Human Rights at Home and Abroad: Past, Present, and Future

top of the iceberg‖. Because Africa is the place with the most child labor law abuses, some other child
labor law abuses are overlooked. (International).
For example, it is estimated that in China half of the children that drop out of school are sent to
work in factories (China). Over twenty percent of their work force is made up of children, and it is
increasing more and more each year (China) Not only do these children get paid little to no money, but a
lot of children get kidnapped and sold off to factories to work (China). In 1994, around forty-eight shop
owners kidnapped more than one hundred children and took them across country borders to have them
work for them (China). When this was discovered and the children were rescued and taken back to their
homes. Some had said that they were forced to work for at least ten hours a day with no pay (China).
Many think China should increase the amount of effort they make to be sure children are staying safe
(International). If countries are going to have laws like these, they need to be able to follow through with
protecting their people and trying to keep them safe.
Some foreign countries are very strict with their child labor laws. In 2001, countless amounts of
child labor rings were found in Russia (Johnson). The Russian Federation then decided to update their
labor laws (Johnson). There are now specific codes that they follow very strictly. The codes state that any
child under the age of sixteen may not be hired to work, and if an employee is under the age of eighteen,
they may not work after the sun goes down (Russia). They also state that any one under the age of 18 is
absolutely forbidden to work somewhere that involves ―gambling, night cabarets and clubs, spirits,
tobacco, narcotic and toxic production, transportation and sale‖ (Johnson). These are considered
dangerous to their health and are forbidden. These rules are similar to some child labor laws in the United
States of America.
Even though it is thought of to only happen in developing countries, child labor secretly happens
in the United States every day. It is said that almost 4 percent of all 12- to 17-year-olds are employed
illegally in the United States (Foster). Surprisingly, in industrialized countries, the number of children
working illegally are almost even to the number of children in underdeveloped countries that are abused
through child labor (Department of Labor). Child Labor is classified in the United States by a federal law
36