TNAG-0967-FCO40-1186-Employment-of-children-in-Hong-Kong-1980 — Page 33

C.

27.

The exploitation of child labour

The Working Group received the following country monographs on child labour submitted by the Anti-Slavery Society for the Protection of Human Rights:

1. Child labour in South Afric

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The report indicated that child labour was widespread throughout South Africa but the scale and manner in which it occurred remained largely hidden. The majority of working children, all of them black, were to be found in agriculture; they were generally the offspring of farmworkers more or less permanently resident on white fartis or of migrant workers recruited from the "bantustans" or the so-called "black spots". Child labour in agriculture, which dated back to the days of slavery, was an integral feature of the apartheid system since black children inherited the barrage of laws confining them and their families from birth to the bantustans" and limiting their freedom of movement within South Africa. Because of the resulting poverty and deprivation, children were forced to accept whatever work was available, usually on. white farms at extremely low wages, under unsatisfactory conditions and with practically no legal protection. Some children managed to escape to the cities and were found working as traders, newspaper vendors, supermarket and garage attendants and domestic workers and gardeners, but their presence in urban areas was illegal and they were subject to deportation and again recruitment for farmwork, so that they were locked in a vicious circle which could not be broken so long as the apartheid system continued.

29. In its recommendations to the Working Group, the Anti-Slavery Society stated that the Goverment of South Africa should be urged to appoint a Commission to examine legislation affecting children and the administrative machinery for its implementation with a view to adopting measures necessary to ensure proper and efficient protection of children, and to put a stop to this pernicious system.

30.

Members of the Working Group, however, commented that the apartheid system could not be reformed and that the Government of South Africa had always been impervious to international appeals and United Nations resolutions. It was therefore most earnestly felt that the United Nations should take effective measures to ensure the total eradication of apartheid.

2. Child labour in Spain

31. In its report, the Anti-Slavery Society indicated that, although child labour · had been declining, there were more than 200,000 children under fourteen at work in Spain, the vast majority of whom were working as wage eamers rather than family helpers. Although Spain had ratified the ILO Convention on Minimum Age for Admission to Employment, 1973 (No. 138) and had adopted a Labour Relations Law in 1976, raising the minimum age for admission to employment to sixteen, the law was not yet in force and there were conflicting views concerning the legal minimum age. Labour inspection was insufficient and there was a lack of enforcement of legal provisions concerning the protection of apprentices. It appeared, therefore, that in practice the most generally recognized minimum age was not in line with Spain's obligations under her international undertaking. Most of the children were to be found working in the manufacturing sector, especially in small workshops or as outworkers, often doing work subcontracted by larger firms which had no responsibility for Social Security, health and safety precautions, hours of work or wages. Many children were also working in the city streets, the children of the very poor and gypsy children being confined to certain types of work such as shoe-shining.