WORKING CHILDREN IN YEMEN: A GENERATION PRONE TO DISASTER [Archives:1999/46/Reportage]

1st in a series 
Mohammed Al-Qadhi, 
Managing Editor 
Introduction 
Yemen will move into the third millennium with a heavy burden of problems and ordeals such as population explosion, poverty, unemployment, economic inflation, etc. In spite of the government’s adoption of the policy of economic reform, starting in 1995, the government is not able to avoid its negative impacts on account of the absence of accountability and transparency which could put an end to corruption, the major headache of Yemen. One of these detrimental impacts is the emergence of the phenomenon of a working children class in the Yemeni society. This phenomenon has been able to attract the attention of many people concerned who consider it a major problem deserving our full attention and concrete solutions. This is because it heralds an ominous future for a whole generation. In fact, it is a big problem to the economic and social development in Yemen, the main concern of the government. 
Yemeni Children & Legislation 
Before we start talking about this phenomenon, I will try to shed light on the children’s rights in the international, Arab as well as Yemeni legislation. The convention on the Rights of the Child says, “The CRC represents one of the most important international instruments for combating economic exploitation of children and child labor. Article 32 recognizes the right of the child to be protected from economic exploitation and from performing work that is likely hazardous or to interfere with the child’s education or to be harmful to the child’s health, or physical, mental, spiritual, moral or social development. The article also enjoys States Parties to take appropriate legislative, administrative, social, and educational measures to protect these rights.” 
The Arab treaties No. 1 of 1966 and No. of 1976 define the age of work of children; children under age of 15 years should not perform any industrial work and children under the age of 12 should not work at all. 
The amended Yemeni Constitution dictates in Article 30 “the state shall protect mothers and children, and shall sponsor the young.” 
But the Yemeni Labor Law No. 5 of 1995 doesn’t define the minimum age under which children are prohibited to work. However, article 49 of the Yemeni Labor Law prohibits the employment of children without the consent of their parents, and requires that once consent is received, children are registered with the Labor Office so that their conditions can be monitored. It also prohibits children from being employed in remote areas and requires the employer to provide a healthy and safe work environment in accordance with conditions stipulated by the Ministry of Labor. 
Article 48 of the same law states that working hours of juveniles must not exceed 7 hours per day and 42 hours per week, and that employers must provide a break for one hour during the working day and not make children work more than four hours consecutively. 
Article 145 imposes a fine ranging from YR 1,000 to YR 10,000 on employers in violation of the provisions for child workers. However, the provisions of the Labor Law are largely ignored in practice and the Labor Law itself suffers major shortcomings in terms of its ability to provide legal protection to working children. 
Continued next week 

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