VZCZCXRO0901
RR RUEHLMC
DE RUEHTG #0039/01 0201908
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 201908Z JAN 09
FM AMEMBASSY TEGUCIGALPA
TO RUEHC/DEPT OF LABOR WASHDC
RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 9150
INFO RUEHZA/WHA CENTRAL AMERICAN COLLECTIVE
RUEIAYF/ATO LATIN AMERICA
RUMIAAA/CDR USSOUTHCOM MIAMI FL
RUEAHND/CDRJTFB SOTO CANO HO
RUEAWJA/DEPT OF JUSTICE WASHDC
RUCPDOC/DEPT OF COMMERCE WASHDC
RUEHLMC/MILLENNIUM CHALLENGE CORP WASHINGTON DC 0874

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 04 TEGUCIGALPA 000039 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR DRL/IL (MMITTLEHAUSER), DOL FOR ILA (TINA 
MCCARTER), DRL/ILCSR (TU DANG), AND INFO GENEVA 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: EAGR EIND ELAB ETRD PGOV PHUM SOCI HO
SUBJECT: HONDURAS: WORST FORMS OF CHILD LABOR 
 
REF: SECSTATE 127448 
 
¶1. SUMMARY: This report is a response to the U.S. Department 
of Labor action cable (Reftel) regarding the worst forms of 
child labor in Honduras.  The Government of Honduras (GOH) 
has made clear progress addressing the worst forms of child 
labor with a new more effective eradication plan, a national 
commission, greater information dissemination, new 
legislation and increased resources allocated for the 
enforcement of child labor laws.  However, with 74 percent of 
child labor taking place in rural areas, too many of these 
resources are anchored in the bureaucracy of Tegucigalpa 
including six of the seven child labor investigators.  Also, 
the deterrent factor of the child labor law and efficacy of 
the Ministry of Labor (MOL) are called into question given 
that 903 child labor inspections in 2008 resulted in zero 
convictions or penalties levied.  In response, the current 
Minister of Labor has stated her goal to increase the amount 
of child labor inspectors thus expanding coverage across the 
country and create benchmarks to monitor the performance of 
the new eradication plan.  END SUMMARY. 
 
------------------ 
Laws and Regulations Proscribing the Worst Forms of Child 
Labor 
----------------- 
 
¶2. Honduras is a signatory to ILO Convention 182 regarding 
the worst forms of child labor and its Child Labor Code 
precludes participation by minors in unhealthy or dangerous 
conditions.  Honduran law regulates child labor and provides 
that minors between the ages of 14 and 18 cannot work unless 
authorities determine that the work is indispensable for the 
family,s income and will not conflict with schooling.  The 
constitution and the law establish the maximum work hours for 
children under age 18 as six hours daily and 30 hours weekly. 
 Parents or a legal guardian can request special permission 
from the Ministry of Labor (MOL) to allow children between 
the ages of 14 and 15 to work, so long as the MOL performs a 
home study to ensure that the child demonstrates economic 
necessity to work and that the child will not work outside of 
the country or in hazardous conditions, including offshore 
fishing. 
 
¶3. The law prohibits night work and overtime for minors under 
the age 16 and requires that employers in areas with more 
than 20 school-age children working at their business 
facility provide a location for a school.  In practice, the 
vast majority of children worked without MOL permits. 
 
¶4. On May 12, 2008, the government of Honduras (GOH) reformed 
Article Eight of the Child Labor Code, which now includes a 
list of tasks considered too dangerous for children under 18 
years old.  The act also bans minors from engaging in 
activities such as forestry, fishery, hunting, mining, 
quarrying, manufacturing, construction, transportation, 
morgue activities and street cleaning.  Despite these 
limitations, minors aged 16 or 17 years may receive 
authorization from the Office of Labor and Social Security to 
perform dangerous labor under certain conditions. 
 
¶5. The law prohibits forced or bonded labor but there is no 
provision for children &trafficked8 into exploitive labor 
situations.  The Intra-Institutional Commission on 
Trafficking has prioritized for 2009 the creation of new 
legislation which would make it illegal to traffic a child 
into an exploitive labor situation.   Honduran law requires 
recruits to be 18 years old in order to enlist voluntarily 
into the Armed Forces.  There is no compulsory conscription. 
 
---------------- 
Implementation and Enforcement of Proscriptions Against the 
Worst Forms of Child Labor 
---------------- 
 
¶6. By law, individuals who violate child labor laws in 
traditional work sectors may receive prison sentences of 
three to five years along with a fine.  According to the MOL, 
the monetary amount of the fine for those responsible for 
violating the child labor code is 5,000 Lempira ($260 USD). 
Being such a low monetary amount, the fine does not 
adequately deter child labor violations.  The MOL has stated 
 
TEGUCIGALP 00000039  002 OF 004 
 
 
its intentions to raise the level of the fine in order to 
increase its efficacy.  In practice, upon discovery of a 
child labor violation the MOL does not levy fines but rather 
give violators a probationary period of two months to correct 
the violation upon which further investigations are made to 
verify compliance. 
 
¶7. Child labor violations are investigated mostly in areas 
where the MOL has an established presence such as the larger 
cities of Tegucigalpa, San Pedro Sula, El Progresso, and 
Choluteca.  There are seven investigators who exclusively 
work on child labor violations in Honduras.  Six are located 
in Tegucigalpa and one is located in San Pedro Sula.  Outside 
of these two metropolitan areas child labor inspections are 
carried out by the 77 ®ular8 labor inspectors employed 
by the MOL.  When requested to do so, the police are required 
to accompany child labor inspectors while they perform 
inspections.  There are no police specifically assigned to 
support the enforcement of the Child Labor Code. 
 
¶8. According to the MOL, 903 inspections of child labor 
violations were conducted in 2008.  Of those 903 inspections, 
165 were inspections instigated by a formally reported abuse, 
44 were re-inspections to enforce compliance after a previous 
violation, and the rest were random.  Nearly 20 percent (170) 
of the inspections were conducted inside the capital of 
Tegucigalpa with the rest scattered throughout the country. 
All except for three of the 903 inspections were instigated 
by the report of a minor aged 14 to 18 years old working. 
The three other investigations were instigated by a report of 
a child younger than 14 years old working. 
 
¶9. According to the MOL, there were neither reports of 
incidences nor any investigations into the worst forms of 
child labor.  Seventy percent of investigations had to do 
with child laborers working more hours than permitted by the 
Labor law.  Approximately five percent (44) of the cases 
investigated are followed up on to ensure compliance.  The 
MOL states that all of these cases have ended up in 
compliance and has levied no fines nor begun criminal 
proceedings against any child labor law violators. 
¶10. The Office of the Special Prosecutor for Children (OSPC) 
in Tegucigalpa stated that the MOL has not submitted any 
child labor exploitation cases for 2008.  The OSPC has four 
analysts who work exclusively on cases of children being 
sexually exploited for commercial purposes.  In 2008, the 
OSPC investigated 60 cases, and has taken 9 traffickers to 
court with the remaining cases remaining in investigation. 
 
---------------------------- 
Social Programs Designed to Prevent and Withdraw children 
from the Worst Forms of Child Labor. 
---------------------------- 
 
¶11. The GOH is involved in a number of activities, working 
with Community-based organizations, international 
organizations such as the International Labor Organization, 
and the U.S. Department of Labor, to educate Hondurans, build 
institutional capacity to work on the child labor, and 
improve access to justice for trafficking and child labor 
victims. 
 
¶12. In August 2008, the Public Ministry and the NGO Plan 
International formalized a new two million Lempira (100,000 
USD) initiative called &Combating the Abuse and Exploitation 
of Children.8  The project will expand the coverage of 
justice and legal protection to children living places 
without dedicated authorities or government institutions. 
The project will also expand coverage of the OSPC to north 
and southwest Honduras (Santa Barbara, Gracias, La Esperanza, 
La Entrada, La Paz and Choluteca). 
 
¶13. The National Congress (CN) has formed a &Commission for 
Family and Childhood8 in partnership with UNICEF which 
produces informative materials detailing the definition of 
child labor, the dangers of child labor, and the legal 
regulations of child labor in Honduras.  In San Pedro Sula, 
the local municipal government has worked with the Italian 
government,s International Assistance Agency (through a 30 
million Euro project) to reintegrate 300 children back into 
school. 
 
 
TEGUCIGALP 00000039  003 OF 004 
 
 
¶14. The government conducted social and educational programs 
to reach at-risk children, including a school grant program 
to provide money for school supplies for very poor families, 
and an alternative schooling program using radio and distance 
learning for children in distant rural areas with few 
schools.  Government measures had minimal impact on 
diminishing child labor in light of extreme poverty, famine 
conditions in rural areas, and a lack of jobs for school 
graduates. 
 
¶15. The Ministry of Labor is also working with a number of 
foreign donors to combat child labor.  The MOL works with the 
Spanish government to rescue children and young adults from 
the street or other vulnerable situations and help them find 
suitable employment.  Two projects funded by the World Bank 
and the Inter-American Development Bank provide capacity 
building opportunities to children and young adults on the 
margins of society to secure employment at large firms.  The 
project provides a financial incentive to participating firms 
so that they hire at-risk youth and the youth participants 
receive a stipend for participating in the program. 
 
¶16. The government of Honduras is currently participating in 
a number of ILO, IOM, OAS, and government of Spain sponsored 
projects aimed at combating commercial sexual trafficking 
through a variety of activities, including capacity building 
and legal reform.  Additionally, the GOH participates in U.S. 
Department of Labor programs aimed at combating child labor 
through education, withdrawing and preventing children from 
exploitive labor situations, improving labor law compliance, 
and strengthening outreach to the agricultural sector where 
the problem is particularly acute. 
 
------------------------- 
Comprehensive Policy Aimed at the Elimination of the Worst 
Forms of Child Labor 
------------------------- 
 
¶17. On May 22, 2008 a National Plan for the Eradication of 
Child Labor (NPECL) was unveiled at the Presidential Palace 
in Tegucigalpa.  A number of institutions, including the MOL, 
the office of the First Lady, the Judiciary, the Public 
Ministry, and the Honduran Council for the Private Sector, 
launched this plan.  The plan will last seven years and is 
meant to eradicate child labor.  The NPECL is a lengthy and 
complicated plan incorporating the actions of many Honduran 
governmental agencies.  However, the MOL has taken charge and 
held a Strategy Forum in December 2008 to assign 
responsibilities to each Institution and begin benchmarking 
progress on the Plan,s implementation. 
 
¶18. Honduras is implementing a National Plan of Action to 
Eradicate Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children.  The 
Plan was introduced in 2008 and will last seven years.  The 
government also coordinates with NGOs and the International 
Organization for Migration (IOM) to place trafficking victims 
in shelters and reintegrate them into society.  Public 
schooling is compulsory through age 15 in Honduras and free 
save for the large expenses incurred for pedagogical 
materials and other required materials. 
 
---------------- 
Progress Toward Eliminating the Worst Forms of Child Labor 
----------------- 
 
¶19. A May 2008 census by National Institute of Statistices 
(INE in Spanish) reported that 13 percent of Honduran 
children (348,250 children ages 5 to 17) were working in 
Honduras of whom 76 percent were boys and 24 percent girls. 
Interestingly, 62 percent of the children who neither work 
nor study are girls and only 38 percent are boys.  By far, 
the majority (74 percent) of child labor takes place in rural 
areas versus urban zones (26 percent).  The average monthly 
wage earned by a child is 2,199 Lemipira (approximately $115 
USD) in urban areas and 1471 Lempira (approx. $78 USD) in 
rural areas.  Children who work (ages 5 to 17) average 5.4 
years of schooling. 
 
¶20. The majority of working children work in agriculture (56 
percent) with others working in commercial activities or 
tourism (18 percent), manufacturing (9 percent) and services 
(8 percent).  Children often work harvesting coffee, sugar 
 
TEGUCIGALP 00000039  004 OF 004 
 
 
cane and melons; rummaging at garbage dumps; in the forestry, 
hunting and fishing sectors; and as deckhands and divers in 
the lobster industry.  Children also work selling goods such 
as fruit or merchandise, begging, washing cars and hauling 
loads.  Some work in the limeston and lime production 
industry.  Children, predominantly girls, also work as 
domestic servants, where they are sometimes subject to 
maltreatment by third-party employers. 
 
¶21. While the GOH has no documented cases for 2008, in 
Honduras, generally the worst forms of child labor have to do 
with the extraction of lobsters from the ocean, the 
harvesting of coffee and the harvesting of sugar cane. 
LLORENS