All ILO Newsroom content
June 2005
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Video
PERU: CHILD LABOUR IN GOLD MINES
23 June 2005
In Peru, up to 50 000 children work as gold miners in small-scale mines, braving dangerous conditions and constantly at risk from accidents. In Santa Filomena, the International Labour Organization is working together with a local group to put an end to child labour.
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Video
UKRAINE: TRAFFICKING SURVIVORS
22 June 2005
Human trafficking is big business, with profits of trafficking worldwide estimated at $32 billion by the International Labour Organization. Men and women are smuggled across borders and often fo rced to work against their will but as ILO TV reports from Ukraine, trafficking is rooted in unemployment and poverty.
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Article
93rd International Labour Conference Working hours around the world: balancing flexibility and protection
13 June 2005
In today's fast-moving world of virtual offices, home work and globalized commerce, are international labour standards on working time still needed? Yes, according to a study prepared by an ILO Commission of experts and delegates at the Organization's annual Conference. The Commission, an independent body monitoring the application of ILO standards, has concluded that international labour standards limiting working time are still necessary to contribute to fair competition between countries in a globalized world. Still, it is also clear that ILO Conventions Nos. 1 and 30 don't fully reflect modern realities in the regulation of working time and are viewed by an increasing number of countries as prescribing overly rigid standards. A panel of delegates to the Conference recently discussed the world of diversification, decentralization and individualization of working hours around the world.
May 2005
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Video
US TOMATO PICKERS REACH HISTORIC AGREEMENT
25 May 2005
A group of tomato pickers from Florida were put under the spotlight when they reached an historic agreement with Yum Brands, parent company of Taco Bell and the largest restaurant company in the world. A n International Labour Organization report explains how workers like these can sometimes become victims of forced labour exploitation.
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Video
FORCED LABOUR IN PERUVIAN AMAZON
18 May 2005
Illegal logging in the Peruvian rainforest generates millions of profits. But an ILO report found that more than 30 thousand workers, many of them indigenous people, are victims of forced labour, living in appalling conditions and often tricked into debt with their employers.
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Article
Fighting forced labour in Latin America
18 May 2005
The ILO estimate of the number of victims of forced labour in Latin America and the Caribbean is 1.3 million. Brazil has taken the lead in addressing the problem through its 2003 National Action Plan for the Eradication of Slavery, including the liberation of workers and measures to fight impunity. In 2004, countries like Bolivia, Peru and Paraguay also made important commitments against forced labour.
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Article
Global Report on Forced Labour In Asia: debt bondage, trafficking and state-imposed forced labour
18 May 2005
With an estimated 9.5 million, the Asia and Pacific region claims the highest number of people among the estimated 12.3 million victims of forced labour in the world today. The region is struggling against both traditional and newer forms of forced labour. An 8.1 million people are trapped in forced labour by means other than trafficking, primarily through debt bondage. But the region is also home to state-imposed forced labour in Myanmar. ILO online reviews the tragic reality of forced labour in Asia.
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Video
UGANDA CHILD SOLDIERS
17 May 2005
A report on forced labour from the International Labour Organization (May 11) highlights the situation of child soldiers, forced to kill or to serve as sex slaves. In Northern Uganda, some reports suggest that 20’000 children have been abducted and used during a long-running conflict with the Lords Resistance Army in the north of the country. ILO TV reports.
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Article
Forced labour in Africa: between poverty and tradition
13 May 2005
The ILO estimate of the number of victims of forced labour in sub-Saharan Africa is 660,000. In this region, the figure reflects the stubborn survival of traditional forms of servitude, but also relates to extreme poverty, a high incidence of child labour, and a context of severe political violence. Where armed conflicts and ethnic tensions have flared, nations have been confronted with the forced recruitment of child soldiers, abductions, and enslavement of whole segments of their population. ILO online draws a picture of forced labour in Africa.
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Article
Modern forms of slavery in industrialized countries
11 May 2005
A new report by the ILO estimates that more than 12 million people worldwide are victims of forced labour. But this modern day form of slavery is not restricted to developing countries, and can also be found in industrialized countries, where approximately 360,000 people are forced to work. Two examples of this practice are migrant workers in the German meat industry, and fruit pickers in Florida, United States.