
Français		Home		Contact Us		Help		Search		canada.gc.ca		Canada International

Home > Media Room

Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada

Canadian Offices Abroad

Services for Canadian Travellers

Services for Business

Canada in the World

About the Department

SPEECHES

2007 - 2006 - 2005 - 2004 - 2003 - 2002 - 2001 - 2000 - 1999 - 1998 - 1997 - 1996

Print friendly version - Printing Tips

<html> <head> <meta name="Generator" content="Corel WordPerfect 8"> <title>MR. AXWORTHY - ADDRESS BEFORE THE STANDING COMMITTEE ONFOREIGN AFFAIRS AND INTERNATIONAL TRADEON CHILD LABOUR - OTTAWA, ONTARIO</title> </head> <body text="#000000" link="#0000ff" vlink="#551a8b" alink="#ff0000" bgcolor="#c0c0c0"> 97/22 CHECK AGAINST DELIVERY NOTES FOR AN ADDRESS BY THE HONOURABLE LLOYD AXWORTHY MINISTER OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS BEFORE THE STANDING COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS AND INTERNATIONAL TRADE ON CHILD LABOUR OTTAWA, Ontario April 23, 1997 This document is also available on the Department's Internet site: http://www.dfait-maeci.gc.ca Introduction Let me begin by congratulating the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Trade (SCFAIT) Sub-Committee on Sustainable Human Development and its Chair, John English, for their work in producing a ground-breaking report on the issue of child labour. We all agree that child labour is a complex issue, both to define and to address effectively. That is why bringing together as wide as possible a range of views and experience through the Sub-Committee's hearings last fall was so important. And why the report that emerged from those hearings is so important, as we work to develop a Canadian response to this complex issue. I wanted to take this opportunity to share with you my own initial views on the Sub-Committee's report, as this issue has been an important concern not only of the Government as a whole, but also of my own. My comments today do not, however, form the Government's official response to the report, which is in preparation. The Sub-Committee in its report shares the widely accepted belief that not all forms of child labour are exploitative and abusive. However, those forms that deprive children of their right to fully realize their mental and physical potential, and expose them to hazardous and dangerous work, contravene a basic human right. Moreover, they rob countries of their most valuable resource for future economic development -- a healthy, educated adult workforce. For that reason, Canada supports an approach that recognizes child labour as a human rights issue as well as a development issue. An issue, in other words, that requires a multi-disciplinary response from a broad alliance of national and international authorities, civil society, and non-governmental organizations [NGOs]. Taking Action at Home and Abroad The Government has made the rights of children a priority in both its domestic and its foreign policy agenda, as stated in the Throne Speech that opened the last session of Parliament. Since then, and since I last appeared before this Committee to discuss child labour, we have taken a number of measures, both domestic and international, to fulfil this commitment. I will focus in my remarks today on my own primary area of responsibility, the international measures. But I would stress my belief that action on both fronts -- within Canada and outside it -- must go hand in hand. We must be sure that we are not neglecting our own children as we aid those of others. In fact, sometimes domestic measures can help to protect the children of other nations, as for example in the case of Bill C-27. This legislation, introduced by the Government last year, allows for the prosecution of Canadian citizens and permanent residents who engage in commercial sexual activities with children while abroad. Further improvements were made to the Bill in committee, to broaden it to cover non-commercial sexual exploitation of children. As members of this committee are no doubt aware, Bill C-27 was passed by the Senate this week with wide support and is now set to enter into law. In parallel with this effort, Senator Landon Pearson has been chairing an interdepartmental committee to follow up on the Agenda for Action that was developed at the Stockholm World Congress Against the Sexual Exploitation of Children, held last August. Children's Rights as a Foreign Policy Priority Ethan Kapstein of the Council on Foreign Relations noted in a recent article that the failure of "advanced global capitalism to keep spreading the wealth" presents policy makers with a challenge that we could not have anticipated 30 years ago. Kapstein goes on to argue that the global economy has failed workers throughout the world. It is in this context that we continue to see children involved in abusive and exploitative work situations. It is to address this challenge that I have made child labour, and more broadly children's rights, a priority in Canada's foreign policy. I would like to outline for you today some of the actions my department has taken and will be taking, in concert with other departments, to deal with this complex problem, bilaterally, regionally and multilaterally. Bilaterally My colleague Don Boudria, the Minister for International Co-operation and Minister Responsible for la Francophonie, outlined in a speech last month the Canadian International Development Agency's [CIDA] commitment to promoting and protecting the fundamental rights of children. For example, through CIDA, Canada funds a range of exemplary preventive projects: education of girl children in Africa; production of educational material for the prevention of sexual violence in Peru; a video on the trafficking of women and girls from India and Nepal; and the promotion of the rights of women and children in the Mekong River region. I myself have raised the issue of children's rights and programs to protect them in a number of recent bilateral visits. For example: During my visit to Cuba, it was agreed that Canada and Cuba would participate in a joint workshop on children's rights, to be held in Havana in May. Senator Pearson will lead the Canadian delegation. During my visit to India, I held discussions on ways Canada could work with India to tackle child labour in that country, including through the $500 000 Child Development Fund that we established for bilateral co-operation. Regionally We held a tripartite conference with our NAFTA [North American Free Trade Agreement] partners on child and youth labour in North America in San Diego last February. This conference explored innovative ways to end inappropriate participation of children in the workforce. It also discussed how NAFTA countries can reduce risks to the health, safety and educational opportunities of children and youths who are legally in the workforce. Multilaterally In the multilateral arena, there has been a welcome new focus on and impetus given to efforts to tackle child labour, including its most exploitative forms, such as child prostitution. Canada has actively supported working groups established by the UN Commission on Human Rights to elaborate two optional protocols to the Convention on the Rights of the Child: one on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography; and the other on children in situations of armed conflict. In February, representatives from Justice Canada and DFAIT [the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade] were active in negotiations on the draft text of the former of these. Canada was instrumental in the drafting of the definition of child pornography and of measures to protect child victims, which will, we hope, be adopted in the final text of the optional protocol. The World Customs Organization met in February 1997 and accepted a Canadian recommendation to recognize child pornography as contraband and to develop policies and strategies to deal with such materials, with particular emphasis on the problems posed by electronic transmission. Revenue Canada is working on the international tracking of child pornography and pedophiles, and on training Interpol officers and law and customs officials in Central and South America. In February, Canada ratified the Convention on Protection of Children and Co-operation in Respect of Intercountry Adoption. By establishing guarantees that international adoptions are carried out in the children's best interests, the Convention, and the system of co-operation between member states that it sets up, will help prevent the abduction, sale or trafficking of children. More than any other multilateral body, the ILO [International Labour Organization] has been the focal point of international efforts to combat child labour. Canada contributed $700 000 last year to the ILO's International Program for the Elimination of Child Labour [IPEC] for sorely needed basic research and analysis. In February, Secretary of State (Latin America and Africa) Christine Stewart attended the Amsterdam Child Labour Conference. This meeting was another important step in developing a better international understanding of the complex problem of child labour. Canada will also participate in the conference scheduled to be held in Oslo in October, which will build on the work of the Amsterdam conference. A Canadian Child Labour Strategy As you can see, we have been busy. But much remains to be done. And the Sub-Committee's report provides, in my view, an excellent starting point from which to develop a Canadian strategy on the specific issue of child labour. Some of the key considerations in such a strategy would be: that child labour is a worldwide problem, and that while the focus of Canadian attention is in developing countries where the problem is most acute, Canadians have a domestic responsibility as well; that in developing countries the problem is rooted in poverty and is not amenable to quick-fix solutions; that the core of the problem is exploitative child labour, not child labour in general; that the most effective actors in addressing this issue are governments, NGOs and businesses in the countries where the problem is most acute; and that the role of Canadians is to support the work of these local actors, not to substitute for them; that the function of international agreements and conventions is to establish agreed international norms that will help frame national legal standards; Canada's role is to help to promote the negotiation of such international agreements. We will make negotiation of an ILO convention on exploitative child labour the focus of our multilateral efforts on this issue. We will use other multilateral forums to build support for this convention and engage Canadian business and labour to do the same with their counterpart organizations in the ILO; and that a specific Canadian strategy to address child labour must be consistent with Canada's approach to other international children's issues and be consistent, more generally, with overall Canadian foreign policy, trade policy and development assistance policy. Looking Ahead: Action on Many Fronts At this point, we are only in the early stages of developing our strategy and responding to all the complex issues raised by the Sub-Committee report. But we are already planning to act on a number of fronts in ways that will, I believe, address some of the issues raised in the report. Canada will participate actively in developing the new convention on child labour and the ILO conferences planned for 1998 and 1999. We will be preparing positions for these events in close co-operation with our provincial colleagues, employers' associations and labour organizations. Our aim is to make the employment of children in hazardous industries, bonded labour and child prostitution utterly unacceptable and a thing of the past. In addition, an International Conference on Sexually Exploited Youth is planned for Spring of 1998 at the University of Victoria. Some 40 to 50 young people who formerly worked in the sex trade will be invited to prepare their own Declaration and Agenda for Action to complement the documents that came out of the Amsterdam conference. Status of Women Canada and DFAIT have already agreed to provide funding, and it is likely that several other government departments will also contribute. The Child Labour Challenge Fund I am pleased to announce today the creation of the Child Labour Challenge Fund, a special responsive fund to provide matching funds to companies and business associations to develop and promote their own voluntary guidelines, codes of conduct and/or labelling schemes to address the issue of child labour. Up to $200 000 a year for the next two fiscal years will be allocated for this purpose. Allocations from this fund will be made on the recommendation of a small steering committee, to be chaired by Senator Landon Pearson. This committee will also include two business representatives, as well as one from labour and one from the NGO community. This initiative responds to the recommendations made in the Sub-Committee report to the effect that "the Government develop and publish a set of policy guidelines for Canadian business practices addressing the issues of child labour exploitation... with supportive involvement from the private sector, labour and non-governmental groups and concerned citizens of all ages" (Recommendation 13). In the spirit of this recommendation, the Canadian government would like to demonstrate its willingness to assist the private sector to develop and promote such schemes. And at the same time, it would like to challenge the private sector to develop its own guidelines, rather than have the Canadian government do this task for them. Corporate giants like Nike and Levi-Strauss can afford to develop their own codes of conduct without assistance. Our aim in establishing this fund is to provide a short-term incentive to smaller Canadian businesses and business sector associations to undertake the up-front costs of researching, developing and promoting their own guidelines or codes of conduct. We would particularly encourage private sector associations to work in partnership with labour, academic and non-governmental organizations in developing such guidelines. Working with Canadian Missions and with Other Countries Following on my experiences during my week-long visit to India in January, I am asking selected heads of Canadian missions abroad to provide input on how they deal with the issue of child labour, and what more might be done. I was impressed by the exchange of ideas I had with the Canadian High Commissioner to India and his staff, and I would like to open up a similar dialogue with our missions in other developing countries. I will ask my special advisor on children's issues, Senator Pearson, to assist in this process. I plan to include this feedback in the Government's official response to the Sub-Committee report. I would also like to explore an approach suggested by the Sub-Committee, that we develop specific bilateral partnerships with a limited number of countries in different regions to work to eliminate exploitative child labour. As I see it, such partnerships could entail: a positive political dialogue with host governments on this issue, as a standing agenda item on existing ministerial or senior official consultations; partnership with relevant business organizations to promote the use of voluntary codes of conduct developed by Canadian businesses working in those countries; and where possible, collaboration between our relevant national human rights institutions to help strengthen the protection of children's rights. Conclusion As you can see, there are many different avenues to pursue on child labour. Tackling this problem in an effective way remains a massive task. But I believe that the work of the Sub-Committee has provided much food for thought and an excellent starting point for future action as we develop an integrated Canadian approach. I thank the members of the Sub-Committee and its Chair, John English, for their contribution, and reiterate to them my own personal commitment to keeping Canada at the forefront of the battle against exploitative child labour. Thank you. </body> </html>

2007 - 2006 - 2005 - 2004 - 2003 - 2002 - 2001 - 2000 - 1999 - 1998 - 1997 - 1996

Print friendly version - Printing Tips



Last Updated: 2006-10-30	Top of Page	Important Notices