While the United States invoked the Vienna Convention and violation of minimum wage paid to domestic workers in Indian diplomat Devyani Khobragade’s case, a 2013 report by Human Rights Watch (HRW), a leading rights group based in New York, observed rampant violation of child labour laws in US.
“Child farm workers, most of them Latino, often work 10 or more hours a day and risk pesticide poisoning, heat illness, injuries, life-long disabilities, and death,” report said, adding that 75 per cent of children suffered fatal occupational injuries in 2010.
“Thousands more are injured each year. Federal protections that do exist are often not enforced... With some exceptions, farm workers- both child and adult - are legally entitled to minimum wage but employers often falsify payroll records to show fewer hours than the employee actually worked,” the report further said.
HRW concluded that children work 10 or more hours a day with girls being vulnerable to sexual abuse.
UK Group Report
A report prepared by UK-based group Reprieve and funded by European Union also exposed US duplicity on the Vienna Convention. The report suggest that US is the worst violator of the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations (VCCR). Out of 102 prisoners on death row in various states, there was VCCR compliance in just five cases. In over 95 per cent cases, VCCR was denied by the US. Report added that foreign nationals were at a significant disadvantage when confronted with intricacies of the US criminal justice system.