Human Rights Watch Student Task Force is a group of students and teachers from high schools in the Los Angeles area working to protect the rights of children worldwide. Launched in 1999, the Student Task Force began with fifty representatives from four high schools and focused on raising public awareness of the approximately 300,000 children, some as young as eight, are currently serving as soldiers in every major armed conflict in the world today. STF members invited experts like Boia Ephrame Jr., founder of the Mozambique child soldier rehabilitation center Rebuilding Hope, to speak at their schools and in their communities. They also organized petition and letter writing campaigns, held marches through the streets of Los Angeles and San Francisco, and raised money for Rebuilding Hope by selling ribbons and t-shirts designed and hand crafted by their own members.
By the 2000-2001 school year, STF membership grew and members focused on advocating for legislation to protect US child farmworkers from dangerous and exploitative labor conditions. To increase their knowledge about the issue, STF members read the HRW publication Fingers to the Bone, a report detailing the abhorrent conditions faced by child farmworkers and met with the author, Lee Tucker, to discuss recent developments and possible advocacy strategies. Next it was off to Washington, DC where several members met with Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA) to brief him on their campaign and subsequently received an invitation from the impressed Senator's staff to speak on behalf of child farmworkers at the Capitol Hill Forum on Abusive Child Labor in May 2001. Back on the West Coast, STF continued to raise awareness of the plight of child farmworkers by sponsoring a Los Angeles/San Francisco art competition. In addition, members canvassed their school communities to collect over 4,000 signatures in support of new legislation to protect child farmworkers, which were then presented to the Capitol Hill Forum by STF representatives Canek Pena-Vargas and Marisa Hernandez Stern.
For the 2001-2002 school year STF membership has expanded again to include eight schools, and will continue to campaign on behalf of child soldiers and child farmworkers.
Human Rights Watch Student Task Force is a group of students and teachers from high schools in the Los Angeles area working to protect the rights of children worldwide. Launched in 1999, the Student Task Force began with fifty representatives from four high schools and focused on raising public awareness of the approximately 300,000 children, some as young as eight, are currently serving as soldiers in every major armed conflict in the world today. STF members invited experts like Boia Ephrame Jr., founder of the Mozambique child soldier rehabilitation center Rebuilding Hope, to speak at their schools and in their communities. They also organized petition and letter writing campaigns, held marches through the streets of Los Angeles and San Francisco, and raised money for Rebuilding Hope by selling ribbons and t-shirts designed and hand crafted by their own members.
By the 2000-2001 school year, STF membership grew and members focused on advocating for legislation to protect US child farmworkers from dangerous and exploitative labor conditions. To increase their knowledge about the issue, STF members read the HRW publication Fingers to the Bone, a report detailing the abhorrent conditions faced by child farmworkers and met with the author, Lee Tucker, to discuss recent developments and possible advocacy strategies. Next it was off to Washington, DC where several members met with Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA) to brief him on their campaign and subsequently received an invitation from the impressed Senator's staff to speak on behalf of child farmworkers at the Capitol Hill Forum on Abusive Child Labor in May 2001. Back on the West Coast, STF continued to raise awareness of the plight of child farmworkers by sponsoring a Los Angeles/San Francisco art competition. In addition, members canvassed their school communities to collect over 4,000 signatures in support of new legislation to protect child farmworkers, which were then presented to the Capitol Hill Forum by STF representatives Canek Pena-Vargas and Marisa Hernandez Stern. 