the most inhumane examples of this illegal practice, saying that at least 8 million children are victims. He further states that research findings indicate that there I child labour in six Caribbean countries.

“For this reason, a sub-regional tripartite meeting on eliminating the worse form of child labour was held in Trinidad and Tobago during the period 23rd to 25th October 2002 to provide the region with ILO’s findings. The tripartite team in St. Lucia that attended the meeting will in the near future be highlighting some of the child labour problems which confront our region” James said.

The Labour Commissioner added that the CSA will soon be called upon to help devise strategies to bring a stop to this unfortunate development.

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