World Day Against Child Labor 2004

Around 1,000 child domestic workers, employers and social partners will gather at the Bonifacio Shrine, located between Mehan Garden and Manila City Hall on June 11, Friday to lead nationwide Candlelight Vigil to mark the 3rd World Day Against Child Labour initially launched by the International Labor Organization (ILO) in 2002. The program will start at around 5 pm and will culminate at exactly 6:00 p.m. that will kick-off simultaneous vigils in Batangas, Bacolod and Davao.

The public is also encouraged to light a candle in front of their houses as a symbol of recognizing these working children's rights to humane treatment, security at work, and a chance to schooling.

"The candlelight vigil is a symbol of change, of positive actions we can all do together," says Ma. Cecilia Flores-Oebanda, President of the Visayan Forum Foundation (VF), which has mobilized its partners to hold similar actions across Asia. "Instead of just focusing on the negative aspects related to the common practice of employing child domestic workers, we hope to celebrate small victories such as involving employers, bringing back children to school, and pushing governments to finally recognize them as child laborers," adds Ms. Flores-Oebanda.

Prior to the candlelight vigil, VF will also hold the Kasambahay Forum on Friday from 2-4:00 p.m. at San Beda College in Mendiola. During the event, child domestic workers will present their Call to Action to representatives from the government, employer's groups, church and business groups, worker's groups, students, children's groups and international organizations.

In Batangas - the Batangas Partners on Child Domestic Workers (BPCDW) will conduct a Consultative Meeting with Employers of Kasambahays to provide a venue for employers to share their insights on the issue of child domestic work. Afterwards, the simultaneous candlelight vigil will be held at the Basilica Compound. The Basilica of Immaculate Conception in Batangas City offered a Holy Mass for the Kasambahay and Child Laborers last June 6, 2004. Approximately 500 parishioners attended the mass.

In Bacolod - A program, replete with creative presentations and a peaceful rally, will be staged in front of the Fountain of Justice beside the City Hall, to be capped off with the candlelight vigil. The Diocese of Bacolod, composed of around 15 cities and municipalities, encouraged all its parishioners to participate in the candlelight vigil.

In Davao - a Media Forum, to be held on Thursday, June 10, 2004 at 10:00 AM to 12:00 noon at the City Information Office, shall feature the participation of child laborers to impart their experiences on child labor. On Friday, June 11, 2004, children and social partners in the government, non-government, tri-media, school and church-based organizations will gather in a Candlelight Vigil at the Rizal Park.

VF, together with members of the National Program Against Child Labor, is organizing the event to persuade the incoming administration to prioritize and enact the pending Batas Kasambahay on its first 100 days. VF is also pushing government agencies to come up with concrete data about child domestic workers.

For this year's World Day Against Child Labor celebrations, the international community has decided to focus on the plight of domestic workers, which several countries have already included as one of the most abusive forms of child labor along with pyrotechnic-making, mining and quarrying, prostitution, deep-sea fishing and agricultural labor.

The events on June 11 fall on the eve of the annual Independence Day celebration in the Philippines. "It is ironic how we will be celebrating 106 years of Philippine independence when there are thousands of children and young women who remain in slave-like working conditions in households", Ms. Flores-Oebanda states.

A new ILO report entitled, "Helping Hands or Shackled Lives? Understanding child domestic labour and responses to it" (Helping Hands or Shackled Lives? Understanding child domestic labour and responses to it, International Labour Office, 2004, ISBN 92-2-115747-4. For a copy of the report go to www.ilo.org/childlabour or contact [email protected],) will be launched in Geneva on 10 June. The report focuses on unravelling the plight of children working in gruelling forms of domestic labour that involve long hours, low pay and little or no time for education and personal development.

According to estimates from the Visayan Forum Foundation, there are more than one million domestic workers in the Philippines. Many of these are child domestic workers who suffer physical, verbal and sexual abuse. They endure long working hours, and are always on-call. They have little or no pay at all and have limited days-off.

Invisibility and scatteredness of these working children and their lack of awareness about their rights make them very difficult to protect and to reach-out with traditional services.