(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.
SEC. 3. UNITED STATES SUPPORT FOR DEVELOPMENTAL
ALTERNATIVES 
FOR 
UNDERAGE 
CHILD
WORKERS.
Of the funds authorized to be appropriated for each
of the fiscal years 1999 through 2003 for the Department
of State under the heading ‘‘Voluntary Contributions to
International Organizations’’, there are authorized to be
appropriated $30,000,000 for a United States contribu-
tion to the International Labor Organization for the ac-
tivities of the International Program on the Elimination
of Child Labor.
Æ