New “Roadmap” to Boost Action on Child Labour

Brussels, 14 May 2010 (ITUC OnLine):  The ITUC has welcomed the adoption of a new child labour “Roadmap” http://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/—dgreports/—dcomm/documents/meetingdocument/wcms_127018.pdf at an international conference in the Dutch capital The Hague this week, which will give a new push to reach a target set by the International Labour Organisation to eliminate the worst forms of child labour by 2016.

“With 215 million children at work instead of school, and around half of these in the most hazardous and exploitative forms of child labour, the international community needs to push much harder if there is to be any chance of reaching the 2016 deadline.  It is an international scandal that, nearly 40 years after the ILO adopted Convention 138 on the Minimum Age for Employment, and more than a decade since the adoption of Convention 182 on the Worst Forms of Child Labour, so many boys and girls are still at work in the fields, streets, and factories or in domestic work instead of getting an education,” said ITUC General Secretary Guy Ryder.

30 trade union representatives from the ITUC, national affiliates and Global Union Federations took part in the Conference alongside representatives of employer organisations, governments from 80 countries and non-government organisations including the Global March Against Child Labour.  The union delegation was hosted by the ITUC-affiliated FNV-Netherlands and the Dutch Government, which organised the event in cooperation with the ILO.

The Roadmap recognises that tackling the worst forms of child labour works best when it is integrated into action to abolish all child labour and provide free, quality education to all children without exception.  It puts the agriculture sector, which accounts for 60% of child labour, and domestic work, in which mainly girls face appalling exploitation, into the international spotlight, and recognises that providing decent jobs to adults is crucial in ensuring that children are able to go to school and complete their education.

The results of the Conference will be submitted to the June ILO Conference, which will debate progress towards ending child labour, based on a key ILO report “Accelerating action against child labour” http://www.ilo.org/global/What_we_do/Publications/lang–en/docName–WCMS_126752/index.htm. –ITUC OnLine

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