Growing up in Washington, D.C., during the
Vietnam War era, Sonia Rosen '82 went to civil
rights demonstrations, not ball games (although she says
she is now an avid Baltimore Orioles fan).
Since then, her concern for human
rights has propelled her into positions with such groups
as Amnesty International and the Minnesota Advocates for
Human Rights.
Now, as director of the International
Child Labor Study Program in the U.S. Department of
Labor, she oversees research and investigation of child
labor worldwide at the request of Congress. Recent
studies have focused on child labor in manufacturing and
mining imports, child labor in agricultural imports,
forced and bonded (or slave) child labor, codes of
conduct relating to child labor among U.S. companies
importing apparel and cohesion to those codes, private
sector efforts to create a labeling program identifying
goods not produced by child labor, and child
prostitution.
Rosen, a political science major,
received her law degree from the University of Minnesota.
She worked for the Minnesota Advocates for Human Rights
and then directed the U.S. Midwest Region of Amnesty
International before taking the job at the Department of
Labor.
Child labor issues have increasingly
appeared in the press, and Rosen and her staffers have
felt the impact of this media outbreak. “We were the
only office within the U.S. Government that had been
publishing in this area,” she explains. “By the
time the Kathie Lee Gifford case came about, we had been
working on the issue and had the information
available.”
Rosen says that more groups are
becoming interested in child labor issues. “I think
we've played a good role in making the American public
aware,” she says. “I've been in the human
rights field a long time and I've seen more movement on
this issue in a short period of time than in any other
issue.”
Rosen says the best part of her job is
the opportunity to make a difference.
“I really feel like I am making a
difference — that in the long run, our work can make a
positive contribution to somebody's life,” she says.
“I feel lucky to be able to be a part of creating
institutional change and being a fundamental part of
making society better, even if it sometimes is on a lower
level.”
She is responsible for administering a
$5 million grant from Congress to the International Labor
Organization, which has led to programs getting children
out of the factories and into schools. She cites one
program for displaced workers in Nepal as a success.
“Children who typically work twelve hour days are
suddenly given a chance to have a childhood and be happy,
playing, and going to school,” she says.
Her trips abroad — to Thailand,
Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan, the Philippines,
Central America, and throughout Europe — are often
memorable as she reaches out to people who are surprised
that there are agencies willing to help. “Once, a
few years back, I was touring the slums of the
Philippines and the people there were so honored that
somebody cared about them,” she explains. “It
was a high point — but it's also a lot of
responsibility. To work in this field, you have to learn
to laugh at yourself so that you don't get depressed. You
learn to take wins when they come and to recognize the
small wins.”