MALTE WERNER
It is no secret that tobacco causes serious health risks to the consumer. However, a lesser known fact is that it also poses significant health risks to the workers involved in its production. As child labour is deeply rooted in the tobacco industry, the most vulnerable of these workers are often young children.
The 334th Session of the Governing Body of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) which took place 25 October – 8 November 2018 could be a crucial turning point in the relationship between the leading tobacco corporations and the ILO in the fight against child labour in the tobacco industry. In the run-up to the session more than 100 health and anti-tobacco groups have addressed a letter to the governing body urging it to finally cut all financial ties to the tobacco industry, namely, Japan Tobacco International (JTI) under the “ARISE” initiative, and the industry-funded “Eliminating Child Labour in Tobacco Growing” Foundation (ECLT).
According to the ILO, an estimated 158 million children worldwide are regarded as victims of child labour[1]. More than 70% of all child workers are believed to work in the agricultural sector[2], and many on hazardous tobacco farms. Although the absolute number of those in child labour has dropped by more than 60% since the beginning of the millennium[3], there is still a large degree of uncertainty as to how much this trend is actually reflected in the tobacco industry.
It is certain, however, that working on tobacco farms involves a number of health risks including ‘green tobacco sickness’ which is triggered by nicotine absorbed through the skin. According to “Plan International” a child working on a tobacco farm without sufficient protection can absorb up to 54 milligrams of nicotine per day, the same amount as contained in 50 cigarettes.[4]
The ILO has recently received $15-million in funding from JTI and the ECLT Foundation to target child labour and to promote working conditions on tobacco farms in Brazil, Malawi, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia. This funding is part of the social responsibility policy approach taken by the major tobacco companies such as “British American Tobacco” and “Philip Morris International.”
Yet, this approach lacks credibility and casts doubts on the true intentions of the tobacco industry. While JTI claims its “ARISE” programme helped to remove 39,000 children from tobacco farms, critical organisations maintain that the industry’s efforts would merely have a nominal effect.[5] It is argued that the agenda of social responsibility, purportedly pursued by the tobacco industry, is mostly an attempt to whitewash their supply chains. After all, the tobacco industry pockets most of the profit generated by cheap child labour.
Furthermore, it is claimed that the cooperation with governmental and international organisations is a tactic used by the tobacco industry to gain influence on impactful policy decisions regarding the regulation of production and sale of tobacco. This claim is backed by a study evaluating documents from the “Truth Tobacco Industry Documents Library”[6], a publicly accessible online platform containing previously-sealed documents. The article brings forward a number of internal communication records as proof of the industry using cooperation with international and governmental organisations as a form of lobbying for the interests of the tobacco industry. The study claims that the success of this attempt could be seen in the decreasing efforts of UNICEF to promote compliance with the United Nations Charter on the Rights of the Child (CRC) in the tobacco growing industry.
As the funding of the ECLT officially ended in June 2018, cooperation on the ARISE project is set to end in December 2018, and there is considerable uncertainty as to whether a new agreement will be reached. Nonetheless, it is time for the United Nations to devise a new strategy against child labour in the tobacco industry.
As the Article cited above powerfully argues, the Charter on the Rights of the Child already constitutes a very clear framework for the fight against child labour.[7] It is long overdue for UNICEF to play a more active role in this effort and to join the fight alongside the ILO.
However, it is crucial to appreciate that there is no single solution to this problem. Extreme forms of child labour are deeply intertwined with extreme poverty, which is caused by various factors differing from country to country. Accordingly, all legislative attempts to reduce child labour in the tobacco industry, need to be matched with appropriate policies and programmes enabling and encouraging compliance with existing or new laws. Brazil’s effort to reduce child labour in the past two decades serves as a vivid example of this.[8] Only a clinical[9] and holistic approach by the ILO and UNICEF in close cooperation with local governmental and non-governmental organisations can offer the prospect of real change. While the ILO’s 2017 world report on child labour appears to be a promising starting point,[10] the ILO now needs to move on from words to actions. Severing the ties to the tobacco industry now could lay the foundations for such action, enabling child workers worldwide to get off of tobacco farms and into schools.
[1] “Ending child labour by 2025: a review of policies and programmes”, ILO, 2017
[2] ibid
[3] ibid
[4] https://plan-international.org/news/2009-08-24-child-tobacco-pickers-poisoned-reveals-report
[5] https://www.thecitizen.co.tz/News/Pressure-builds-on-ILO-to-cut-tobacco-ties/1840386-4832310-d5nobqz/index.html
[6] van der Eijk Y, Bialous SA, Glantz S. The Tobacco Industry and Children’s Rights. Pediatrics. 2018; 141(5):e20174106
[7] ibid
[8] http://www.ucw-project.org/attachment/Brazil_20june1120110622_103357.pdf
[9] https://www.theglobalist.com/development-economics-as-clinical-economics/
[10] “Ending child labour by 2025: a review of policies and programmes”, ILO, 2017
