CHILD LABOR - PRESENTATION ET COMMENTAIRE

THE TEN WORST COUNTRIES FOR CHILD LABOR

The document  is composed of 2 parts :

First there is an article taken from.. it was published on October 15^th 2013 – it was written by …

It is called: the 10 worst countries ….

At the bottom there is a cartoon by Michelle Henry

The doc deals with child labor

I’ll start by talking about the cartoon:

It is divided into 2 parts: on the left there is an American teenager wearing very expensive shoes. He is not doing anything, he is not working and yet he has bought $150 shoes. On the left, there is a young girl working in a factory in Indonesia. She is barefoot – she has no shoes but she is working hard. The cartoonist shows the contrast / the gap between rich and poor countries. She denounces the exploitation of children by brands like Nike.

The document deals with the same issue. First there is a list of developing countries that use child labor. But emerging countries with a booming economy also use child labor, for ex. China or Russia.

There are several reasons: first the children come from poor families – they need to work to bring in extra money, to help their families financially – in emerging countries there are laws that protect children but they are not really enforced, that’s why child labor can exist.

This situation has a negative impact on the children: they don’t go to school, they have no access to education , they are exploited, their salaries are very low. To sum up their basic human rights are not respected. 

The article points out that the situation is improving in some parts  of the world. Child labor is decreasing a little  - I quote: line 19 to 20 ‘in September …. In 2008”) but it is still an alarming issue.

 

In my opinion, this situation is unacceptable

There are several solutions – actions

-          Boycott brands that use child labor like Nike – it is the consumer’s responsibility

-          Protect children – create awareness campaigns

-          Denounce the situation on social media – create an hashtag ‘stop child labor’

-          It is important to give them access to education. Otherwise, they will be poor and exploited all their lives

-          This is really unfair: there is a huge gap between the rich and the poor and the gap is growing

-          In the 21^st century child labor must be abolished

-          Optimistic or pessimistic?