Organizations

International Focus

The Web site of the Child Labor Coalition provides extensive information about child labor in the United States and around the world, including facts regarding pending legislation and current campaigns.

The AFT is an active participant in the comprehensive campaign against child labor led by Education International, which represents nearly 30 million education professionals around the world.

The AFT also works with the Global Campaign for Education, a civil society movement that strives for universal access to education, to eradicate child labor.

The Global March Against Child Labor conducts multiple public awareness campaigns and, through its Web site, lobbies governments around the world to ratify conventions, pass laws and establish policies that protect children from exploitive labor practices while guaranteeing their right to a free, quality education.

The International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labor, run by the International Labour Organization, publishes data pertaining to child labor and the international laws and standards that govern it.

The International Labor Rights Fund Web site has numerous resources about campaigns to end child labor.

The Children's Rights Division of Human Rights Watch monitors human rights abuses against children around the world and works to end them.

Domestic Focus

The Association of Farmworker Opportunity Programs' Children in the Fields campaign strives to improve the quality of life of migrant and seasonal farmworkers' children by advocating for enhanced educational opportunities and the elimination of discriminatory federal child labor laws in agriculture.

Farmworker Justice is a nonprofit organization that seeks to empower migrant and seasonal farmworkers in the United States through litigation, administrative and legislative advocacy, training and technical assistance, coalition-building, public education and support for union organizing.

For the United States Department of Labor's official position on child labor, please visit the Department's Youth & Labor Web site.

Resources

For Information

To learn more about why the AFT considers ending child labor to be a priority, please view our position paper, "Why should ending child labor be a priority?"

"Ending Child Labor Through Education-What Teachers and Unions Can Do," a poster and brochure combination produced by the AFT, describes why education is essential in the fight to end child labor and how teachers and trade unionists can contribute to the struggle.

In Our Own Backyard is an AFT resource that explores the child labor problem in the United States and potential solutions to it.

The International Center on Child Labor and Education publishes excellent general newsletters and youth newsletters on children's rights.

The Youth Worker Protection Act, which received strong support from the AFT, was a comprehensive revision of federal child labor laws sponsored by Congressman Tom Lantos (D-Calif.) in 2005.

On June 17, 1999, the International Labour Organization ratified Convention 182: Concerning the Prohibition and Immediate Action for the Elimination of the Worst Forms of Child Labour.

The Fair Labor Standards Act (1938) is the framework for child labor laws in the United States.

The United Nations expresses its positions on child labor and education in the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

On June 26, 1973, the International Labour Organization ratified Convention 138: Concerning the Minimum Age for Admission to Employment.

For Teaching

"Lost Futures: The Problem of Child Labor" is a video and teachers' guide designed by the AFT to introduce students of all ages to the issues surrounding child labor. This can be ordered through the AFT's international affairs department for $10 (includes S/H).

The Child Labor Public Education Project, sponsored by the Labor Center and Child Labor Research Initiative at the University of Iowa, contains numerous workshop materials for lessons about child labor.

The Library of Congress has developed a very good set of lesson plans about child labor.

Youth Advocate Program International offers education curriculum modules regarding the most important children's rights issues facing the world today.

Educators trying to develop lessons on child labor may also want to explore the Voices of Youth Web site, produced by UNICEF.

"Children without Childhoods" is a 12-page article on child labor reprinted from the Summer 1996 edition of the AFT's American Educator magazine.

"Too Young to Work" is an article from Time Magazine for Kids that profiles the lives of American children working in agriculture.

For more information about the history of child labor in the United States, please visit Between a Rock and a Hard Place, the Smithsonian Institution's online exhibit about sweatshops in the United States.

In Our Own Backyard is supplemented by a DVD and poster designed to enhance classroom instruction about child labor.

The International Labor Rights Fund has produced a beautiful series of colorful, educational posters about child labor.

"In Some Places, Child Abuse Is Business as Usual" is an educational poster about child labor.