VOA慢速英语2016 国际劳工组织发起取缔童工的行动

AS IT IS 2016-06-20 Group Works to End Child Labor¹ 国际劳工组织发起取缔童工的行动

The International Labor Organization, known as the ILO, has launched a campaign to end child labor.

国际劳工组织（ILO）发起了一项取缔童工的运动。

ILO officials organized a series of events to mark the World Day Against Child Labor earlier this month. Officials say child labor victimizes 168 million children worldwide.

本月早些时候，国际劳工组织的官员组织了一系列“世界无童工日”的活动。官员说童工问题使世界范围内1.68亿儿童深受其害。

The United Nations agency called a meeting of experts to examine how businesses use children to make goods that are sold throughout the world.

该联合国机构召开了专家会议，探讨企业是如何利用儿童制作售卖到全世界的商品的。

The meeting was held in Geneva, Switzerland.

会议在瑞士日内瓦召开。

That is the Choir² for the Abolition³ of Child Labor, a group of young people from Ivory Coast. The choir works to spread the message that children should be going to school, not working.

刚刚是“废除童工合唱团”，这是一个来自于象牙海岸的年轻人团体。这个合唱团的活动是要传播这样的理念：孩子们该去上学，而不应该去工作。

The music set the right note for the high-level discussion on ways to end child labor. The experts said children are now involved in every part of the supply chain -- from the manufacture of products to their distribution to buyers and other people.

他们的音乐，为关于取缔童工方法的讨论奠定了正确的基调。专家们说，现在在供应链的每一个环节都有孩子们的参与——从产品的制作到派送到买家和其他人手里。

Most child labor involves goods being made for consumers in the country in which the children are working. But children also produce goods and services for export.

童工参与制作的商品大多数都是供本国消费者使用的。不过也有童工制作了用于出口的商品和服务。

Guy Ryder is director-general of the International Labor Organization. He says governments, employers, workers’ unions and consumers must work together to end child labor. He says companies must work to make sure their suppliers are free of child labor.

盖·莱德是国际劳工组织的总干事。他说政府、雇主、工会和消费者必须联合起来才能取缔童工。他说企业必须有所行动，来确保他们的供应商没有使用童工。

“From enterprises, we need a clear message of zero tolerance⁴ of child labor. They need to know what is happening in their supply chains and to back that up with action in their business practices and dealings with suppliers. And this, I believe, is the common expectation of business in the 21st century.”

“我们需要企业明确地表态：我们对童工是零容忍的。他们需要知道在他们的供应链中发生了什么，必须要在商业实践和与供应商的交易中用行动拒绝这种行为。我认为，这是21世纪对企业的普遍期望。”

Children work for low or no pay in abusive, slave-like and dangerous conditions. They have jobs in agriculture, fishing, clothing manufacturing, electronics and mining.

童工的工资很低或者几乎没有，要在奴隶一般的危险环境下工作，还经常被打骂。他们的工作遍及农业、渔业、服装制造业、电子工业和采矿业。

Philip Jennings is general-secretary of UNI Global Union, a worldwide workers’ movement. He says not enough is being done to end child labor.

菲利浦·詹宁斯是一个世界性工人运动组织——全球工会联盟的秘书长。他说要取缔童工，做的努力还远远不够。

“There are 168 million reasons why we, as a community, cannot drop the ball and drop out of the conversation on child labor.”

“我们，作为一个团体，有1.68亿个不能推卸责任、不能从取缔童工的对话中退缩的理由。”

Jennings admits there has been progress in ending child labor. He notes that child labor has been reduced by one-third in the past 10 years. And he says governments have promised to end the custom by 2025.

詹宁斯承认，取缔童工确实有了一些进步。他指出，最近十年的童工已经减少了三分之一。他也说各国政府承诺，在2025年之前取缔使用童工的风气。

“The clock is running. The time for excuses from business is over. And we simply don’t buy the argument that it is all the fault of government. We want business to accept its responsibility and to work with the social partners and local governments to ensure that child labor isn’t a reality.”

“时间不等人啊。企业为自己开脱的时代已经过去了。我们就是不接受把错都推给政府这种论调。我们希望企业能够正视自己的责任，与社会伙伴和当地政府合作，保证不再有童工。”

The experts agree that one way to end child labor is for adults and young people of working age to have good jobs.

专家们一致同意，取缔童工的一个办法是保证成年人和适龄的年轻人都能有份好工作。

Some of the experts called on the ILO to write rules about how to end child labor in the complex global system that now exists.

一些专家呼吁国际劳工组织制定相关条款，用来在现在这样复杂的全球化体制下取缔童工。

Words in This Story

consumer - n. someone who uses something, such as a produce or service

abolition – n. the act of officially ending or stopping something; the act of abolishing something

supply chain – n. a system of organizations, people, activities, information and resources involved in moving a product or service from supplier to customer; activities involve the transformation⁵ of natural resources, raw materials and components⁶ into a finished product that is delivered to the customer.

enterprise – n. a business organization

zero tolerance – n. a policy of giving the most severe punishment possible to every person who commits a crime or breaks a rule; a policy of not permitting exceptions to a rule

practices – n. policies or actions of a business

clock is running – expression time is running out; people are watching to see what is being done

1 labor   

n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦

参考例句：

• We are never late in satisfying him for his labor.我们从不延误付给他劳动报酬。
• He was completely spent after two weeks of hard labor.艰苦劳动两周后，他已经疲惫不堪了。

2 choir   

n.唱诗班，唱诗班的席位，合唱团，舞蹈团；v.合唱

参考例句：

• The choir sang the words out with great vigor.合唱团以极大的热情唱出了歌词。
• The church choir is singing tonight.今晚教堂歌唱队要唱诗。

3 abolition   

n.废除，取消

参考例句：

• They declared for the abolition of slavery.他们声明赞成废除奴隶制度。
• The abolition of the monarchy was part of their price.废除君主制是他们的其中一部分条件。

4 tolerance   

n.宽容；容忍，忍受；耐药力；公差

参考例句：

• Tolerance is one of his strengths.宽容是他的一个优点。
• Human beings have limited tolerance of noise.人类对噪音的忍耐力有限。

5 transformation   

n.变化；改造；转变

参考例句：

• Going to college brought about a dramatic transformation in her outlook.上大学使她的观念发生了巨大的变化。
• He was struggling to make the transformation from single man to responsible husband.他正在努力使自己由单身汉变为可靠的丈夫。

6 components   

（机器、设备等的）构成要素，零件，成分； 成分( component的名词复数 )； [物理化学]组分； [数学]分量； （混合物的）组成部分

参考例句：

• the components of a machine 机器部件
• Our chemistry teacher often reduces a compound to its components in lab. 在实验室中化学老师常把化合物分解为各种成分。