8+China

Committee: 8 Topic: Child Labor Country: China Lauren E. Per.3

__BACKGROUND INFORMATION:__

Child Labor has been existent since the 1800s during the first industrial revolution and is elevating to a very serious problem. It is estimated that 158 million children ages 5 to 14 are involved in child labor all around the world. Endangering children in hazardous situations or conditions is unacceptable and a stand should be made for the safety of children. Child Labor can take many forms such as work in mines, work with chemicals and pesticides in agriculture, and work with dangerous machinery. Basically anything that harms children under 18 or exploits them in anyway by harming them physically, mentally, morally, or by blocking access to education is considered a dangerous form of labor. Many countries have problems with the safety of children in work places. In multiple countries, parents are forced to sell their children into slavery due to poverty. Some families are promised education for their children if the sell them into labor, and some times children are taken by force. Slavery as a form of child labor is unacceptable when children are getting injured.

__UN INVOLVEMENT__:

UNICEF - a branch of the UN - works with 150 countries and territories attempting to stop child labor and provide basis education for all children. One large movement against child labor was the "Global March Against Child Labor." It was an intercontinental six-month march through many major cities drawing global attention towards child labor and raising funds for it. Thanks to UNICEF's help, China has placed a "National Policy on Early Childhood Care and Development," and Vietnam is cooperating to help prevent human trafficking across the border. With all these efforts we can only hope that child labor will soon reach a hand-able amount.

__COUNTRY POLICY AND INVOLVEMENT:__

China supports the safety of children and hopes that our country will soon be considered a secure and sheltered place for them. In September of 2006 our government announced the 9 years of compulsory education will be provided for all school-aged children by 2007. We hope that this will stop parents from thinking that selling their child into labor is the only way that the will be able to support them. We support the idea of safety in a community but do not believe that child labor is our biggest safety issue for children. We agree that children under 13 should not be working but a strong work ethic for older children is a necessity.

__SOLUTIONS__

China would like to see a decrease in the amount of children hurt in a work place. We propose to instate a committee that would meet semi-annually to discuss strategies for child safety. We would call this the SFCO, Safety for Children Organization. This committee would make sure that children can be safe while working. We would lower the working age to 13 so that the need for child slaves would decrease. We would also crack down on serious factories and work place that our endangering child lives. China is for safety in a community and a safe way for children to work and help support their families which is why SFCO is a good and easy solution.

__BIBLIOGRAPHY:__

http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/china_china.html

http://www.childlaborphtoproject.org/childlabor.html

http://www.unicef.org/media/media_45365.html

http://www.unicef.org/media/media_45365.html