RIGHTS: Global March Against Child Labor Reaches Honduras

By Thelma Mejía Reprint | | Print |

Thelma Mejia

TEGUCIGALPA, Apr 28 1998 (IPS) - Marlen Perez, 7, yawned as she watched demonstrators in the central plaza of the city protesting against the exploitation of child labor. Then she went back to helping her mother sell toys to passers by.

The little girl appeared unaware that the protestors, part of a global “march” against the exploitation of children, were intent on stamping out the very practise in which she was engaged. Marlen is one of an estimated 300,000 children aged between 7 and 14 who are doing some kind of work in Honduras.

“I help my mother sell toys so that we – and my brother and sister – can eat,” she said. “I like school, but this year my mother told me that I couldn’t go because it was too expensive.”

According to non-governmental organizations (NGOs) who defend childrens rights, child labor in Honduras involves 25 percent of the estimated 2.5 million youth here under the age of 18.

The Global March against Child Labor, which began in the Philippines and will conclude in Geneva next month, seeks to raise awareness about the situation of children who are forced to work due to poverty, ignorance and governmental indifference.

In Latin America, the march began in February in Brazil, traveled through Uruguay, Argentina, Chile, Bolivia, Ecuador, Peru and Colombia. Its second phase began this month in Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua and Honduras – and marchers presently are travelling by bus through Honduras to El Salvador and Guatemala and are due in Mexico May 1.

In its travels through Central America, demonstrators and NGOs involved in humanitarian work have prepared cultural events, visits to centers for the rehabilitation of children, and proposals to governments to improve the situation of the isthmus.

Ramon Custodio, president of the Committee for the Defense of Human Rights in Honduras (CODEH), and national coordinator of the global march, told IPS that the group will present a plan to eradicate child labor and to respect the recently approved Code of Minors and Adolescents to the authorities.

The march aimed to raise awareness among civil society and the government, which through the ministries of Labour and of the Family and Youth promised to redouble efforts to end the illegal employment and exploitation of children.

The presence of the global march in Honduras coincided with the denunciations formulated by former deputy Rosario Godoy, member of a childrens rights group that documented the disappearance of more than 30 adolescents.

“We believe that they are kidnapped to be taken to Guatemala, where they are sent to other countries and sold – virtually as slaves,” said Godoy.

Indrail Chakrabarti, secretary of the global march, said that problems like prostitution, poverty and the disintegration of the family were all factors involved in the exploitation of children. She estimated that there were some 250 million working children worldwide.

In Latin America, some 12 million children must survive by working, which prevents them from attending school and finishing their studies, she said.