Spring Edition 2012

Newsletter: Spring Edition 2012

Child Labour in Mali - The Tip of an Iceberg

Children in Hong Kong live generally happy lives, under immense parental care like seedlings growing in a greenhouse. Yet this may not be the case for children in other countries. It was announced by the Human Rights Watch on 8th December 2011 that Mali, the third largest gold production country in Africa, has up to 40 thou-sand child labor, with the smallest one being only 6 years old. As they need to work in under-ground gold mines everyday and carry heavy metals, their body development is seriously affected. Furthermore, the emission of toxic mercury gas damages their respiratory and nervous systems. The children are ill-treated by relatives, and it is reported that some girls are even raped by adults. This incident of nation-wise child abuse is only the tip of an iceberg as it indicates that child-abuse can equally be prevalent in wealthy places like Mali endowed with gold and oil natural reserves. In this essay, it is stressed that rights and freedom of children are crucial to a country’s development, and the government should take immediate actions to adequately al-leviate the problem.

RIGHTS TO GROW HEAVILY
According to Article 19 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, ‘State parties should protect children from all forms of physical and mental violence, in the care of parents.’ Yet children in Mali are vulnerable to both physical and mental damages. The dam-age to respiratory system, nervous system, bone and muscle development can affect them for their whole lives. It is reported by the Human Rights Watch that some children have already suffered serious damage and pain in their backbones and joints. The damage to nervous system is also difficult to heal and affects their intelligence and talents. Infringement of their dignity through such abuse can also cause life-long psychological harm. It should be stressed that children are also human beings which should be allowed to make their own choices. Yet, they cannot make their own choices as their parents force them to be child labor. They do not have the opportunity to voice out how they feel. Even when they do speak up, no one will hear them. This kind of mental oppression exploits children’s willingness to live and seriously affect their interpersonal communication. Children should have the rights to education, and to grow in a caring environment. They have to acquire the knowledge and skills before becoming part of the work force of the community. They are the vulnerable group in the society which has little knowledge on how to resist such abuse.

HARM TO SOCIETY
Child Labour does not only in-fringe the human rights of children, but also does harm to the development of the society. Firstly, the gap between the rich and the poor will be widened. In Mali, the rich receive more profit from the cheap child la-bour in gold mining. The poor become even more miserable because of the disproportionately low income from cheap labour. The hard-ship to parents will be transferred to children, who they are in control of, leading to children being the group that suffers the most. The widening of the power gap will ultimately reach critical points, inciting the fury of the poor and eventually resulting in unrest in the society. Secondly, the lack of opportunities to climb up the social ladder in Mali means that advancement of cognition level in the society is stagnant and Mali cannot be transformed to a knowledge-based society. When children grow up and have their own children, their children can only tread on the same path as child laborers to earn a living. The natural resources of Mali including gold will be depleted one day. Failure to settle the child labour issue means that Mali will fail to grasp any opportunity to turn into a knowledge-based and diversified society for sustainable development.

GOVERNMENT ACTIONS

Human Rights are intrinsic and a government has the responsibility to ensure children being not deprived of their rights. Failure to protect children from labour is the same as legitimating the action of child labour. Although the government of Mali has put on paper initiatives to help protect children’s rights, including outlawing hazardous labour in Artisanal mines, adopting a National Action Plan for the Elimination of Child Labour and supporting mercury reduction, I would like to criticize that these initiatives have hardly been put into action and the situation improves little. The outlaw of hazardous labour in Artisanal mines means that child labour in workplaces other than Artisanal areas are legitimated. This defies the notion that children should receive education instead of working. The National Action Plan is ineffective as well as the net enrollment in primary schools remains low at 60.6 percent in Mali. The mercury reduction plan is no remedy to the case, as reduction of mercury does not prevent child labour. Actually the government of Mali can take a more active approach in tackling the problem, including provision of subsidies in education and complete outlaw of child labour so that children will not be deprived of education because of monetary concerns.

CONCLUSION
The child labour problem in Mali is typical in many developing and under-developed countries. Failure to protect children’s rights results in long-term physical and mental injuries to our next generation. Most children in Hong Kong are far better and luckier than Malians, as Hong Kong has a well-structured education system and there are a handful of monitoring organizations like the Hong Kong Committee on Children’s Rights acting as watchdogs. As university students, global citizens and future leaders, we have the mission to advocate for changes so that there is better protection of children’s rights, thus creating a safe and harmonious environment for the future generations.

LEE Ho Ching, Matthew
Current Affairs Secretary
World University Service, HKUB, HKUSU,
Session 2012-2013

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