Carol Bellamy, The State of the World's Children 1997: UNICEF (Oxford University Press, 1997). ISBN 0-19-262871-2.
This compliation of data on the world's children focuses on a global problem -- the exploitation of children in the workplace. It starts with a short chapter on the Convention on the Rights of the Child which came into effect in September 1990. As of mid-September 1996 the Convention has been ratified by all countries except the Cook Islands, Oman, Somalia, Switzerland, the United Arab Emirates, and, to our shame, the United States. It is the most widely-ratified human rights treaty in history. The emphasis has shifted from asserting that children have special needs to the conviction that children have the same full spectrum of rights as adults -- civil and political, social, cultural, and economic.
The major portion of the book -- Chapter II -- is titled "Children at Risk: Ending Hazardous and Exploitative Child Labor." The chapter lists four myths about child labor which UNICEF wishes to confront: 1) that child labor is uniquely a problem of the developing world; 2) that child labor emerges inevitably and naturally out of poverty and thus, like poverty itself, will always be with us; 3) that most child laborers are at work in sweatshops producing cheap goods for export to the rich world; and 4) that there is a simple solution to the child labor problem -- a trade sanction or boycott -- that will end it once and for all. Each of these myths is discussed and refuted.
Collection of information on the extent of child labor is difficult and the results unreliable. In certain instances it is presumed officially that it does not exist and is therefore not covered by official statistics. Surveys of the reasons for child labor and of attempts -- many and varied -- to control the problem are detailed. Chapter III is a strong compilation of statistical tables on every aspect of children's well-being. Basic indicators, child nutrition, health, education, demographic and economic indicators, data on women, basic indicators on less populous countries and final tables on the state of progress and regional summaries A listing of definitions and an index provide ease of access to the data. A sobering portrayal of a worldwide problem.
- Irma S. Jarcho
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