HL Deb 16 May 1972 vol 330 cc1280-1
LORD BROCKWAY

My Lords, I beg leave to ask the second Question which stands in my name on the Order Paper.

The Question was as follows:

To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they will ask the Human Rights Commission of the United Nations to investigate the charges that young African boys between the ages of 8 and 15 have been kidnapped and employed compulsorily in farming labour gangs in South Africa.

BARONESS TWEEDSMUIR OF BELHELVIE

My Lords, as my honourable friend the Parliamentary Under-Secretary said in another place on April 18, we have no information about the allegation to which the noble Lord refers, and consequently did not raise the matter at the 1972 Session of the United Nations Human Rights Commission, which ended on April 7.

LORD BROCKWAY

My Lords, in thanking the noble Baroness, may I say that I should be very glad to send her the information? But may I ask her whether it is not a fact that at Boksburg, near Johannesburg, African boys of 8 years of age who were not attending school, often because their parents could not afford the fees, were picked up and conscripted in farming labour gangs until they were 16 years of age? Is this not a form of juvenile slavery which ought to be brought to the attention of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights?

BARONESS TWEEDSMUIR OF BELHELVIE

My Lords, I read the allegations in the People newspaper very carefully, and the Government are of course asking our Mission in South Africa to try to find out whether in fact, and to what extent, these allegations are true.