1998 Child Welfare press release: Queen Noor and child labor in Jordan

"CHILD WELFARE" PRESS RELEASES

Queen Noor chairs roundtable discussion on child labor in Jordan.

Thursday 12 February 1998

Her Majesty Queen Noor Thursday chaired a round table session on child labor at the headquarters of the National Task Force for Children (NTFC) in Amman. The NTFC’s Research and Database Center presented the major findings of its pilot study on child labor in Jordan, which was done in cooperation with the Ministry of Labor and the International Labor Organization (ILO). The round table that was held with the concerned ministers of labor, education and social development will lead to a national workshop to present and discuss the study and recommendations for a plan of action. According to the Regional Director of ILO for Arab States Dr. Taleb Rifai, child labor is defined as work undergone by children "which is detrimental to their physical, psychological, intellectual or developmental wellbeing."

Queen Noor, who is the NTFC Chair, said that although child labor in Jordan is not a problem of great scale, indicators have shown that it is on the rise thereby necessitating preventative action. She added that the ILO has supported studies on child labor in Jordan, Palestine, Lebanon, Syria and Yemen since 1997 and that the NTFC’s pilot study will be a component of ILO’s report on the status of child labor in the world. The study focuses on "the causes, conditions and consequences of child labor", rather than the magnitude of the problem, which will be covered in a later national survey.

The Queen noted that the NTFC study placed an important emphasis on working children’s responses and opinions. This approach reflects the basic precept of the NTFC, which considers children as major players in identifying solutions to their problems. Dr. Taleb Rifai highlighted the importance of providing special protection for girls, who are "particularly vulnerable to various forms of exploitation and abuse."

The ILO estimates that of the 25 million working children between the ages of 5 and 14, nearly 120 million work full time and at least one-third work in hazardous occupations. According to the NTFC study, the only available statistics on child labor in Jordan are from employment surveys conducted periodically since 1961. The surveys indicated that the majority working children were engaged in agricultural, craft, trade and elementary occupations. 42% of the children worked long hours exceeding 49 hours per week. The NTFC field survey showed that "over 50% of the employed children earned less than JD 30 a month" and were exposed to a variety of occupational hazards as well as physical abuse and in some cases sexual harassment. The survey cited the children’s main causes for child labor were "helping the family financially, gaining work experience, avoiding school and lack of recreational activities."

The combat against child labor has been a priority for the ILO since its inception in 1919 and paved the way for the adoption of the ILO Minimum Age Convention (No. 138) in 1973. The Convention, which was ratified by Jordan in 1997, stipulates that the minimum employment age should not be less than the age at which compulsory education is completed and under no circumstances should be less than 15 years of age. Jordan’s Labor Law No. 8 of 1996 raised the minimum age from 13 to 16 years, thus closing the gap between the ages of employment and compulsory education (the first ten years of school).

Children’s rights have assumed enormous importance in both national and international law. The UN General Assembly adopted in 1989 the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), which confers upon children a full spectrum of civil, social, cultural and economic rights. Article 32 of the CRC provides children with the right to be protected from economic exploitation. Jordan ratified the Arab and International Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1984 and 1991 respectively and launched the National Plan of Action for Children 1993 -2000, which encompassed the fields of health, education, environment and development. The National Task Force for Children (NTFC) was established in 1995 as a coordinating agency to monitor the condition and status of children in accordance with the Arab and International Conventions on the Rights of the Child and the National Plan of Action for Children. The NTFC is compiling comprehensive data to highlight children’s unmet needs and rights through its Research and Database Center and will disseminate information to all concerned institutions. It will develop, in cooperation with the coalition members, model action programs and launch public awareness campaigns to advocate their implementation.

Attending the meeting with the Queen were Minister of Labor Dr. Saleh Khasawneh, Minister of Social Development Dr. Mohammed Khair Mamser, Minister of Higher Education Dr. Munther Masri, Queen Noor’s social policy advisor Mrs. In’am Mufti, the Regional Director of ILO for Arab States Dr. Taleb Rifai, UNICEF representative Dr. Ayman Abu Laban, and members of the NTFC Research Committee and staff.