Seeking fast approval of the Magna Carta for Household Helpers, the Global March Against Child Labor Movement mobilized a 2,000-strong children's march at T.M. Kalaw towards the Museo Pambata last January 22, in line with its 7th anniversary celebrations. Representatives from 40 NGOs, government agencies, workers, employers and children's groups comprising the Global March Against Child Labor Movement organized this event to get more senators to co-author the pioneering bill.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Subject: GLOBAL MARCH AGAINST CHILD LABOR 7^th ANNIVERSARY

January 22, 2005

Contact: Ma. Cecilia Flores-Oebanda, Executive Director, Visayan Forum

Global March 7 to push Senate OK on Domestic Workers' Bill

Seeking fast approval of the magna carta for domestic workers, the Global March Against Child Labor will mobilize a 2,000-strong children's march at T.M. Kalaw towards the Museo Pambata come Saturday, January 22, in line with its 7^th anniversary celebrations.

Representatives from 40 NGOs, government agencies, workers, employers and children's groups comprising the Global March Against Child Labor Movement are organizing this traditional annual show of force this time to get more senators to co-author the pioneering bill that promises to break long-standing silence of the law on child domestic workers.

Members of the Senate Labor Committee chaired by Senator Jinggoy Estrada is expected make SB 1772 a priority bill. The Global March aims to enlist the co-authorship of other senators in addition to Defensor-Santiago, Pimentel, and Loi Estrada who have already submitted separate versions of the bill.

The Global March is a civil society movement established in 1998. It is instrumental in the ratification of the International Labor Organization Convention No. 182 on the Worst Forms of Child Labor and its national implementing law RA 9231, otherwise known as the Anti-Child Labor Law. New implementing rules and regulations have recently been approved including the creation of the National Program Against Child Labor.

Estimated to number at least one million in the alone, child domestic workers worldwide are considered in many underdeveloped countries as the second largest group of working children, next to those working in farms.

According to the Visayan Forum (VF), the Philippine Coordinator of the Global March since 1998, child domestic workers remain very difficult to reach and to protect despite government's acknowledgement that they are one of the worst forms of child labor in the country.

Many are also trafficked from poor provinces just to end up in exploitative situations, such as physical, verbal and sexual abuse, denial of regular days off, non-payment of wages, difficult access to education and working for long hours even during at night. Some recruiters easily convince parents to send their children to work as house helpers then lure them into bars and brothels, according to the Visayan Forum which also operates anti-trafficking programs in major ports across the country.

“The proposed magna carta helps address these issues by restoring the dignity of this sector and putting special protection for minors, especially young girls who are usually preferred by many employers these days”, according to Ma. Cecilia Flores-Oebanda, VF president.

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The children's rally this Saturday will assemble at 7 am along