Monday, June 11, 2012

Now is the time to end child labor

Today (June 12th)  is World Day Against Child Labor 2012. In 2010, international organizations led by the the UN’s International Labor Organization (ILO) adopted a resolution to end the worst forms of child labor by 2016. You don’t have to be a cynic to know they were blowing smoke since the trend in every single country is a dramatic increase in the most violent forms of child exploitation & homelessness. These agencies appear to exist for the sole purpose of promulgating lengthy treatises, delivering ceremonial homiletics on days like today, & resolutions up the wazoo that go nowhere. The ILO has offices in nearly 100 countries, a budget of millions of dollars & almost nothing to show for their efforts. When the Obama administration & the US Department of Labor recently refused to provide protective legislation to 800,000 child farm workers in violation of ILO Convention 182 (signed by President Clinton in 1999) there was nary a peep of protest from the ILO. But today their sentimental speeches will bring us to tears--& nausea. Child labor is an abomination involving extreme violence against children, as the face of this child so clearly shows. It is a priority to get our little brothers & sisters out of the factories, mines, brothels, hell-holes & back to school & playgrounds. Those who victimize children as labor should be prosecuted to the full extent of those ILO declarations. (Photographer not identified)
http://www.wisdomblow.com/?p=2895

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