WASHINGTON — U.S. Secretary of Labor Thomas E. Perez on Tuesday announced the Honorable Sen. Tom Harkin of Iowa as the recipient of the department’s 2014 Iqbal Masih Award for the Elimination of Child Labor. Secretary Perez presented the award to Sen. Harkin at a ceremony.
Secretary Perez selected Sen. Harkin in recognition of his global leadership in mobilizing governments, the public and the private sector to eradicate the worst forms of child labor worldwide. In 1999, Sen. Harkin played an instrumental role in securing support for the United States’ ratification of International Labor Organization Convention 182 on the worst forms of child labor, which resulted in unprecedented commitments by signatory countries to take urgent actions to address child labor. Throughout his Senate career, Sen. Harkin has supported legislation to help increase awareness of child labor globally and government actions to eliminate the worst forms of child labor. Sen. Harkin was a key proponent of the issuance of Executive Order 13126 during the Clinton administration, which is intended to ensure that U.S. federal agencies do not procure goods made by forced or indentured child labor.
In West Africa, Sen. Harkin has been a driving force in bringing together the governments of Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana, the international chocolate and cocoa industry, and civil society actors to help reduce child labor in cocoa production. His efforts resulted in the signing of the Harkin-Engel Protocol in 2001, a landmark voluntary commitment by cocoa industry leaders to address the worst forms of child labor in the West African cocoa sector. In 2010, he was influential in securing further commitments from public-and private-sector stakeholders to expand actions to address this issue through a Declaration of Joint Action, signed by the National Confectioners Association and the governments of Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana and the United States.
In announcing the award, Secretary Perez said, “Senator Tom Harkin is our champion in the fight to end child labor, and his passion, his energy and his unprecedented commitment to stopping abusive practices has resonated across America and across the globe. He gives voice to all the working children who cannot speak up for themselves, who cannot protest the hazards and dangers they are forced to endure. The department is honored to present this award to Tom Harkin.”
Congress established the Iqbal Masih Award for the Elimination of Child Labor in 2009 to recognize exceptional efforts by an individual, company, organization or national government to end the worst forms of child labor. Sen. Harkin is the sixth recipient of the award.
This nonmonetary award honors the spirit of Iqbal Masih, a Pakistani child sold into bonded labor as a carpet weaver at age four. He escaped his servitude and became an outspoken advocate for children’s rights, drawing international attention in his fight against child labor. In 1995, Iqbal Masih was killed in Pakistan at the age of 13.
