Revised draft :)

For this post i did barely changed anything in the context, just because my group approved the text, although in the second paragraph i erased one quote because it did not make sense and was confusing to the reader. For this post i did a significant sentence craft change. I noticed that almost in every sentence i had problems with article and some simple grammar which is very noticeable for example i used "on the factories" which is wrong because it should be in. I changed few sentences completely in order to make them stronger and more easier to understand for a reader. In some i had problem explaining what i mean and what i am trying to say. I worked on the punctuation, in some sentences i put an extra coma which is not necessary. I did some work on changing verb tenses too, because they were confusing the time. Another part which i m working on during the quarter is A and THE articles since in my language we do not  use them it is a bit confusing for me. 

Word count: 816 

Vietnam - A country in Southeast Asia. Vietnam is a country that violates child human rights. The reason why I have chosen this particular country is because very few sources mention the problem in their human rights reports; child labor in sweatshops, fields and other industries in Vietnam are for some reason left unspotted and underestimated. This part of our blog is going to focus on the child labor in Vietnam, it is going to define child labor, provide examples and statistics, and make suggestions on how can we resolve this problem. 

Let us start off with background information and data. The population of the country is roughly 93,421,832 people. The overall population of children from age 5-17 is estimated to be 18,349,629 people, accounting for 20.7 percent of the national population. What is striking is that 1.75 million Vietnamese children, two in every five of them under the age of 15, work in situations that fit the definition of child labor. Let’s define child labor now. Child labor is – work that deprives children of their childhood, their potential and their dignity, and that is harmful to physical and mental development.

 Who are the victims of child labor? It is the any human being under the age of eighteen, unless the age of majority is attained earlier under a state’s own domestic legislation.

            Knowing the definitions we can go further and actually look at concrete examples, which show violations of the human rights of children. I want to bring attention to the sweatshops which employ children from 5-17 and pay them minimum wages that do not provide enough money to buy minimal amounts of food each day. Nike factories are great examples. The corporation decided to save money by using cheap Vietnamese labor in order to maximize advertising campaigns and hire the most expensive models. The average wage in Nike factories was 20 cents an hour or 1.60 dollars a day, which is less than the minimum standard of living in Vietnam (estimated as 2 $ a day). Children faced inhuman conditions at shoe factories because most of the kids aged 5-17 worked more than 42 hours per week in order to support their families.

            Another example of child labor/slavery in Vietnam is fieldwork. I would call employers “slaveholders” just because they take kids from the rural areas and bring them far away from their homes, so they have to work for the employer without any possible chance to run away. Yes, we are still talking about children from age 5-17. It happens in factories too. Children are locked up in small rooms making clothes and working from 6 am until midnight with restricted time for bathroom visits and showering in the morning, amounting to just 8 minutes every day. More than that, in many cases slaveholders do not pay any wages.

            Considering all stated above, should we blame the government that lets businesses enslave children? Yes and no. Yes - because Vietnamese government signed (26 Jan 1990 ) and ratified (28 Feb 1990 )  the convention of the rights of the child. This means that right away article 32 of the convention is not followed. Moreover, the government has a restriction policy for juniors which are aged from 11-17 (excluding children between ages 5-10!) should work no more than 42 hours a week and should have appropriate work conditions which do not harm their health, do not affect their education, and do not exhaust toxic chemicals. All of this supposed to be under the supervision of the organization MOLISA (MINISTRY OF LABOR INVALIDS AND SOCIAL AFFAIRS). No- because employers usually find loops in the law and enslave children on the terms written by the government. In most cases if they get approval by MOLISA they can make a child work for them, although any exploitation of the child younger than 15 years old is prohibited. Another issue is that to some extent the government has no power in the children’s upbringing. By this I mean that some Vietnamese families believe that their children from an early age should contribute to the family budget, therefore children end up working in the domestic households, factories, or fields for miserable wages.

            How can we stop the problem? I believe that the only solution would be to enforce laws, which would absolutely protect rights of the children. The employers should be penalized financially for child labor, and more than that they should pay back children’s families for all of their labor (when one hour of payment is equal to or higher than the minimum wage). I believe that the government should reconsider the laws and MOLISA should enforce stricter policies to protect child rights in order to avoid loopholes. Corporations like NIKE and other manufactories should be penalized financially too, because the shut down would lead to a crash in the Vietnamese economy, which is growing very well now.

Works cited:

1.    Brown, Marianne. "Vietnam's Lost Slave Labour Children." BBC News. N.p., 27 Aug. 2013. Web. 15 June 2014.

2.     Fabics, Christine. "Nike's Use of Child Slave Labor." IHS Child Slave Labor News ::. N.p., June 2005. Web. 15 June 2014.

3.     Huong, Nguyen Thi Lan, Nguyen Bao Cuong, and Tonh Thi Mai Hong. CHILD

4.      LABOUR SURVEY 2012 (n.d.): n. pag. Mar. 2014. Web. 11 June 2014.

5.      What Is Child Labour." What Is Child Labour. ILO, n.d. Web. 15 June 2014

6.     "UNTC." UNTC. UN, n.d. Web. 17 June 2014.

Webzine project. Child labor.

Vietnam - A country in Southeast Asia. 12 june - a day when world is fighting against child labor. What is the connection? Vietnam is one of the countries that violate child rights. Why this particular region? Because  very few sources mention about this problem in the human rights reports; child labor on sweatshops and fields in Vietnam is for some reason left unspotted and underestimated. This part of our blog is going to focus on the child labor in Vietnam, it is going to define the child labor, provide examples and statistics, make suggestions how can we resolve the problem in Vietnam. 

Lets start off from the background information and some data. The population of the country is about 93,421,832 people. The overall population of children aged from 5-17 age group is estimated to be 18,349,629 people, accounting for 20.7per cent of the national population. What is striking is that 1.75 million Vietnamese children, with two in every five of them under 15 of age, working in situations that fit the definition of child labor. Lets define child labor now. Child labor is - work that deprives children of their childhood, their potential and their dignity, and that is harmful to physical and mental development. This work takes place along a Continuum, from work that is beneficial, promoting or enhancing a child’s development without Interfering with schooling, recreation and rest to work that is simply destructive or exploitative. Who is child labor? It is the

any human being under the age of eighteen, unless the age of majority is attained earlier under a state’s own domestic legislation.

            Knowing the definitions we can go further and actually look at the concrete examples, which show the violation of human rights of a child. I want to bring up an attention to the sweatshops which employs children from 5-17 and pay them minimum wages that they can not even support themselves during the day with appropriate amount of food. One of the most famous examples is a Nike factory. The corporation decided to save money on the labor, by using cheap Vietnamese labor , in order to maximize advertising campaigns and hire the most expensive models. The average wage on Nike factory was 20 cents and hour or 1.60 dollars a day which is less than the minimum standard of living is Vietnam ( estimated as 2 $ a day). Children faced inhuman conditions at the shoe manufacturing. Most of the kids aged 5-17 are working more than 42 hours per week in order to support their families.

            Another example of child labor/ slavery in Vietnam is field work. I would call employers “slaveholders” just because they take kids from the rural areas and bring them far away from their homes, so they would have to work on the employer without any possible chance to run away. Yes, we are still talking about children aged from 5-17. It happens on factories too. Children are locked up in a small room making clothes and working from 6 am till midnight with restricted number of rest including bathroom visits and showering in the morning, which is about 8 minutes every day. In many cases slaveholders do not pay any wages.

            After all, should we blame the government that lets businesses enslave children? Yes and no. Yes - because the government signed (26 Jan 1990 ) and ratified (28 Feb 1990 )  the convention of the rights of the child. This means that right away article 32 of the convention is not followed. Moreover, the government has a restriction policy for juniors which are aged from 11-17 (!only not even talking about 5-10 age group!) should work no more than 42 hours a week and should have appropriate work conditions which do not harm their health, do not affect their education, do not exhaust toxic chemicals and all of that should be supervised by MOLISA. ( MINISTRY OF LABOR INVALIDS AND SOCIAL AFFAIRS). No- because employers usually find loops in the law and enslave children on the terms written by the government. In most cases if they get approval by MOLISA they can make a child work for them, although any exploitation of the child younger than 15 years old is prohibited. What is more that to some extend government have no power in the child upbringing, some Vietnamese families believe that child from early age should contribute to the family budget, therefore children end up working on the domestic household working for miserable wages and no wages at all.

            How can we stop the problem? I believe that the only solution would be to enforce laws, which would absolutely protect rights of the children. The employers should be penalized financially for child labor, more than that they should pay back child’s family for all the working time (when one hour payment equal or higher than minimum wage). I believe that government should reconsider the laws and MOLISA should enforce stricter policy to protect child rights. The corporation like NIKE and other manufactories should be penalized financially too, because the shut down would lead to a crash in the Vietnamese economy, which is very well growing now.

Works cited:

• Brown, Marianne. "Vietnam's Lost Slave Labour Children." BBC News. N.p., 27 Aug. 2013. Web. 15 June 2014.
•  Fabics, Christine. "Nike's Use of Child Slave Labor." IHS Child Slave Labor News ::. N.p., June 2005. Web. 15 June 2014.

•            Huong, Nguyen Thi Lan, Nguyen Bao Cuong, and Tonh Thi Mai Hong. CHILD LABOUR SURVEY 2012 (n.d.): n. pag. Mar. 2014. Web. 11 June 2014.
  
  
•        What Is Child Labour." What Is Child Labour. ILO, n.d. Web. 15 June 2014.
     
  
  
•        "UNTC." UNTC. UN, n.d. Web. 17 June 2014.
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