By Eric Green
Washington File Staff Writer

Washington -- The government of El Salvador has praised the United States and Spain for helping the Central American nation eradicate the worst forms of child labor.

In a June 24 letter to the Washington Post, El Salvador's ambassador to the United States, Rene Leon, said that with the support of the U.S. and Spanish governments, "some 10,000 [Salvadoran] children and parents have been assisted and removed from dangerous jobs," and that 35,000 more people are expected to receive help through 2005.

El Salvador, said Leon, "is working hard to eradicate child labor and create an environment in which all children complete their education."

Leon added that the U.S.-Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) will broaden labor protections for his country and for the other four Central American countries that have signed the agreement. CAFTA, Leon wrote, "will be a powerful catalyst for strengthening institutional reforms and El Salvador's ability to ensure implementation of core labor standards."

Leon's letter was in response to a June 10 Washington Post article, "El Salvador Scarred by Child Labor," which the ambassador charged "contained no information about El Salvador's progress in eradicating child labor."

In his rebuttal to the Post article, Leon said that since 1992, El Salvador has undergone a "dramatic transformation" from poverty, oppression, and civil war to economic growth, democracy, and political stability. Leon said his government has rebuilt the "industrial labor relations system and improved implementation and enforcement of labor laws, including those banning child labor."

In addition, the envoy said El Salvador was among the first countries in the Western Hemisphere to ratify a U.N. International Labor Organization (ILO) convention "on the worst forms of child labor and the first to eliminate child labor under a new ILO initiative."

For its part, the United States has provided since 2001 over $25 million in grants to help 14 countries in the Americas combat child labor in commercial sexual exploitation, agriculture, small-scale mining, domestic service and fireworks production.

As part of that assistance, the United States funds the Child Labor Education Initiative (EI) to improve the accessibility and quality of basic education for children who have been involved in the worst forms of child labor or are at risk of becoming involved. EI projects are devoted exclusively to supporting education as a powerful intervention for combating child labor. In the Americas, EI programs totaling $7 million are in place in El Salvador, Peru and Bolivia, with other programs planned for Brazil and the Dominican Republic.

The U.S. Department of Labor is also playing a key role in the negotiation of the labor provisions of free-trade agreements. This includes supporting the negotiation of free-trade agreements through capacity-building technical assistance projects aimed at strengthening labor law administration and compliance, and combating exploitative child labor. In fiscal year 2003, the Labor Department awarded $13.6 million in technical assistance grants aimed at strengthening labor law compliance in support of free-trade negotiations in Central America, and elsewhere around the world.

The ILO estimates that about 246 million children are involved in child labor around the world. One in eight of these children are reportedly exposed to conditions that endanger them physically, mentally or morally.