Dear Colleague:

Please join me for a briefing with Mr. Kailash Satyarthi to discuss the importance of protecting the labor and education rights of children around the world. The following are the details for this important briefing:

Unfortunately, child labor exists throughout the world and negatively impacts children's quality of life, health, and ability to receive a proper education. Moreover, child labor exploitation reinforces and promotes poverty, adult unemployment, poor living standards and low literacy rates. There are many leaders over the years that have worked towards strengthened protections for children and guarding youth from excessive, inappropriate, and hazardous labor.
Mr. Kailash Satyarthi in particular is a true leader and expert on issues dealing with child labor. In 1995, he received the prestigious Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award for his comprehensive human rights-based approach to combating child labor. Mr. Satyarthi currently serves as the Founder-Chairperson of Global March Against Child Labor and as the Chair of the International Center on Child Labor and Education (ICCLE). In addition, he has served as the Chairperson for the Global Campaign for Education (GCE) and as the Founder-Chairperson of Bachpan Bachao Andolan (BBA) / South Asian Coalition on Child Servitude (SACCS), which was initiated in 1980 as a mass movement and coalition for total elimination of child labor.

To enhance these efforts to combat child labor, Mr. Satyarthi has led and inspired the liberation of over 60,000 bonded child laborers from hazardous occupations. In addition, he architected one of the first internationally-recognized child labor-free social labeling systems called Rugmark. Mr. Satyarthi, along with select Presidents, Prime Ministers and U.N. Agency heads, is a member of UNESCO's "Education for All" delegation and has addressed the United Nations General Assembly, International Labor Conference, UN Human Rights Commission, and UNESCO.

I encourage you to join me in this unique opportunity to learn first-hand from Mr. Satyarthi about the successes and future challenges of eliminating child labor throughout the world and promoting education as a human right. If you have any questions, please call Kathy Kulkarni at 5-4671.

Sincerely,

Frank Pallone, Jr.