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Announcement :: Civil & Human Rights |
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Tell Coca-Cola to End Hazardous Child Labor in El Salvador |
Current rating: 0 |
by HRW Campaign--Scott Edwards
Email: scottisimo (nospam) hotmail.com (verified) |
15 Aug 2004
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HRW campaign to end hazardous child labor in El Salvador--take 3 minutes to help |
El Salvador: Hazardous Child Labor on Sugar Plantations
Child labor is pervasive on sugar plantations in El Salvador. Children as young as eight use machetes to cut cane, working for up to nine hours each day in the hot sun. Gashes on the hands and legs are common. Medical care is often not available, and when it is, the cost is usually borne by the families of injured children. Children frequently do not attend school during the harvest, which runs through the first few months of the academic year.
El Salvador’s sugar mills and the businesses that purchase Salvadoran sugar use the product of hazardous child labor, a fact they know or should know. Even though many of these businesses, including The Coca-Cola Company, do not condone or permit child labor in their own or their direct suppliers’ operations, child labor is widespread on the plantations that supply the country’s sugar mills.
The Salvadoran government and the businesses that use the product of hazardous child labor must do more. The government should strengthen existing efforts to move children out of hazardous work and into educational and vocational training programs, and it should enforce laws that guarantee universal access to basic education. Coca-Cola and other businesses must monitor labor conditions on sugar plantations and provide assistance to plantations that fall short of international standards. Coca-Cola and other businesses should also recognize their responsibility to ensure respect for human rights, including the prohibition on the worst forms of child labor, throughout their supply chains. In particular, they should support programs and services that offer children and their families alternatives to child labor; they should not simply fire children who are found to be working in hazardous occupations.
You can help. Write to The Coca-Cola Company and the Salvadoran Sugar Association. Copy and paste the text of the following letters (follow link) into the body of your message, edit it as you see fit, and sign your name and address.
http://www.humanrightswatch.org/children/labor/elsalvador/ |
This work is in the public domain |
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Re: Tell Coca-Cola to End Hazardous Child Labor in El Salvador |
by mike
mrpasset (nospam) peacemeal.org (unverified) |
Current rating: 0
16 Aug 2004
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thanks for providing this. this is a really important campaign with tons of support around the globe. but every letter counts--take a few minutes to help... |
