105TH CONGRESS
2D SESSION
H. R. 4506
AN ACT
To provide for United States support for develop-
mental alternatives for underage child workers.
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘International Child
Labor Relief Act of 1998’’.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS.
The Congress finds the following:
(1) Article 32 of the United Nations Convention
on the Rights of the Child recognizes ‘‘the right of
the child to be protected from economic exploitation
and from performing any work that is likely to be
hazardous or to interfere with the child’s education
or to be harmful to the child’s health or physical,
mental, spiritual, moral or social development.’’.
(2) Article 2 of Convention 138 of the Inter-
national Labor Organization, the Minimum Age
Convention, states that the minimum age for admis-
sion to employment or work ‘‘shall not be less than
the age of completion of compulsory schooling and,
in any case, shall not be less than 15 years.’’.
(3) Convention 29 of International Labor Orga-
nization, the Forced Labor Convention, which has
been in effect since 1930, prohibits most forms of
‘‘forced or compulsory labor’’, including all forced
labor by people under the age of 18.
(4) Although it is among the most universally
condemned of all human rights abuses, child labor is
widely practiced. The International Labor Organiza-
tion and the United Nations Children’s Fund
(UNICEF) have estimated the total number of child
workers 
to 
be 
between 
200,000,000 
and
250,000,000. More than 95 percent of those child
workers live in developing countries.
(5) The International Labor Organization has
estimated that 13.2 percent of all children 10 to 14
years of age around the world were economically ac-
tive in 1995. According to UNICEF, 75 percent of
the child laborers in the 10 to 14 age group work
6 days a week or more, and 50 percent work 9 hours
a day or more. There are no reliable figures on
workers under 10 years of age, though their num-
bers are known to be significant. Reliable child labor
statistics are not readily available, in part because
many governments in the developing world are reluc-
tant to document those activities, which are often il-
legal under domestic laws, which violate inter-
national standards, and which may be perceived as
a failure of internal public policy.
(6) Notwithstanding international and domestic
prohibitions, many children in developing countries
are forced to work as debt-bonded and slave laborers
in hazardous and exploitative industries. According
to the United Nations Working Group on Contem-
porary Forms of Slavery and the International
Labor Organization, there are tens of millions of
child slaves in the world today. Large numbers of
those slaves are involved in agricultural and domes-
tic labor, the sex industry, the carpet and textile in-
dustries, and quarrying and brick making.
(7) In many countries, children lack either the
legal standing or the means to protect themselves
from cruelty and exploitation in the workplace.
(8) The employment of children often interferes
with the opportunities of such children for basic edu-
cation. Furthermore, where it coexists with high
rates of adult unemployment, the use of child labor
likely denies gainful employment to millions of
adults.
(9) While child labor is a complex and multi-
faceted phenomenon that is tied to issues of poverty,
educational opportunity, and culture, its most abu-
sive and hazardous forms are repugnant to basic
human rights and must be eliminated.
(10) Created in 1992, the International Labor
Organization’s International Program on the Elimi-
nation of Child Labor (IPEC) is the world’s largest
technical cooperation program on child labor, involv-
ing more than 50 countries and over 1,000 action
programs. Governments take the initiative in seeking
IPEC assistance, and demonstrate their commitment
to combating child labor by signing a memorandum
of understanding with IPEC, which serves as the
basis for a long term in-country program that is
overseen by a national steering committee comprised
of representatives of government, employers’ and
workers’ organizations, and relevant nongovern-
mental organizations. IPEC activities aim at pre-
venting child labor, withdrawing children from haz-
ardous work, and providing alternatives to child
labor as a transitional measure toward its elimi-
nation.
SEC. 3. UNITED STATES SUPPORT FOR DEVELOPMENTAL
ALTERNATIVES 
FOR 
UNDERAGE 
CHILD
WORKERS.
For each of the fiscal years 1999 through 2001 there
are authorized to be appropriated for the Department of
Labor under the heading ‘‘International Labor Affairs Bu-
reau’’ $30,000,000 for a United States contribution to the
International Labor Organization for the activities of the
International Program on the Elimination of Child Labor.
Passed the House of Representatives October 8,
1998.
Attest:
Clerk.