[Federal Register Volume 60, Number 64 (Tuesday, April 4, 1995)]
[Notices]
[Pages 17089-17090]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 95-8225]



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DEPARTMENT OF LABOR

Office of the Secretary


Bureau of International Labor Affairs; Public Hearings

    This document is a notice of public hearings to be held by the 
Department of Labor for the purpose of gathering factual information 
regarding child labor practices throughout the world. The hearing will 
be held on Friday, May 5, 1995, at the Department of Labor, room N-
3437, beginning at 9 a.m. The hearing will be open to the public. The 
Department of Labor is now accepting requests from all sectors to 
provide oral or written testimony at the hearing. Each presentation 
will be limited to ten minutes. The Department is not able to provide 
financial assistance to those wishing to travel to attend the hearing. 
Those unable to attend the hearing are invited to submit written 
testimony. Individuals or organizations interested in testifying at the 
international child labor hearing, should call (202) 501-6068 to be put 
on the roster.
    The Department of Labor is currently undertaking a second 
Congressionally-mandated review of international child labor practices 
(pursuant to the 1995 HHS/Department of Labor Appropriations Bill--Pub. 
L. 103-333). Information provided at the hearing will be considered by 
the Department of Labor in preparing its report to Congress. Testimony 
should be confined to the specific topic of the study. Specifically, 
the international child labor study of the Bureau of International 
Labor Affairs is seeking written and oral testimony on the topics noted 
below:
    1. Use of child labor in commercial (i.e., non-subsistence) export-
oriented agricultural enterprises. While we are not examining family or 
subsistence farming, we are seeking information on children in 
agricultural enterprises of all sizes, from plantations and estates to 
small-sized farms; in forest industries, ranching, and fishing 
(including shellfish) enterprises.
    2. Forced or bonded child labor. We are seeking information on the 
incidence of forced and bonded labor in industries directly or 
indirectly contributing to exports.
    3. Government efforts to deal with child labor. Any significant 
actions, progressive or regressive, taken by governments with respect 
to child labor laws, the enforcement of child labor laws, new programs 
or approaches for curtailing child labor, oversight efforts, or other 
relevant initiatives.
    4. Non-Governmental efforts intended to reduce child labor. 
Private-sector programs or policies to reduce child labor, including 
codes of conduct, corporate efforts to develop guidelines for 
subcontractors, or the creation of schools, centers, organizations, 
studies, and other approaches to limit child labor.
    5. Updates and new developments. Significant actions taken by the 
19 countries reviewed in the first report, such as new laws, 
regulations, or enforcement efforts; educational, rehabilitational, or 
other programs initiated; and any significant public discussion or 
debate of the issue.

dates: The hearing is scheduled for Friday, May 5, 1995. The deadline 
for being placed on the roster for oral testimony is 5 p.m., April 21, 
1995. Presenters will be required to submit five (5) written copies of 
their oral testimony to the Child Labor Study office by 5 p.m., May 1. 
The record will be kept open for additional written testimony until 5 
p.m., May 5, 1995.

addresses: Written testimony should be addressed to the International 
Child Labor Study, Bureau of International Labor Affairs, Room S-1308, 
U.S. Department of Labor, Washington, DC 20210.

[[Page 17090]] for further information contact: Daniel Solomon, 
International Child Labor Study, Bureau of International Labor Affairs, 
Room S-1308, U.S. Department of Labor, Washington, DC 20210, telephone: 
(202) 501-6068; fax (202) 219-4923. Persons with disabilities who need 
special accommodations should contact Mr. Solomon by April 24, 1995.

Additional Information

    The Senate Appropriations Committee report states:
    Child labor is a silent and tragic emergency of our time. Few human 
rights abuses are so unanimously condemned, while being so universally 
practiced, as child labor. The number of children working, and the 
scale of their suffering, increases year by year. UNICEF and the 
International Labor Organization estimate that hundreds of millions of 
children are working today, many in servitude and under hazardous 
conditions.
    Therefore, the Committee [directs the Secretary] to continue and 
expand efforts by the Department to identify foreign industries and 
their host countries that utilize child labor in the production of 
goods from industry, plantations, and mining exported to the United 
States.
    The Secretary is directed to utilize all available information, 
including information made available by UNICEF, the International Labor 
Organization and human rights organizations and report his findings to 
the Committee no later than July 30, 1995.
    All written or oral comments submitted pursuant to the public 
hearing will be made part of the record of review referred to above and 
will be available for public inspection.

    Signed at Washington, DC, this 29th day of March 1995.
Joaquin F. Otero,
Deputy Under Secretary.
[FR Doc. 95-8225 Filed 4-3-95; 8:45 am]
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