Around the globe, an estimated 215 million children are working, with 115 million children toiling in the worst forms of child labor. A new report from the International Labor Organization finds that while the numbers of children engaged in child labor are dropping, progress is slowing. One of the most persistent sectors of child labor is agriculture, which accounts for 60 percent of all child laborers worldwide.
In the United States, hundreds of thousands of child farmworkers work at far younger ages, for far longer hours, and under more hazardous conditions than all other working youths in the US. A new study from Human Rights Watch has documented how gaps in US child labor laws put child farmworkers’ health, their education, and sometimes their lives at risk.
Video Screening: Fingers to the Bone (5 minutes)
Speakers: • Nancy Donaldson, International Labor Organization, Washington Office • Zama Coursen-Neff, Human Rights Watch, author, ‘Fields of Peril: Child Labor in US Agriculture’ • Samantha Guillen, 18-year-old farmworker from Texas • Bama Athreya, International Labor Rights Forum
For more information: Contact Kyle Knight, kyle.knight@hrw.org.