US embassy cable - 05AMMAN6925

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 AMMAN 006925 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DOL/ILAB FOR TINA MCCARTER AND DRL/IL FOR LAUREN HOLT 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: ELAB, EIND, ETRD, PHUM, SOCI, JO, USAID 
SUBJECT: UPDATE OF WORST FORMS OF CHILD LABOR INFORMATION: 
JORDAN 
 
REF: A. STATE 143352 
     B. 04 AMMAN 6977 
 
1. Post has contacted appropriate ministries and NGOs per ref 
A in order to update ref B reporting on the worst forms of 
child labor in Jordan, and the efforts in place to combat 
them. The bulk of the information from ref B remains 
unchanged, and the worst forms of child labor, as defined in 
ILO Convention 182, are rare in Jordan. Following is updated 
information on current initiatives to combat child labor in 
Jordan, grouped by the source organization and subject. 
 
2. The Information and Resource Center (IRC) of the King 
Hussein Foundation (originally established by Queen Noor in 
1995 as the National Task Force for Children): The IRC has 
been conducting research on child labor for over one year. In 
2004, with funding from the Swiss Embassy in Amman, the IRC 
undertook an effort focused on street children in Irbid, a 
large city in northern Jordan, with a goal of expanding the 
effort to areas of Amman. As of yet, there are no published 
results. 
 
3. Questscope: UK-based Questscope, in coordination with the 
Ministries of Labor (MOL), Education (MOE), and Social 
Development (MoSD) implemented two projects aimed at 
eliminating child labor. Both projects focus on 
underprivileged children and those detained at juvenile 
centers. The first project provides adult mentors for 
"at-risk" youth. The mentor and child meet weekly for 
one-on-one activities, and groups of mentors and children 
regularly go on recreational outings or meet for educational 
activities. The project considers each child's experience and 
specific needs in partnering with organizations whose 
resources match individual cases. The World Bank funded the 
mentoring program until April 2005. The program is still 
operating, though on a severely limited scale, while 
Questscope lobbies for additional funding to keep it 
operational for another 18 months. The second project is 
dubbed "Earn & Learn". Citing statistics that some children 
provide 40% of their families' income, often through menial 
work and potentially dangerous jobs, the project aims to 
teach them vocational skills to help them attain higher 
grades of employment. The children start by participating in 
informal education classes after normal working hours to earn 
a diploma from the MOE. Those that earn the diploma are 
guaranteed one-year of vocational training. The Earn & Learn 
project is funded by the European Union and sponsored by the 
MOE. Currently, 200 dropouts are taking part in the education 
classes, and there are ten vocational training centers set up 
for the graduates. Jordan's Development and Employment Fund 
provides microfinance assistance to participants, enabling 
them to start their own businesses. 
 
4. The National Council for Family Affairs (NCFA): The NCFA 
was founded by royal decree and started official operations 
in 2001. The NCFA shares the original mandate of the National 
Task Force for Children, to advance the interests of 
Jordanian youth. The NCFA, however, has the expanded goal of 
ensuring a better life for Jordanian families. The NCFA is 
quasi-governmental, and provides policy recommendations and 
advocacy. It also facilitates coordination between the GOJ 
and the NGO community. The issue of child labor falls under 
the responsibility of the Childhood Unit at the NCFA, and it 
has worked hand in hand with Questscope on both the mentoring 
and Earn & Learn projects. 
 
5. MOL: In January 2004, the MOL announced a USD one million 
ILO project to combat child labor in Jordan. The project was 
to be implemented in coordination with the MOE and MoSD, and 
aimed to rehabilitate working children under 18 years of age, 
sending them back to school while helping their families to 
earn a living. The project set the lofty goal of benefiting 
500 families within three years. To date, this project has 
barely gotten off the ground. The current ILO administrator 
says that her predecessor had trouble organizing the project, 
but that work on a rehabilitation center is ongoing. 
Organizers hope to achieve tangible results by 2006. 
 
6. SCREAM - Stop Child Labor: The Ministry of Labor's Child 
Labor Unit (CLU) initiated this ILO-IPEC (International 
Program on the Elimination of Child Labor) program to raise 
awareness of child labor among young people. (NOTE: According 
to a 2002 CLU study, 32,000 children are working throughout 
Jordan. END NOTE.) The program consists of 14 modules in 
arts, education, and media. It conducted its first workshop 
in June 2004 to train 38 educators and volunteers on child 
labor and its negative consequences. Since then, it has 
conducted subsequent workshops at public universities in 
Jordan. The CLU is now working on an initiative to introduce 
the SCREAM modules in private universities, with the goal of 
incorporating them in a formal degree program on child 
protection studies. 
 
7. Pending Legislation: Jordan has signed the UN Convention 
on the Rights of the Child, but the corresponding 
ratification and implementing legislation is still pending 
approval in parliament. It was on the agenda for the recent 
extraordinary session of parliament this summer, but was not 
addressed. It will remain on the agenda when parliament 
reconvenes for its next ordinary session, likely in November. 
According to a UNICEF official, draft laws pertaining to 
children and juveniles have traditionally not been a high 
priority for members of parliament. Included in the 
implementing legislation is a provision to increase the 
minimum age for workers in hazardous occupations from 17 to 
18. In 2003 King Abdullah issued a royal decree increasing 
the minimum age of these workers to 18, and the Ministry of 
Labor has issued instructions to its inspectors to enforce 
this change. Jordan has ratified ILO convention 138, which 
raises the minimum working age to 18, and ILO law 182, which 
calls for the elimination of the worst forms of child labor. 
 
8. The National Center for Human Rights (NCHR), the NCFA, and 
UNICEF are jointly working on addressing child labor on two 
fronts: through the pending child rights law, and by amending 
current laws. The ILO and MOL are preparing to administer a 
rapid assessment survey on the worst forms of child labor, 
with the ILO currently finalizing the questionnaire. They 
hope to have preliminary results by November 2005. Current 
labor law does provide some measure of protection for working 
children. It limits the workday of a minor (defined as under 
18) to six hours, and provides for a one-hour break after 
four continuous hours of work. Also, working hours for 
children must be between 6:00am and 8:00pm. In practice, this 
law is not always strictly observed. The same 2002 CLU report 
revealed that 19 percent of children worked at least 10-hour 
days. 
 
9. The street scene: Child beggars are present on some 
streets in Amman. Many of these children are forced to beg by 
their parents. While there is no empirical evidence of sexual 
abuse, there are suspicions among the NGO community that such 
activities do occur, however infrequently. These children are 
vulnerable to exploitation, both by their families and by 
those who seek to employ them. The Ministry of Social 
Development's anti-vagrancy campaign works to detain and 
investigate the child beggars, and to prosecute those who 
exploit them. According to the MoSD, on average 20 child 
beggars are rounded up daily. Detained children must be 
picked up by their parents/guardian. However, there is 
currently no fine or penalty assessed against the parents. 
Consequently, there is no financial incentive for families to 
keep their children from returning to the street. 
HENZEL