Prime Minister Hun Sen called on the government to prepare a five-year plan “against the trade and sexual exploitation of children” Friday at a commemoration of International Children’s Day at Independence Monument.
“The Royal Government is committed to making all efforts to eliminate child labor and school dropouts among children,” the prime minister said.
Speaking before 3,000 school children and 170 teachers, the premier noted that International Children’s Day was founded after the world learned of Nazi German massacres of children in Europe during World War II.
He noted that Cambodia suffered its own genocidal horror under the Pol Pot regime, which orphaned thousands of children.
Em Chan Makara, the 17-year-old chairman of the Children’s Committee, told gatherers that children worry about trafficking, violence, glue-sniffing, education, HIV/AIDS and the fact that many poor children are not given birth registration papers.
“Because children are ignorant, they are easy to cheat,” he said.
Also Friday morning, several union organizations gathered near the National Museum to urge the government to approve an International Labor Organization convention that calls on governments to end the worst forms of child labor.
About 10 percent of garment factory workers are below age 18, said Chhorn Sokha, director of the Coalition of Cambodian Apparel Workers Democratic Union. Most of those workers, however, are children who lied about their age to get a job reserved for workers over 18, she said.
The gathering was unique in that the unions usually compete for members. Ken Chheng Lang, of the National Independent Federation Textile Union of Cambodia, predicted more cooperation between the unions in the future.
