15427: Karshan: Haiti Moves to Outlaw Child Domestic Service And Trafficking in Children (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: MKarshan@aol.com

Press Release
Date:  April 30, 2003
Contact:  Michelle Karshan, Foreign Press Liaison
Telephone:  (011509) 228-2058, email: mkarshan@aol.com

Haiti Moves to Outlaw Labor Code Provision Sanctioning Child Domestic Service
And Proposes Ban On All Forms Of Trafficking In Children

Haiti's Minister of Social Affairs and Labor introduced a bill yesterday to
both houses of Haiti's Parliament which calls for the elimination of a
provision in Haiti's Labor Code that sanctions the use of children for
domestic work.  The bill also includes a section prohibiting all forms of
trafficking in children for the purposes of prostitution, pornography, armed
conflicts and organ donations.  Parliament yesterday promised to take quick
action on this bill.  With its passage, public education and enforcement will
be implemented.

In its preamble, the bill establishes the historical and social underpinnings
of the practice of child domestic service (commonly referred to as "restavek
"), noting that the majority of these children are from impoverished rural
areas and are placed with urban families with the hope that they will have
food and education.

While the bill expressly bans child domestic service it encourages Haitian
families to continue the tradition of informal adoptions to less advantaged
children and to provide them with education, healthcare, etc. This practice
also absorbs the approximately 300,000 children orphaned by HIV/AIDS.  Title
X  of Haiti's Constitution requires that children informally adopted be
treated equal to other children.

Pointing out that children in domestic service "...in particular are victims
of abuse and violence," this bill follows a law enacted in October 2001 which
banned all forms of corporal punishment against children.

In March of this year, President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, who since the
mid-80s has spearheaded the movement for children's rights in Haiti, and in
particular for the right of children to be free from violence, pledged to
"eradicate" the practice of restaveks in Haiti, and said, "Our determination
is to support those families who receive those children in their homes, to
help them as much as we can."

President Aristide explained that the two-year financial embargo on Haiti has
seriously aggravated social conditions, stating that, "The more money we have
in the country...families would be able to keep their children, send them to
school, give them an education."  The Inter-American Development Bank loans
to Haiti earmarked for expanding access to healthcare, education and potable
water are  also blocked by the US-led embargo on Haiti.

The Haitian government is engaged in addressing the underlying social
conditions that lead parents to place their children in other's homes.   In
furtherance of its universal schooling program, Haiti continues to build new
schools with the goal of providing a school in each of its 565 communal
sections.  The government also subsidizes school books, supplies, uniforms,
hot lunches, and transportation.  Despite financial constraints, the Haitian
government recently inaugurated new health centers and hospitals as well as
community water fountains.

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