12
June, 2008
====================
GREATER ACCESS TO
EDUCATION KEY TO COMBATING CHILD LABOUR – UN
The United Nations
is urging improved access to education as the right response
to address the plight of the estimated 165 million children
between the ages of 5 and 14 worldwide who are involved in child
labour.
“Despite global
progress in many areas, it is unacceptable that so many children
must still work for their survival and that of their families,”
Juan Somavia, Director-General of the UN International Labour
Organization (ILO), said today on the occasion of the World
Day Against Child Labour.
The ILO’s International
Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour (IPEC) says that
of some 218 million child labourers around the world, millions
are either denied educational opportunities that would give
them a better future or must balance work with education.
“For too many
children, particularly children of poor families across the
world, the right to education remains an abstract concept, far
from the reality of daily life,” Mr. Somavia stated.
He noted that more
than 70 million primary school-aged children are not enrolled
in school. Many of these and other out-of-school children start
working at an early age, often well below the minimum age of
employment. And when a family has to make a choice between sending
either a boy or girl to school, it is often the girl who loses
out.
“Our challenge
is to offer hope to the child labourers of the world by making
their right a reality, ensuring that they have quality education
and training which can lead them towards a future of decent
work,” he said.
“This is essential
to break the cycle of child labour and poverty. And it is a
sound investment for individuals and society.”
To tackle child labour,
ILO is urging governments to provide education for all children
at least to the minimum age of employment, as well as education
policies that reach out to child labourers and other excluded
groups.
In addition, the
agency is calling for properly resourced quality education and
skills training, and education for all children and decent work
for adults.
The UN Children’s
Fund (UNICEF) also sees education as the best weapon in the
global fight against child labour and says recent data has provided
hope. The number of children out of school has dropped from
115 million in 2002 to 93 million in 2006.
The agency says part
of this success has come from new initiatives to bring down
the cost of schooling, making it more accessible to more children,
including the School Fee Abolition Initiative (SFAI) launched
by UNICEF and the World Bank in 2005 to support countries in
implementing school fee abolition policies.
The annual World
Day is being marked in some 60 countries with events ranging
from awareness-raising campaigns and artistic performances to
competitions and photo exhibitions on child labour.
* * *
23
January, 2008
===============================
CITING GLOBAL ECONOMIC
INSTABILITY, UN PREDICTS 5 MILLION MORE JOBLESS THIS YEAR
The United Nations
labour agency predicts that economic turbulence resulting from
credit market turmoil and rising oil prices could lead to another
5 million people becoming unemployed this year.
That is just one
of the key findings the International Labour Office (ILO) released
today in its annual Global Employment Trends report, which analyses
the impact of factors – ranging from population and economic
growth to financial crises – on labour markets.
The report notes
that the decrease in growth in developed economies owing to
the credit market crisis and higher oil prices had so far been
“compensated for in the rest of the world,” especially
in Asia, which has witnessed strong economic and job growth.
However, an expected
slowdown in growth during 2008 could increase the global unemployment
rate to 6.1 per cent, resulting in an increase of at least 5
million unemployed worldwide, the report warns.
The forecast for
this year differs from 2007, considered by ILO to be a “watershed
year” in that it saw a stabilization of global labour
markets with more people in work, some 45 million new jobs and
only a small increase in the number of those unemployed, to
a total of nearly 190 million worldwide.
“This year’s
global jobs picture is one of contrasts and uncertainty,”
said ILO Director-General Juan Somavia. “While global
growth is annually producing millions of new jobs, unemployment
remains unacceptably high and may go to levels not seen before
this year.”
He added that although
more people are currently employed than ever before, more jobs
does not necessarily mean decent jobs. “Too many people,
if not unemployed, remain among the ranks of the working poor,
the vulnerable or the discouraged.”
According to the
ILO, an estimated 487 million workers – or 16.4 per cent
of the total – still do not earn enough to surpass the
$1 a day poverty line, and 1.3 billion workers (or 43.5 per
cent) still live below $2 a day.
“What is apparent
is that economic progress doesn’t automatically translate
into new and decent jobs,” said Mr. Somavia, emphasizing
that “labour market policies must be at the centre of
macroeconomic policies to ensure that economic growth is inclusive
and that development involves good, decent work.”
Decent work, as defined
by the ILO, provides for opportunity and income; rights, voice
and recognition; family stability; personal development; and
fairness and gender equality.
* * *
11
September, 2007
=========================
ATROCITIES MARK START
OF NEW PEOPLE-SMUGGLING SEASON ACROSS GULF OF ADEN, UN REPORTS
People-smuggling
boats from Somalia have once again taken to the Gulf of Aden
in the perilous annual exodus to Yemen, despite bad weather
conditions, amid reports of new deadly atrocities committed
by smugglers against the migrants, the United Nations refugee
agency said today.
“Twelve died
on the high seas under horrific circumstances. At least five
of them were beaten and stabbed by smugglers and thrown overboard,
while another six died of asphyxiation and dehydration in the
hold of a boat. One person drowned after disembarking in deep
waters,” UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) spokesman
Ron Redmond told a news briefing in Geneva.
In the past week,
324 Somalis and Ethiopians have landed in Yemen as the new people-smuggling
season gets underway with the anticipated arrival of better
weather, in an annual ritual which sees tens of thousands of
migrants risking their lives in rickety vessels at the hands
of often unscrupulous and brutal traffickers.
“New arrivals
on 3 September told UNHCR staff that passengers on their vessel
were beaten with clubs and stabbed throughout the voyage. Several
survivors were treated for their injuries at a UNHCR-sponsored
medical clinic in Yemen,” Mr. Redmond said.
Since January 2006
some 30,000 people braved the voyage, and nearly 400 were killed
or died as smugglers murdered some migrants and others perished
when their boats capsized.
Last week, UNHCR
officials reported that thousands of Ethiopians and Somalis
had already gathered in the northern Somali port of Bossaso
in anticipation of the new exodus and they said they feared
that the new people-smuggling season would be as bad and deadly
as the last.
When the latest boat
approached shore near Arqa on Saturday, Yemeni forces reportedly
opened fire, barely missing the 90 passengers on board, Mr.
Redmond said. Smugglers ask between $60 and $100 for the journey.
Somali refugees registered
at the UNHCR’s reception centre said they left their country
due to conflict, arbitrary killings, the threat of detention,
drought and lack of work. Somalis account for half of the migrant
flow and most have fled conflict in southern and central parts
of the country, including Mogadishu, the capital. There are
nearly 90,000 registered refugees in Yemen, almost all of them
Somalis.
* * *
23
May, 2007
===========================
UN LABOUR AGENCY
AWARDS DECENT WORK PRIZE TO NELSON MANDELA AND ACADEMIC
The United Nations
International Labour Organization today awarded its first annual
ILO Decent Work Prize to the former South African President
Nelson Mandela and to an academic expert on Latin American economics.
Mr. Mandela, who
is also a Nobel Peace Laureate, “is awarded an exceptional
prize for his extraordinary lifetime contribution to knowledge,
understanding and advocacy on the central concerns of the ILO,”
the organization said in a press release.
“With this
prize, the jury and the ILO wished to recognize and honour his
sustained efforts that helped to make decent work a central
objective in the policy agenda in South Africa and worldwide,
furthering the vision of work which is free from discrimination
and oppression, and of social justice and dialogue as the essential
base for progress.”
Carmelo Mesa-Lago,
Professor Emeritus on Economics and Latin American Studies of
the University of Pittsburgh in Pennsylvania, United States,
also received the prize in recognition of his “major scholarly
contributions to the analysis of socio-economic relationships
and policy instruments for the advancement of decent work.”
The press release
cited his work in particular on social security and pension
reform, which the jury stated had had a notable impact on reform
processes across Latin America for many years.
The prizes –
which were created by the ILO’s International Institute
for Labour Studies – will be awarded formally at the closing
plenary session of the ILO International Labour Conference on
15 June in Geneva.
* * *
14
June, 2006
==========================
VIOLENCE
AT WORK RISING WORLDWIDE; EPIDEMIC LEVELS IN SOME COUNTRIES:
UN LABOUR AGENCY
Violence
at work, ranging from bullying and mobbing, to threats by psychologically
unstable co-workers, sexual harassment and homicide, is increasing
worldwide and has reached epidemic levels in some countries,
according to a new publication by the United Nations International
Labour Organization (ILO).
In addition,
the global cost of workplace violence is enormous and costs
untold millions of dollars in losses in other countries due
to causes including absenteeism and sick leave, according to
the latest edition of ILO’s Violence at Work.
“Bullying,
harassment, mobbing and allied behaviours can be just as damaging
as outright physical violence. Today, the instability of many
types of jobs places huge pressures on workplaces, and we’re
seeing more of these forms of violence,” according to
the authors of the study.
The publication,
which is written by Vittorio Di Martino, an international expert
on stress and workplace violence, and Duncan Chappell, past
president of the New South Wales Mental Health Review, Australia,
also addresses the growing concern of terrorism, which the authors
describe as “one of the new faces of workplace violence.”
The study
notes that professions once regarded as sheltered from workplace
violence such as teaching, social services, library services
and health care are being exposed to increasing acts of violence,
in both developed and developing countries.
Drawing
on statistics from all over the world, the ILO highlights various
trends, noting for example that in Germany, a 2002 study estimated
that more than 800,000 workers were victims of mobbing, where
a group of workers targets an individual for psychological harassment.
In Spain, an estimated 22 per cent of officials in public administration
were victims of mobbing.
In developing
countries, the most vulnerable workers include women, migrants
and children, according to the report. In Malaysia, 11,851 rape
and molestation cases at the workplace were reported between
1997 and May 2001. Widespread sexual harassment and abuse were
major concerns in South Africa, Ukraine, Kuwait and Hong Kong,
China, among other countries, the report said.
On a more
positive note, the study cited improvements in England, Wales
and the United States. For example in England and Wales, the
estimated 849,000 incidents of workplace violence in 2002-2003
represented a decline from 1.3 million such incidents cited
in a previous survey.
In terms
of tackling the issue of workplace violence, the study goes
on to highlight a number of “best practice” examples
from local and national governments, enterprises and trade unions
from around the world that have successfully implemented “zero
tolerance” polices and violence-prevention training programmes.
The ILO
has adopted a number of fundamental Conventions on worker protection
and dignity at work.
* * *
18
May, 2006
===================
UN LABOUR
AGENCY SET TO ENDORSE NEW CODE TO ENHANCE SAFETY IN COAL MINES
With underground
coal mining posing one of the highest workplace risk activities
in the world, as shown by a recent spate of accidents from China
to the United States, the United Nations labour agency is set
to endorse a new code of practice to improve the safety and
health of miners.
The code,
adopted by experts representing workers, employers and governments
at a meeting at the International Labour Organization’s
(ILO) Geneva headquarters, covers the whole gamut of mine activities
from banning hazardous processes or substances to enhanced inspections
to health problems arising from excessive vibration and noise.
“If
a safety net, which includes a number of critical checks and
balances, is not in place to assess and control the hazards,
accidents and occupational diseases can and do occur,”
ILO said in a statement, while acknowledging that significant
improvements have been achieved as a result of new technologies,
capital investment and training.
The new
Code, adopted by 23 government, employer and worker experts
over the weekend, is to be submitted to the ILO Governing Body
in November for endorsement and will replace an existing code
adopted in 1986.
It comprises
a methodology for identifying hazards and preventing and minimising
risks that include mine explosions, fires and the collapse of
mine roofs; crushing of miners between machinery or machinery
and the coal face; shock, burns and electrocution; inundations
of dangerous gases; and premature or improper detonation of
explosives.
Other areas
covered comprise disabling and deadly lung diseases caused by
mine dust; noise-induced hearing loss; exposure to harmful chemicals
and agents used in mines; excessive temperatures; vibration.
* * *
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