Labor_Organizations

In the world today, there are many laws, regulations and even organizations that help to control and provide protection or prevent harm to humans in just about all aspects of life. They range from ensuring that people have safe working conditions to making sure the food we eat is safe. Thanks to these luxuries, life is much better than it had been in the past. However, there is still much to be done for one aspect in particular. Child labor has become one of the biggest global concerns for many human rights activists. Approximately 218 million children world- wide are forced into labor. Unfortunately, 126 million of them work in hazardous conditions. Roughly 73 million of child labor populations are less than 10 years old. Most important, one of the most astonishing facts about child labor is that every year 22,000 children die in accidents that are work- related (FreetheChildren.com). The majority of the children subjected to child labor come from poorer countries of the world. As a result of increased poverty in these parts of the world, children are kept out of school and forced to work. Organizations that have been developed to fight child labor believe that by increasing education access and helping to end poverty are crucial in the fight to end senseless child labor. So far, these child labor organizations have been successful in reducing child labor but not all child labor has been eliminated. According to the Human Rights Watch, there are still issues with children working in agriculture. Some of the concerns here are the long hours children are forced to work. These long hours have detrimental consequences on the education of the children. In the United States, only 55% of the children who work the farming fields manage to finish high school. Another of many concerns is the exposure to pesticides in the work place. Many pesticides have long- term effects. Some of the effects include birth defects, brain damage and cancer. The Human Rights Watch has pushed for the governments and employers to work on developing strategies that may eliminate the many harmful aspects of child labor in agriculture (HumanRightsWatch.org) The good news about child labor organizational efforts is that many countries have established laws that protect their children and limit the hours they can work as well as the conditions they work in. In 2006, a report was published by the International Labor Organization. In this report, it was noted that there were 28 million less children forced to work than in the previous four years. Much is still to be done to combat child labor, but these organizations are definitely making an impact on making the lives of our worlds children much better. References: Free the Children. (2005). Children helping children through education. Retrieved December 18th, 2010 from http://www.freethechildren.com/getinvolved/geteducated/childlabour.htm  Human Rights Watch. (2010). ILO Members Urged to Take Action on Child Labor in Agriculture. Retrieved December 18th, 2010 from http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2002/06/10/ilo-members-urged-take-action-child-labor-agriculture