Washington -- U.S. Secretary of Labor Robert Reich says governments and international organizations must wage a coordinated campaign to end child labor around the world.

Speaking June 12 to an International Labour Organization (ILO) ministerial-level meeting in Geneva, Reich voiced strong support for the ILO's International Program for the Elimination of Child Labor (IPEC) for helping to raise public awareness about the problem.

He also praised a pilot program, recently launched with U.S. government assistance, that will enable the ILO to work with the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association to remove children from garment factories there and place them in school programs.

"If we can succeed in stopping child exploitation in the garment sector in Bangladesh, why can't we do it elsewhere?" Reich commented.

Reich said the ministers should consider what additional international law would be useful in combating child labor and what role the World Trade Organization might play in the effort.

Following is the transcript of Reich's remarks, which were made available in Washington:

(begin text)

Mr. Chairman,

I want to thank the director general and the staff of the secretariat for organizing today's discussion.

It seems sadly ironic, perhaps, that the exploitation of children is at the top of the ILO's agenda even in the late 20th century. However, it is entirely appropriate that the ILO be the institution to keep this issue before the world, and to lead the way to practical solutions.

If nations are to be measured by how we treat our children, we still have much to answer for. Child poverty, child slavery, the commercial sexual exploitation of children, and the abuse of children in work are all problems to be solved -- in some instances growing problems.

By the ILO's own estimate, there are at least 73 million children ages 10 to 14 who are employed full-time or nearly full-time worldwide. The total number of working children is probably in the hundreds of millions.

In two studies undertaken by the U.S. Department of Labor in the last two years, we have documented the widespread exploitation of children throughout the world. Among the conditions we found were:

-- children in glass factories exposed to broken glass and intense furnace heat without protective clothing, and sometimes without even a pair of shoes on their feet.

-- young girls trafficked over long distances and forced into prostitution.

-- children on sugar cane plantations wielding machetes and suffering self-inflicted, frequently incapacitating wounds.

The non-aligned labor ministers met in Delhi in January 1995 and declared:

"We are aware and hold that the practice of exploitative child labour wherever it is practised is a moral outrage and an affront to human dignity."

The question is how to move forward. What we must pursue here are practical means to achieve the ends we all desire. I think the answer lies in at least four areas.

First, we must increase global public awareness of the problem -- including the awareness of governments. The meeting today is an important element of that campaign. If we look back only three years, child labor exploitation wasn't even on the global political agenda.

Today, the ILO is playing a leading role in this new awareness effort. The International Program for the Elimination of Child Labor, IPEC, is leveraging the resources provided by the German government, my government, and others, and bringing a coordinated child labor strategy to two dozen nations now.

One important IPEC project recently launched with U.S. government assistance will enable the ILO to work with the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association to remove children from garment factories there and place them in school programs. If we can succeed in stopping child exploitation in the garment sector in Bangladesh, why can't we do it elsewhere?

My department is currently preparing a report -- for release this fall -- that will provide specific information on our country's top 20 garment importers, their subsidiaries, contractors and subcontractors, and their codes of conduct regarding the use of child labor. We are also planning to formally recognize outstanding efforts of those companies that do ensure their products are not made by exploited children.

Of course, awareness alone, in the absence of changed behavior, won't bring results. A second area where we need greater action is in spurring other national and international institutions to participate in the solution.

As labor ministers, we know that we have to fight our own internal battles for resources to protect workers -- including child workers. We can't enforce our laws against child labor, and against the sweatshops that foster child labor, without the resources to do it.

We also know that educating children is the surest way to reduce child exploitation. We should leave here energized to continue the battle on how resources are allocated. This is just too important to leave to finance or budget ministers.

Additionally, we should insist that international financial institutions fully integrate the child labor issue into their decisions. The World Bank and other development banks must do all they can to foster the education of children, and not their exploitation.

Third, we can and should look to adopt additional international law that may be useful to eliminate exploitative child labor. We very much welcome the work towards a new ILO convention in 1998 -- and we will be active participants in this effort.

We should examine what role the World Trade Organization could play. As I stated in the plenary session yesterday, trade liberalization and the implementation of core labor standards must go hand-in-hand -- first, because it is right, and second, because separating the two risks stalling global economic progress. With this in mind, can we really have a sensible set of trade rules if they are indifferent to the trade in items produced by exploited children?

Fourth, beyond building awareness, providing resources for education and law enforcement, and writing new international law, we can and must do more to find incentives to eliminate child labor.

Let me turn, for a moment, to the issue of abusive labor conditions in the garment industry in the United States, and particularly what we are doing to combat it. We know that American companies want to protect their good names, and consumers, by and large, would rather not purchase goods made by exploited workers. Our current efforts, therefore, have sought to enlist the help of our businesses and our consumers in ensuring that minimum standards are observed in the production of garments made in our country.

Companies agree to participate in a compliance program to assure that their garments are not produced in the United States under illegal conditions. We then provide this information to the public.

We are now exploring other initiatives to enlist consumer support. For example, a voluntary labelling program has now emerged for hand-knotted carpets, called "Rugmark." This system has gained wide attention in the United States, and I am exploring this further with regard to other products.

I would like to propose that we ask the secretariat of the ILO to produce a study on extending such voluntary labelling programs to other sectors where child labor is a problem. We should ask that this study be ready for our consideration within one year.

Labelling programs are likely to go forward with or without the ILO. But I believe tripartite involvement and cooperation is the best approach. The United States is prepared to fully participate in such an effort.

Consumers will respond to such a campaign -- and if they do, manufacturers will. Child labor will no longer be profitable if the exploiters have a hard time selling their products.

Let me once again, thank the director general and the staff who have prepared this meeting. We must and can succeed in the high moral calling to spare our children from the worst forms of abuse and exploitation. We will do our part to help the effort.

Thank you.

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