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Article

1 Feb 2007

Author:
Doug Cahn, TheCahnGroup, former Vice President of Reebok Human Rights Programs, in Ethical Corporation

Child labour – A crucial goal remains to be scored [Pakistan]

Ten years after the signing of the Atlanta Partnership on child labour, what will it take to finally eliminate the practice in the manufacture of footballs? Doug Cahn examines the issues...So what are we to make of the fact that nearly a decade after this landmark collaboration was birthed, Saga Sports has been dropped by a major global brand [Nike]? Activists in Pakistan have long warned of a resurgence of child labour, pushed into ever more remote villages surrounding Sialkot to avoid inspectors. In many cases, child labourers simply migrated to the nearby surgical instrument manufacturers. Saga Sports may have been the focus of recent scrutiny but surely it is not alone in its reluctance to shun inexpensive and plentiful child labour.