Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Madrid (Agenzia Fides) - The Christian Cultural Movement and other Christian institutions have joined in launching a proposal requesting that April 16 be declared World Day Against Child Slavery. Numerous acts are scheduled to take place in Spain and Latin America. In Spain, the governing bodies from over 60 of its main cities have already joined in on the effort, along with many other movements.
According to statement issued by the Christian Cultural Movement, “over 10% of the labor performed by 3 billion people is carried out by children.” In Spain, for example, 2 million children live in poverty and of those 2 million, between 500,000 and 1,000,000 are forced to work, without the chance to play or attend school, although no one seems concerned enough to make a serious study on the situation.”
Thus, they say that “child slavery is the worst problem in the workplace, and therefore in labor unions of the world. However, international labor unions and political parties are hardly concerned about the issue. For them, child slavery simply does NOT exist,” and yet, “children and adolescents form the most vulnerable labor group.” In fact, the giant multi-national companies use children, through subcontracting in impoverished countries, to cheapen the cost of merchandise that is sold in other places and that these minors will never be able to enjoy.
“Child slavery is a holocaust of global proportions, that is on the rise,” the statement said. “We have a grave responsibility in its regard.” Moreover, it has become “an instrument in the international business war.”
And yet, for these organizations that lobby for the abolition of child slavery, it will be an impossible dream “as long as unions and political parties do not fight to make those in power eliminate it from their budget plans, and fight against unemployment, job instability among adults, low incomes, temporal contracts, and in favor of a greater access to basic social services.
The reason April 16 has been chosen as the date for the World Day Against Child Slavery is because it is the day of the 1995 murder of Iqbal Mashib, who became a symbol of the 400 million child slaves. Iqbal was a 12 year-old Pakistani boy, a Christian in a mostly Muslim country. He had worked as a child slave since he was 4, for the textile mafias in his country. Along with other children fighting to be freed from the slavery, when he won his freedom, he began a worldwide campaign for the freedom of the millions of child slaves on the planet. He was internationally recognized, speaking in Parliaments and Universities across North America and Europe on the responsibility of the inhabitants of the Northern Hemisphere in regards to the misery of the children in the Southern Hemisphere. However, when he returned to his country, the textile mafia killed him on Easter Sunday 1995. Twelve years later, the flame lit by this child continues to burn for the entire world and the number of events and initiatives continues to multiply in the fight against child slavery, and with the request that April 16 may be declared World Day Against Child Slavery. (RG) (Agenzia Fides 16/4/2008; righe 39, parole 523)
