Child Labor in the Production of Sports Equipment
Summary Minutes – of 13.06.2002 – Temporary Edition
Child Labor in the Production of Sports Equipment
P5_TA(2002)0326
Resolution of the European Parliament on child labor in the production of sports equipment
The European Parliament,
– having regard to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child of 1989,
– having regard to the Special Session of the United Nations General Assembly on Children held in New York on 9 and 10 May 2002,
– having regard to the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the EU, and in particular Article 24 on the rights of the child(1),
– having regard to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of the United Nations, as well as the European Convention on Human Rights,
– having regard to the ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work, adopted by the International Labour Conference at its 86th session on 18 June 1998,
– having regard to ILO Conventions No. 138 of 1973 and No. 182 of 1999 on the effective abolition of child labor,
– having regard to the Commission communication to the Council, the European Parliament, and the Economic and Social Committee titled ‘Promoting fundamental labor standards and improving social governance in the context of globalization’ (COM(2001) 416),
– having regard to the Commission’s Green Paper (COM(2001) 366) and its resolution of 30 May 2002 on the Commission’s Green Paper on Corporate Social Responsibility(2),
– having regard to the ‘Intentions Charter’ approved by the Organizing Committee of the XX Winter Olympic Games (Turin 2006),
– having regard to the fact that the IOC chose 12 June as the World Day Against Child Labor,
– having regard to its previous resolutions on child labor,
A. whereas the use of child labor in the football industry remains a common practice worldwide, despite the fact that FIFA and sports equipment manufacturing companies committed in 1978 to comply with FIFA’s Code of Labor Practice, which prohibits the use of child labor in licensed products,
B. whereas FIFA admitted in 2000 that there was no problem in verifying that the ‘prize balls’ with the company logo and the event name (in this case, the 2002 World Cup) came exclusively from FIFA-authorized official companies,
C. whereas, despite the fact that FIFA, the IOC, UNICEF, trade unions, and civil society organizations have established social protection programs and monitoring systems to prevent and eliminate child labor in India and Pakistan, recently published reports provide clear evidence that many children, sometimes as young as 10 years old, continue to produce footballs, outside the main stitching areas in both countries, even with the label ‘no child labor used’,
D. whereas child labor perpetuates poverty and hinders development by lowering wages, rendering adults unemployed, and depriving children of education, and is contrary to human dignity,
E. whereas the campaign for the World Cup began in 2001 with the Global March, which stemmed from an international march four years earlier when thousands of people walked over 80,000 kilometers across four continents in order to mobilize worldwide action against child labor,
F. whereas the EU should clarify its positions on social governance in the context of new multilateral negotiations at the WTO, and that, on this occasion, the positions of the European Parliament should be integrated into the Community’s strategy,
G. whereas there is increasing consumer resistance in some Western countries regarding the purchase of products made by children,
1. condemns all forms of child exploitation and calls for the eradication of child labor, particularly in the football industry;
2. emphasizes the close relationship between policies supporting education and those aimed at combating child labor, and therefore calls on the Commission and the Member States to take action in this area to ensure that all children withdrawn from labor are rehabilitated and given the opportunity to receive education, healthcare, and food;
3. calls on the European Union and its Member States to ensure that, in agreements with third countries, children are protected from violence, exploitation—particularly through labor—and abuse;
4. calls on FIFA and the concerned sports equipment manufacturing companies a) to ensure that no children are used in the production of sportswear and footballs licensed by FIFA, b) to implement FIFA’s Code of Labor Practice, which was agreed upon by FIFA, ICFTU, ITGLF, and FIET (now UNI) in 1996, and c) to agree on a transparent, reliable, and independent monitoring and verification system for the production in the football industry;
5. calls on all sports equipment manufacturing companies a) to fully implement their contractual agreement with FIFA regarding child labor, b) to disclose all sports equipment production sites and allow the drafting of independently verified reports certifying that their products are produced in accordance with FIFA’s Convention regarding the provision of sustainable wages;
6. calls for the establishment of a global certification method for sports equipment produced without the use of child labor, similar to the certification used by the Utz Kapeh Foundation in the coffee industry;
7. urgently calls on the IOC to develop a reliable and independent inspection system in order to monitor the labor standards of the IOC in the global sports equipment manufacturing industry, and, based on this system, to develop IOC standards for cooperation between the public and private sectors, with the aim of implementing effective labor inspection methods;
8. believes that more resources should be allocated to the International Labour Organization’s International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour;
9. calls on FIFA and national football federations to make the 2006 World Cup in Germany the first sporting event free of child labor and in compliance with proper labor standards;
10. urgently calls on UNICEF to use its cooperation with FIFA to promote children’s rights, in order to pressure FIFA to fully implement its obligations regarding the abolition of child labor and the enforcement of other labor rights;
11. urgently calls on football players and the associations representing them to ensure that, in the future, sponsor companies will not directly or indirectly use child labor in the production of their products;
12. welcomes the initiative for an ‘Intentions Charter’ approved by the Organizing Committee of the XX Winter Olympic Games (Turin 2006);
13. calls on the Commission to submit a report before the end of 2002 on the steps and measures taken in follow-up to this resolution;
14. mandates its President to forward this resolution to the European Council, the Commission, FIFA, the IOC, and UNICEF.