O 031948Z DEC 08
FM SECSTATE WASHDC
TO GENERALIZED SYSTEM OF PREFERENCES COLLECTIVE IMMEDIATE
AMEMBASSY BAGHDAD 
AMEMBASSY BELGRADE 
AMCONSUL CASABLANCA 
AMCONSUL JERUSALEM 
AMEMBASSY KYIV 
AMEMBASSY LIBREVILLE 
AMEMBASSY MANAGUA 
AMEMBASSY MONROVIA 
AMEMBASSY NDJAMENA 
AMEMBASSY SANTIAGO

UNCLAS STATE 127448 
 
 
PLEASE PASS TO LABOR REPORTING OFFICERS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: ELAB EIND ETRD PHUM SOCI USAID
SUBJECT: REQUEST FOR CHILD LABOR INFORMATION FOR TRADE 
AND DEVELOPMENT ACT (GSP) 2008 REPORT 
 
REF: A: 07 STATE 149662 
REF: B: 07 STATE 158223 
REF: C: 08 STATE 122407 
REF: D: 08 STATE 43120 
 
 
¶1.  This is an action request. Please see summary 
paragraph (para) 2 and paras 6 through 11 for specific 
information requested. 
 
¶2.  Summary: This is a request for information to 
determine if countries eligible for trade benefits under 
the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) program are 
implementing their international commitments to eliminate 
the worst forms of child labor, (see para 11 for 
definition) as required under the Trade and Development 
Act (TDA) of 2000. DOL will use the information in 
preparation of the 2008 TDA report. Responses are 
requested from all Posts except those noted in para 3 by 
January 16, 2009. 
 
¶3.  This cable is being sent to Geneva, Kuala Lumpur, 
Ottawa, Tokyo, Treasury, and USEU as information only. 
For Canberra, London and Paris, reporting is requested on 
overseas territories only. For Jerusalem, reporting is 
requested on West Bank and Gaza only. For your 
information, DOL's 2007 Findings on the Worst Forms of 
Child Labor Report is available at 
http://www.dol.gov/ilab/programs/ocft/PDF/ 
2007OCFTreport.pdf 
 
¶4.  Background: Under the TDA, the President shall not 
designate a country for benefits under the GSP Program, 
the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), the Andean 
Trade Preference Act (ATPA)/Andean Trade Promotion and 
Drug Eradication Act (ATPDEA), or the Caribbean Basin 
Trade Partnership Act (CBTPA) if it has failed to 
implement its international commitments to eliminate the 
worst forms of child labor. 
 
¶5. The TDA requires the Secretary of Labor to prepare 
findings "with respect to the beneficiary country's 
implementation" of such commitments. (Congress has 
clarified that the report should include former GSP 
countries that have negotiated free trade agreements with 
the United States.) The information received from posts 
is critical to the presentation of an accurate picture of 
country efforts, and thus USG determinations of a 
country's continuing eligibility for trade benefits. Due 
to the difficulty of separating the worst forms of child 
labor from other forms of work, the TDA report presents 
as complete a picture as possible of child labor in a 
country. Child labor and the worst forms of child labor 
are distinct from light work, which is legal and not the 
subject of the TDA report.(See paragraphs 11 and 12 for 
more information and specific definitions of these 
concepts.) 
 
¶6. Action request: Posts are requested to provide current 
information on child labor and the worst forms of child 
labor in the host country and government efforts to 
address these problems. Posts are requested to provide 
responses to DOL via unclassified cable as information 
will be cited in the TDA report. Please note that DOL is 
unable to cite classified or SBU cables in the TDA 
report. 
 
¶7. Posts are requested to contact appropriate host 
government officials, including representatives in the 
Ministries of Labor, Education, Family, and Justice; 
international organizations such as the ILO and UNICEF; 
and NGOs to determine the nature of child labor and the 
worst forms of child labor in the country and the extent 
to which the government is working to eliminate them. 
Posts are also encouraged to contact USG agency 
counterparts (e.g., USAID, Peace Corps, and DHS 
officials, to gain the most complete picture of child 
labor and host country efforts. (See para 9 for specific 
information requested.) 
 
¶8.  In addition to information supplied by posts, DOL 
will gather information from governments, international 
organizations, and NGOs as well as through in-country 
research. DOL will solicit public comments through a 
Federal Register Notice to be released by December 12 
that will be available at 
http://www.dol.gov/ilab/programs/ocft/news.ht m. 
DOL will notify Washington embassies of the request for 
information and requests posts alert host country 
officials in turn of the Federal Register Notice. Post 
should indicate to country officials that responses to 
the Notice should be sent by January 16, 2009, directly 
to the Office of Child Labor, Forced Labor and Human 
Trafficking (OCFT) at 200 Constitution Avenue NW, Room S- 
5317, Washington, DC 20210. Phone: (202) 693-4846, fax: 
(202) 693-4830, email: mccarter.tina@dol.gov, attn. Tina 
McCarter. 
 
¶9.  Information requested: DOL requests information on 
the topics listed in points A through E below for the 
period March 2008 to the present. Post research and 
reporting should focus on new developments in sectors and 
goods in which children work; child labor legislation; 
law enforcement, including information on violations and 
prosecutions; and government policies and programs. 
 
A)Laws and regulations proscribing the worst forms of 
child labor. Please provide answers to the following 
questions: 
 
-What laws have been promulgated on child labor in the 
country? 
-What is the countrys minimum age for admission to work? 
-Are there exceptions to the minimum age law? 
-What is the minimum age for admission to hazardous work, 
and what additional provisions has the country enacted 
regarding childrens involvement in hazardous work? 
- What laws have been promulgated on the worst forms of 
child labor, such as forced child labor and trafficking 
or child prostitution and pornography? 
-Please specify what worst forms are prohibited and 
describe penalties for violations. 
-What is the country's minimum age for military 
recruitment and/or involvement in armed conflict? 
-If the country has ratified ILO Convention 182 on the 
Worst Forms of Child Labor, has it developed a list of 
occupations considered to be worst forms of child labor, 
as called for in article 4 of the Convention? 
 
Please note that because proposed legislation may take 
years to approve, DOL reports only on laws that have 
actually been enacted. Specifics on the status of the 
laws on which Posts report are greatly appreciated. 
 
B) Regulations for implementation and enforcement of 
proscriptions against the worst forms of child labor 
Please provide answers to the following questions: 
 
-What legal remedies are available to government agencies 
that enforce child labor and worst forms of child labor 
laws (civil fines, criminal penalties, court orders), and 
are they adequate to punish and deter violations? 
-To what extent are violations investigated and 
addressed? 
-What level of resources does the government devote to 
investigating child labor and worst forms of child labor 
cases throughout the country? 
- How many inspectors does the government employ to 
address child labor issues? 
- How many police or other law enforcement officials 
address worst forms of child labor issues? 
- How many child labor investigations have been conducted 
over the past year and how many have resulted in fines, 
penalties, or convictions? 
- How many investigations into worst forms of child labor 
violations have been conducted over the past year and how 
many have resulted in prosecutions and convictions? 
-Has the government provided awareness-raising and/or 
training activities for officials charged with enforcing 
child labor laws or worst forms of child labor laws? 
 
C) Whether there are social programs specifically 
designed to prevent and withdraw children from the worst 
forms of child labor. Please provide answers to the 
following questions: 
 
-What initiatives has the government supported to prevent 
children from entering exploitive work situations, to 
withdraw children engaged in such labor, and to advocate 
on behalf of children involved in such employment and 
their families? 
 
Examples: These initiatives could include cash transfer 
programs that specifically target families with working 
children to enable children to leave work and enter 
school, establishing shelters for child trafficking victims, 
or other programs. Note: Since the focus of the report is on 
government efforts, reporting is requested ONLY on 
initiatives carried out by the government or by NGOs that 
receive government support. (If possible, please provide 
information on funding levels for such initiatives.) 
 
D) Does the country have a comprehensive policy aimed at 
the elimination of the worst forms of child labor? Please 
provide answers to the following questions: 
 
-Does the country have a comprehensive policy or national 
program of action on child labor or specific forms of 
child labor? 
- Does the country incorporate child labor specifically 
as an issue to be addressed in poverty reduction, 
development, educational or other social policies or 
programs, such as Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers, etc? 
- If so, to what degree has the country implemented the 
policy and/or program of action and achieved its goals 
and objectives? 
-Is education free in law and in practice?  Is education 
compulsory in law and in practice? 
 
Please note that although many anti-poverty programs may 
have indirect impacts on child labor, the TDA calls for 
governments to take specific actions to address the 
problem. For that reason, the TDA report focuses and 
responses should focus on efforts that name child labor 
as an explicit objective, target group, or condition for 
participation in government policies and programs. 
 
E) Is the country making continual progress toward 
eliminating the worst forms of child labor? 
 
- What are the specific sectors/work activities/goods in 
which children work and how has this changed over the 
past year? Please note where possible any relevant 
characteristics about the children involved including 
gender, ethnic group, religion, age, etc. 
 
Note: In order to provide comparable statistics on child 
work and education across countries in the TDA report, 
DOL relies on the Understanding Children's Work project 
(see http://www.ucw-project.org/) and UNESCO Institute of 
Statistics data (http://stats.uis.unesco.org/); 
such data is NOT/NOT being requested of Posts. 
 
¶10.  Although the TDA covers a broader range of 
childrens work activities, Posts should bear in mind 
their responses to State 43120, Request for Information 
on Forced Labor and Child Labor in the Production of 
Goods for Mandatory Congressional Reporting 
Requirements, when responding to this cable and provide 
any necessary updates. Posts that failed to respond to 
State 43120 should expect to receive a follow-up tasking 
cable in the next month (see para 13 for a list of these 
Posts). 
 
11.DOL greatly appreciates the extent to which Posts 
can provide online citations or copies of source 
materials, as DOL assesses all sources for quality. In 
particular, if Posts have access to recent government 
child labor surveys or data sets, such information is 
most appreciated. Please email source materials to 
mccarter.tina@dol.gov.  If sources are available in hard 
copy only, please pouch them to the address listed in 
para 8. 
 
12.Posts are requested to reply with updated 
information by January 16, 2009.  Posts are requested to 
submit all replies via unclassified cable, ACTION 
Secstate and Department of Labor, slugged DOL/ILAB for 
Tina McCarter and DRL/ILCSR for Tu Dang, and INFO Geneva. 
Questions regarding this request may be directed to Tina 
McCarter at (202) 693-4846, or by e-mail at 
mccarter.tina@dol.gov. Please note that DOL will issue a 
 second and final global request for assistance with the 
2008 report in June 2009, when Posts will be requested to 
comment on draft country reports to be released in 
September 2009. 
 
13.The following Posts should also expect to receive a 
tasker from DOL in early 2009, following up on State 
43120: Antananarivo (for Comoros), Asmara, Baghdad, 
Beirut, Brazzaville, Bridgetown (for Barbados Dominica, 
Grenada St. Kitts & Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent & the 
Grenadines), Bujumbura, Colombo, Dakar (for Guinea- 
Bissau), Harare, Jerusalem (for West Bank & Gaza), 
Kingston, Libreville (for Sao Tome and Principe), Lima, 
Luanda, Managua, New Delhi (for Bhutan), Nouakchott, Port 
Louis (for Seychelles), Port Moresby (for Solomon 
Islands), and Yerevan.  This notification is provided so 
that research efforts for the two taskers can be combined 
as appropriate. 
 
¶14. Washington greatly appreciates posts' continued 
assistance. 
 
 
RICE