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<title>AXWORTHY ANNOUNCESCHILD LABOUR CHALLENGE FUND</title>
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<p><font face="Courier"></font><font face="Univers" size="+2"></font><font face="Univers" size="+2">April 23, 1997 No. 78</font></p>
<p align="CENTER"><font face="Univers" size="+2">AXWORTHY ANNOUNCES</font></p>
<p align="CENTER"><font face="Univers" size="+2">CHILD LABOUR CHALLENGE FUND</font></p>
<p><font face="Courier">Foreign Affairs Minister Lloyd Axworthy today announced the creation of the Child
Labour Challenge Fund to support Canadian private sector initiatives aimed at
addressing exploitive child labour internationally. The Minister was providing an
interim verbal response to the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and
International Trade, which tabled its report on child labour in February of this
year.</font></p>
<p><font face="Courier">"Canada has made children's rights, a priority at home and abroad, and has taken
concrete measures to address child labour in particular. But child labour is not
just an area for government action; there is a need for market-based solutions.
This fund will help build partnerships with the private sector and will support
their efforts in taking an active role to make creative and productive
contributions to solving the problems of exploitive child labour," said Mr.
Axworthy.</font></p>
<p><font face="Courier">The federal government will provide matching funds to establish partnerships with
the private sector in supporting projects such as the development of voluntary
guidelines, codes of conduct and consumer labelling practices. Project proposals
will be considered by an advisory committee chaired by Senator Landon Pearson,
Minister Axworthy's special advisor on children's issues. The committee will also
include two business representatives, as well as one from labour and one from the
NGO community.</font></p>
<p><font face="Courier">"It is encouraging to see that many larger Canadian corporations are developing
their own voluntary codes of conduct. However, there are many small and medium-sized companies that are unable to afford such an undertaking on their own," added
Mr. Axworthy. "This fund will help alleviate that problem and enable those
businesses to participate actively in the fight against exploitive child labour."</font></p>
<p><font face="Courier">Canada considers exploitive child labour to be that which contravenes the United
Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, which ensures the right "to be
protected from economic exploitation and from performing 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."</font></p>
<p><font face="Courier">Minister Axworthy has also asked Heads of Canadian Missions abroad to provide him
with input and ideas on how to more effectively tackle the socio-economic and
cultural challenges of exploitive child labour.</font></p>
<p><font face="Courier">Up to $200 000 annually will be made available over the next two years to support
projects under this program as part of Canada's overall approach to combatting
exploitive child labour. The Canadian International Development Agency plays an
important role in this effort through its programs aimed at reducing poverty and
meeting basic human needs. Funding for this initiative was provided for in the
February 1997 federal budget and is therefore built into the existing fiscal
framework.</font></p>
<p><font face="Courier">-30-</font></p>
<p><font face="Courier">For further information, media representatives may contact:</font></p>
<p><font face="Courier">Catherine Lappe</font></p>
<p><font face="Courier">Director of Communications</font></p>
<p><font face="Courier">Office of the Minister of Foreign Affairs</font></p>
<p><font face="Courier">(613) 995-1851</font></p>
<p><font face="Courier">Media Relations Office</font></p>
<p><font face="Courier">Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade</font></p>
<p><font face="Courier">(613) 995-1874</font></p>
<p><font face="Courier">This document is also available on the Department's Internet site:
http://www.dfait-maeci.gc.ca</font></p>
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