I
104TH CONGRESS
2D SESSION
H. R. 3812
To impose certain sanctions on countries that do not prohibit child labor.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
JULY 12, 1996
Mr. SMITH of New Jersey (for himself, Mr. HYDE, Mr. LANTOS, Mr. MORAN,
Mr. KENNEDY of Massachusetts, and Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN) introduced the
following bill; which was referred to the Committee on International Rela-
tions, and in addition to the Committees on Ways and Means, and Bank-
ing and Financial Services, for a period to be subsequently determined
by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall
within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned
A BILL
To impose certain sanctions on countries that do not prohibit
child labor.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘International Child
Labor Elimination Act of 1996’’.
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 the International Labor Organi-
zation Convention 138, the Minimum Age Conven-
tion, states that the minimum age for admission 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) International Labor Organization Conven-
tion 29, 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 has estimated the total number of child workers
to be between 100,000,000 and 200,000,000. More
than 95 percent of those child workers live in devel-
oping countries.
(5) The International Labor Organization has
estimated that 13.2 percent of all 10-to-14 year olds
around the world were economically active in 1995.
There are no reliable figures on workers under 10
years of age, though their numbers are known to be
significant. Reliable child labor statistics are not
readily available, in part because many governments
in the developing world are reluctant to document
those activities, which are often illegal under domes-
tic laws, which violate international standards, and
which may be perceived as a failure of internal pub-
lic 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 vast, complex, and
multifaceted phenomenon that is tied to issues of
poverty, educational opportunity, and culture, its
most abusive and hazardous forms are repugnant to
basic human rights and must be eliminated.
SEC. 3. IDENTIFICATION OF FOREIGN COUNTRIES AND IN-
DUSTRIES THAT USE CHILD LABOR IN PRO-
DUCING GOODS.
(a) IDENTIFICATION
OF COUNTRIES
AND INDUS-
TRIES.—The Secretary of Labor shall, not later than 6
months after the date of the enactment of this Act, and
not later than the end of each 1-year period thereafter,
identify those foreign countries that do not prohibit child
labor, or that have laws prohibiting child labor but do not
effectively enforce them, and those industries in such
countries in which child labor is used. The Secretary may
revoke the identification of a country or an industry before
the end of the 1-year period during which the identifica-
tion would otherwise be effective, if revocation is war-
ranted by new information or a change in the laws or prac-
tices of a country.
(b) SANCTIONS.—The sanctions set forth in sections
4 and 5 shall apply with respect to those countries and
industries identified under subsection (a) for so long as
the identification is effective under such subsection.
(c) EXEMPTION.—The prohibition on imports under
section 4(a), the prohibition under section 5(a)(1) on fi-
nancing under the Export-Import Bank Act of 1945, and
the prohibition on multilateral assistance under section
5(a)(2) shall not apply to a business entity if it is estab-
lished to the satisfaction of the Secretary of Labor that
no goods produced by that entity are products of child
labor.
SEC. 4. PROHIBITION ON IMPORTS.
(a) PROHIBITION.—The Secretary of the Treasury
shall prohibit the entry of any manufactured article that
is a product of an industry identified under section 3(a).
(b) EXCEPTION.—Subsection (a) shall not apply to
the entry of a manufactured article—
(1) that is entered under any subheading in
subchapter IV or VI of chapter 98 (relating to per-
sonal exemptions) of the Harmonized Tariff Sched-
ule of the United States; or
(2) that was exported from the foreign country
in which the industry concerned is located and was
en route to the United States before the first day on
which the identification of the country and industry
was effective.
SEC. 5. PROHIBITION ON ASSISTANCE FOR FOREIGN COUN-
TRIES THAT USE CHILD LABOR IN PRODUC-
ING GOODS.
(a) PROHIBITION ON ASSISTANCE.—
(1) BILATERAL
ASSISTANCE.—The President
may not provide United States assistance to a for-
eign country identified by the Secretary of Labor
under section 3(a).
(2) MULTILATERAL
ASSISTANCE.—The Sec-
retary of the Treasury shall instruct the United
States Executive Director of each international fi-
nancial institution to use the voice and vote of the
United States to oppose any loan or other utilization
of the funds of their respective institution to or for
any industry identified by the Secretary of Labor
under section 3(a).
(b) EXCEPTION.—A foreign country or an industry
identified by the Secretary of Labor under section 3(a)