I think where there is the most progress is in the chocolate sector. In significant part that's because in 2003 there was a film made by the British Channel 4 that exposed the issue of trafficking in forced child labour in Côte d'Ivoire in particular. This caused a significant shock through most of the chocolate brands across the world, many of which had roots within the Quaker movement and had a very strong social conscience as part of their business. Consequent to that, they set up the International Cocoa Initiative, which is an effort against child labour in cocoa and has on its board both corporations and trade unions. Also, most businesses now have their own initiatives that are trying to respond to the issue of child labour within the cocoa sector.
More recently there has been some comparable confrontation within the garment sector around the issue of forced child labour in garment manufacturing, as Jo referred to this in some of her evidence, but this is only a beginning. The garment sector is early in its approach towards dealing with these issues within its supply chain.
However, to go back to cocoa for a second, one of the most significant things is that many of the chocolate businesses have recognized explicitly and publicly that child labour, and to a lesser extent child slavery, is a major problem in their supply chain. Consequently, they've said that they're going to try to do something about it. Most other businesses are still in a state of denial.
Also, in dealing with the issues of child labour, many of the chocolate businesses have established what would essentially be the equivalent to community development approaches towards this. They're working with whole communities. They're working with a child-centred approach to try to build awareness amongst communities about the problems with child labour and the paths out of child labour for the whole family.
Most child labour occurs within a family context. That's one of the things that distinguishes it from child slavery. “Child slavery” is defined in the UN's supplementary slavery convention as the handing over of a child to a third party for the purposes of exploitation. Bearing that in mind, it's important to remember that when child labour is occurring within a family context, most families want to do right by their children. They just don't have that many options in terms of how to do the best by them. It's important to work with families, and indeed with whole communities, in order to reduce the causes of child labour.
One of the key causal factors of child labour is education, or the lack of it. Often schools are distant. Often the quality of education within those schools is very poor. Sometimes the treatment of children in the schools is very poor. Families sometimes don't send their children to school because they're terrified of the corporal punishment the children may receive. Many girls don't attend school, particularly in their teenage years, because there aren't safe, clean, and private sanitary facilities for them. These are all contributors to child labour. Families decide to keep their kids at home rather than send them to school because they don't see the benefit of education for them.
A significant approach against child labour has to be in relation to education, particularly improving the quality of and access to education, with a stronger component of vocational education and teaching of human rights, particularly girls' rights, in those education curricula. It's important to conceive of the laws that you're thinking about in conjunction with Canada's aid policy and aid strategies. I very much agree with Jo's proposal for the elements of a law dealing with supply chains, but that would be importantly complemented by an effective aid policy or strategy that looks very centrally at the issue of education and empowerment of kids as a means to reduce child labour within families and communities.