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NEWS - Clinton Remarks to Internati



Subject: NEWS - Clinton Remarks to International Labor Organization Conference

Clinton Remarks to International Labor Organization Conference (2/2)

               U.S. Newswire
               16-JUN-99

               WASHINGTON, June 16 /U.S. Newswire/ --
               Following is a transcript of President Clinton's
               remarks today to the International Labor
               Organization conference (2 of 2): 

               Yet, as important as our efforts to strengthen safety
               nets and relieve debt burdens are, for citizens
               throughout the world to feel that they truly have a
               hand in shaping their future they must know the
               dignity and respect of basic rights in the workplace. 

               You have taken a vital step toward lifting the lives
               of working people by adopting the Declaration on
               Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work last
               year. The document is a blueprint for the global
               economy that honors our values -- the dignity of
               work, an end to discrimination, an end to forced
               labor, freedom of association, the right of people to
               organize and bargain in a civil and peaceful way.
               These are not just labor rights, they're human rights.
               They are a charter for a truly modern economy. We
               must make them an everyday reality all across the
               world. 

               We advance these rights first by standing up to
               those who abuse them. Today, one member nation,
               Burma, stands in defiance of the ILO's most
               fundamental values and most serious findings. The
               Director General has just reported to us that the
               flagrant violation of human rights persists, and I
               urge the ILO governing body to take definite steps.
               For Burma is out of step with the standards of the
               world community and the aspirations of its people.
               Until people have the right to shape their destiny we
               must stand by them and keep up the pressure for
               change. 

               We also advance core labor rights by standing with
               those who seek to make them a reality in the
               workplace. Many countries need extra assistance

               to meet these standards . Whether it's rewriting
               inadequate labor laws, or helping fight discrimination
               against women and minorities in the workplace, the
               ILO must be able to help. 

               That is why in the balanced budget I submitted to
               our Congress this year I've asked for $25 million to
               help create a new arm of the ILO, to work with
               developing countries to put in place basic labor
               standards -- protections, safe work places, the right
               to organize. I ask other governments to join us. I've
               also asked for $10 million from our Congress to
               strengthen U.S. bilateral support for governments
               seeking to raise such core labor standards. 

               We have asked for millions of dollars also to build
               on our voluntary anti-sweat shop initiative to
               encourage the many innovative programs that are
               being developed to eliminate sweat shops and raise
               consumer awareness of the conditions in which the
               clothes they wear and the toys they buy for their
               children are made. 

               But we must go further, to give life to our dream of
               an economy that lifts all our people. To do that, we
               must wipe from the Earth the most vicious forms of
               abusive child labor. Every single day tens of millions
               of children work in conditions that shock the
               conscience. There are children chained to often
               risky machines; children handling dangerous
               chemicals; children forced to work when they should
               be in school, preparing themselves and their
               countries for a better tomorrow. Each of our nations
               must take responsibility. 

               Last week, at the inspiration of Senator Tom Harkin,
               who is here with me today, I directed all agencies of
               the United States government to make absolutely
               sure they are not buying any products made with
               abusive child labor. 

               But we must also act together. Today, the time has
               come to build on the growing world consensus to
               ban the most abusive forms of child labor -- to join
               together and to say there are some things we
               cannot and will not tolerate. 

               We will not tolerate children being used in
               pornography and prostitution. We will not tolerate
               children in slavery or bondage. We will not tolerate
               children being forcibly recruited to serve in armed
               conflicts. We will not tolerate young children risking
               their health and breaking their bodies in hazardous
               and dangerous working conditions for hours
               unconscionably long -- regardless of country,
               regardless of circumstance. These are not some
               archaic practices out of a Charles Dickens novel.

               These are things that happen in too many places
               today. 

               I am proud of what is being done at your meeting. In
               January, I said to our Congress and the American
               people in the State of the Union address, that we
               would work with the ILO on a new initiative to raise
               labor standards and to conclude a treaty to ban
               abusive child labor everywhere in the world. I am
               proud to say that the United States will support your
               convention. After I return home I will send it to the
               U.S. Senate for ratification, and I ask all other
               countries to ratify it, as well. (Applause.) 

               We thank you for achieving a true breakthrough for
               the children of the world. We thank the nations here
               represented who have made genuine progress in
               dealing with this issue in their own nations. You
               have written an important new chapter in our effort
               to honor our values and protect our children. 

               Passing this convention alone, however, will not
               solve the problem. We must also work aggressively
               to enforce it. And we must address root causes, the
               tangled pathology of poverty and hopelessness that
               leads to abusive child labor. Where that still exists it
               is simply not enough to close the factories where
               the worst child labor practices occur. We must also
               ensure that children then have access to schools
               and their parents have jobs. Otherwise, we may find
               children in even more abusive circumstances. 

               That is why the work of the International Program
               for the Elimination of Child Labor is so important.
               With the support of the United States, it is working
               in places around the world to get children out of the
               business of making fireworks, to help children move
               from their jobs as domestic servants, to take
               children from factories to schools. 

               Let me cite just one example of the success being
               achieved, the work being done to eliminate child
               labor from the soccer ball industry in Pakistan. Two
               years ago, thousands of children under the age of
               14 worked for 50 companies stitching soccer balls
               full-time. The industry, the ILO and UNICEF joined
               together to remove children from the production of
               soccer balls and give them a chance to go to
               school, and to monitor the results. 

               Today, the work has been taken up by women in 80
               poor villages in Pakistan, giving them new
               employment and their families new stabilities.
               Meanwhile, the children have started to go to
               school, so that when they come of age, they will be
               able to do better jobs raising the standard of living

               of their families, their villages and their nation. I
               thank all who were involved in this endeavor and
               ask others to follow their lead. 

               I am pleased that our administration has increased
               our support for IPEC by tenfold. I ask you to think
               what could be achieved by a full and focused
               international effort to eliminate the worst forms of
               child labor. Think of the children who would go to
               school, whose lives would open up, whose very
               health would flower, freed of the crushing burden of
               dangerous and demeaning work, given back those
               irreplaceable hours of childhood for learning and
               playing and living. 

               By giving life to core labor standards, by acting
               effectively to lift the burden of debt, by putting a
               more human face on the world trading system and
               the global economy, by ending the worst forms of
               child labor, we will be giving our children the 21st
               century they deserve. 

               These are hopeful times. Previous generations
               sought to redeem the rights of labor in a time of
               world war and organized tyranny. We have a
               chance to build a world more prosperous, more
               united, more humane than ever before. In so doing,
               we can fulfill the dreams of the ILO's founders, and
               redeem the struggles of those who fought and
               organized, who sacrificed and, yes, died -- for
               freedom, equality, and justice in the workplace. 

               It is our great good fortune that in our time we have
               been given the golden opportunity to make the 21st
               century a period of abundance and achievement for
               all. Because we can do that, we must. It is a gift to
               our children worthy of the millennium. 

               Thank you very much. (Applause.) 

               END 11:50 A.M. (L)