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Too young to work 
 
Child Labor is a hot topic, because approximately one in six children in the 
world, is engaged in child labor, which means 158 million children between 5 to 14 
years old. 
 This is a huge number, considering that they are forced to work in hard, and 
often dangerous jobs, such as: labor on plantations, mine precious metals, pick up 
trash in municipal dumps or even work in factories. The worst part is that they don’t go 
to school, because some of them are enslaved, trafficked, abused and exposed to 
danger. 
 Thus, in 1959, the United Nations (UN), created the Declaration of the Rights of 
the Child, and later in 1973, the UN established that children aged 12 and above, could 
work, provided that the work does not adversely affect children`s health, development 
and specially in their school education. 
 The largest number of child workers in the 5 to 14 group is sadly hided in The 
Asian and Pacific regions, sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, 
because they still don’t have laws to protect the child labors. 
 Because of this intolerable situation, some important world leaders, gathered at 
the UN, and are creating a worldwide movement called The Millennium Development 
Goals for 2015, to end the extreme poverty and ensuring education for all children. 
 We know that governments around the world need to take strongmeasures to 
end slave labor of children, but what about us? As human beings … what we can do? 
On an individual level, we canstop buying products produced by child labor. 
 As for thepolice,it isappropriate toconfrontthe problemwithcrackdown 
onoffendersandvictim assistance. 
Stay informed and very alert, read the newspaper, ask, discuss, think and check 
the websites. 
Remember that this is also our problem, because by using products made by children 
we are unwitting beneficiaries of child labor. (Adaptedfrom World Issues Magazine – 
Richmond)