The Southeast Asia Capacity Building towards Sustainable Advocacy for Child Domestic Workers is scheduled this 13-17 October 2003 at the Traders Hotel Manila. The workshop aims to generate a common understanding on the urgency and requisites of effective advocacy on the issue of child domestic work in South East Asia. It also aims to provide a venue for sharing experiences among partners in the region.

• Background
• Objectives
• Participants
• Organizers
• Opening Programme
• Workshop Programme (5 days)
• Closing Programme & Solidarity Night

Background

Child domestic work is perhaps one of the oldest forms of child labour and is widely spread in Asia. Several estimates of child domestic workers' pervasiveness have been forwarded despite the lack of comprehensive national data: 1.2 million in Bangladesh; 1.5 million in Indonesia; 1 million in the Philippines; 62 thousand in Nepal, and; 100 thousand at least, in Sri Lanka.

Child Domestic Workers (CDWs) are large in numbers, yet remain invisible and marginalized both economically and socially because of the myths still surrounding their employment. Domestic work is believed to be safest for children because they are working inside households and may get a chance for schooling. However, many children have turned out to be victims of physical, verbal and sexual abuses.

Many children in domestic work also fail to attend and survive schooling because of their special situation. They comprise a large percentage of the domestic workers' sector. Most are working in conditions that can be considered among the worst forms of child labour. They are totally under the control of employers whose primary concern may not be in their best interests as children. Many children are trafficked into domestic work, which can also lead them into other worst forms of child labour. Child domestic work is therefore a crosscutting issue about child rights, child labour and gender. And it requires right approach and strategy in order to address it effectively.

In this light, advocacy is an important strategy to address the issue of child domestic work. There is a need to raise consciousness among decision-makers and the general public and individual employers by challenging myths still surrounding the employment of children in domestic work. While advocacy may be very broad and encompassing and requires scarce resources, experiences of practitioners, most NGOs believe that it can be effectively directed at least to employers, other key influencers, and child domestic workers themselves aiming at prevention and withdrawal from work and to receiving proper rehabilitation and education. This contributes to the primary goal of ending domestic child labour, or the extreme forms of child domestic work considered as among the worst forms of child labour.

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Objectives

Generally, the advocacy workshop aims to bring the decision-makers and key players for concrete policy changes on the issue of child domestic work in South East Asia. Specifically, it aims to encourage the participants to come up with national and regional plans in the areas of public and private advocacy, legislative and policy advocacy, the education agenda and engaging in national time-bound programs reflective of ILO Convention No. 182 on the worst forms of child labor.

This initiative will be a part of the capacity-building and lobbying agenda of the Task Force on Child Domestic Workers in Asia and on-going efforts of ILO-IPEC in the areas of child domestic work.

The framework for the workshop encompasses the principles highlighted in Anti-Slavery International's advocacy handbook on the CDW issue; A handbook on Advocacy, Child domestic workers: Finding a voice. The principles articulated in the handbook have been tested in actual campaigns by the partners of ASI, many of who are members of the Task Force CDW and ILO-IPEC partners.

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Participants

There will be about thirty-five (35) high-level participants, comprised of ILO's tripartite constituents (government, workers and employers) and NGO officials from eight (8) countries mainly from South East Asia (Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Indonesia, Mongolia and China).

The participants will be expected to learn from the experience of Visayan Forum and other countries. They will also draw out from concrete experiences some basic tools to measure the impact of advocacy. These success indicators will also be used during the last workshop that will focus on designing plans for future advocacy action at national and sub-regional levels.

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Organizers

Visayan Forum Foundation, Inc. (VF) is the lead convenor of the Task Force Child Domestic Workers in Asia within the network of the Child Workers in Asia (CWA). Since 1997, it launched significant efforts to highlight the issue in the region. The Task Force is composed of at least 15 NGOs working with CDWs in 11 countries. In 2002, VF hosted a 2nd regional consultation of the Task Force to forge a common agenda for the next three years. A preparatory seminar entailed Legislative Advocacy Seminar highlighting the experiences in lobbying the Batas Kasambahay or the Magna Carta for Domestic Workers in the Philippines. An Exchange Program followed for task force members to learn good practices from first hand visits of the Visayan Forum's project sites and partners.

Child Workers in Asia (CWA) was established in 1985 as a support group for child workers in Asia and the NGOs working with them. It now brings together over 50 groups/organizations working on child labour in 14 countries. It facilitates sharing of expertise and experiences between NGOs and strengthens their collaboration.

Anti-Slavery International (ASI) is the world's oldest human rights organization and has undertaken research into the situation of child domestic workers in Bangladesh, Benin, Costa Rica, India, Indonesia, and Togo. It produced a handbook, Child Domestic Workers: A Handbook for Research and Action in 1997 to promote good research and follow up action on awareness raising and prevention. This handbook and its recommendations have been widely circulated and Anti-Slavery has worked with other NGOs from around the world to promote their implementation. Anti-Slavery has also advised the IPEC program of the ILO, UNICEF and Save the Children UK on the issue.

Global March Against Child Labor is a worldwide campaign against the exploitation of children and their deprivation from education. It has been relentlessly working to generate and sustain national attention and action on child labor, especially in the areas of policy and legislation and mobilizing other sectors. The Global March movement was instrumental in the unanimous adoption and ratification in many states of ILO Convention 182 on the Worst Forms of Child Labor

The International Labor Organization-International Program on the Elimination of Child Labor (ILO-IPEC) launched a global program that supports national actions to address the vulnerability of CDWs. Apart from the pilot direct interventions at the country level, ILO-IPEC has been making efforts to build capacity of national counterparts to fight against exploitation of CDWs regionally. One example of such initiatives is the ILO/Japan/Korea Tripartite Meeting on Child Domestic Labour in Asia and the Pacific held in October 2002 in Chiang Mai, Thailand. The meeting yielded an output - a Framework of Action to Combat Child Domestic in the Asia and the Pacific Region, which was adopted unanimously by the participants from 16 countries. In this occasion, two technical reports were also published; Study on the Legal Protection of Child Domestic Workers in the Asia-Pacific, and an Overview of Child domestic Workers in Asia highlighting the experiences in the field.

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Opening Programme

Opening Ceremony
October 14 (Tuesday), 8:00-10:00 a.m.
Venue: Ballroom B, Traders Hotel Manila, Roxas Boulevard, Pasay City

Ritual Presentation by Child Domestic Workers

Philippine National Anthem

Welcome Remarks
Ms. Ma. Cecilia Flores-Oebanda
President, Visayan Forum Foundation, Inc. and
Chairperson, Child Workers in Asia

Messages from Organizers
Mr. Jonathan Blagbrough, Child Labour Officer, Anti-Slavery International
Ms Toko Tomita, Campaigns Coordinator, Global March Against Child Labor
Ms Carmela I. Torres, Officer-in-Charge and Deputy Director,
ILO Sub Regional Office Manila

Keynote Address
Hon. Loren Legarda
Senator, Republic of the Philippines

Master of Ceremonies:
Ms. Ma. Mercedes "Chi-Chi" Robles

(A press conference follows at 10-11 am)

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Day 1: October 13 (Monday)

Closing Ceremony and Solidarity Night October 15, Wednesday, 7:00-9:00 p.m. Venue: Ballroom B, Traders Hotel Manila, Roxas Boulevard, Pasay City

Creative Presentation by Child Domestic Workers

Reflections
NGO representative
Workers' Groups representative
Employers' Groups representative
Government representative

Response from the Organizers

Message
Ms. Panudda Boonpala
Senior Child Labor Specialist,
ILO Sub-Regional Office for East Asia

Inspirational Address
Undersecretary Danilo Cruz
Workers Protection and Welfare Unit
Department of Labor and Employment

Distribution of Certificates and Tokens of Appreciation

Ceremonial Closing Ritual

Socials