Today is World Day Against Child Labor, and this year we have reached historical importance of the day as in 2009 we are also celebrate the 10th anniversary of the adoption of ILO Convention No. 182, which addresses the need for action to eliminate the worst forms of child labor.
Today marks the 2009 World Day Against Child Labor, this years theme is: ‘Education: The right response to child labor’. This year the ILO’s International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour (IPEC) has established the campaign to tackle the right to education for all children to brake the chain of child labour that envelops millions of children worldwide.
According to the International Labour Organization (ILO) there is an estimated 165 million children between the ages of 5 and 14 actively involved in child labor. Children are often forced to work long hours and are often forced to work in harsh and dangerous conditions. Child labor has a direct link to poverty, and provides a substantial barrier to a child’s education…thus enabling a barrier to a child’s education and increasing the literacy gap. Education is often taken for granted in developing nations, however many poor and impoverished families are forced to face the choose to send their child to school or work to help the family…it is that choice that has sent millions of children out of the classroom, often disparagingly girls, to toil in fields, factories, homes and the streets.
This years theme is, Give Girls a Chance: End Child Labor, which addresses the need for action to tackle the worst forms of child labour. Whilst celebrating progress made during the past ten years, the World Day will highlight the continuing challenges, with a focus on exploitation of girls in child labor. This years campaign has three main goals:
Child labor continues across the globe in various forms, and is seen in all industries. This week, International Labor Rights Forum’s (ILRF), Executive Director Bama Athreya was in Geneva at the ILO’s annual gathering, where they helped to organize an event yesterday about the continued use of forced child labor in Uzbekistan’s cotton industry. The event featured speakers including Kailash Satyarthi of the Global March Against Child Labor as well as many other leading figures from human rights and labor organizations, government officials and companies. The agenda from the event is available online here , you can also see my previous posts; A Call for a Boycott on Child Picked Uzbek Cotton and Child Picked Cotton…Central Asia’s Child Labor, for more information. The event in Geneva comes less than a week after ILRF released a new report detailing how forced child labor continues to be used in the most recent cotton harvest in Uzbekistan. Additionally, Uzbek human rights advocates just released a new call for an international boycott of Uzbek cotton.
Other industries which have been brought into the public spotlight include the cocoa industry, as seen in the following posts. Currently the ILRF is working with US and Liberia-based organizations to fight the use of child labor and abuse of workers’ rights on a rubber plantation in Liberia operated by the Firestone tire company. You can see more and join the fight at the Stop Firestone campaign, as well as the following article which describes the ongoing problems and click here for recent articles in regards to the environmental problems caused by Firestone’s practices.
The use of child labor impacts children’s rights in a multitude of aspects, the most detrimental in the long term is often seen in a child’s right to education. In order to meet the UN’s Millennium Development Goals by 2015, which has set to see that all children receive and complete a full their primary education, regardless of gender. However if the goals are to be meet then we must work to see that education is free, an issue which many families still struggle to attain funds for or are forced to choose between funds for school or often food for the family. Other issues of major priority include; gender equality in all levels of education, education and awareness about the issues and facts of child labor, and teacher shortages.
Education is not only a human right for all children, but the gateway out of poverty, as education is empowerment and empowerment is the key to brake the cycle of poverty.
About 75 million children, worldwide, do not have the privilege of basic primary education. The International Labor Organization, at its on-going 97th conference, noted that education was critical to breaking the cycle of child labor and poverty, as well as eradicating child labor in its worst forms by 2016…” http://www.vanguardngr.com/index.php?opt…)
For more information and resources on this years campaign to end child labor see:
The International Labor Organization (ILO)
International Labor Rights Forum (ILRF)
WHAT YOU CAN DO?
*ASK HERSHEY, MARS & NESTLE TO STOP USING CHILD LABOR: After you have asked Hershey, Mars and Nestle know that you want them to stop child labor in their cocoa supply chains, then ask 5 friends to join you? Click here to tell your friends!
* CREATE MORE AWARENESS WITH CHILD LABOR POSTERS: Click here to see ILRF’s child labor campaign posters and to find out how to order some.
* USE ILRF’S CHILD LABOR CLASSROOM RESOURCES: Help spread the word in your community be using our educational resources here. The ILO and Education International have additional classroom materials specifically for World Day Against Child Labor 2009 available here.
* MAKE GOOD PURCHASES: To support companies that respect labor rights, check out our Chocolate Company Scorecard and the Shop with a Conscience Consumer Guide.
* ASK YOUR FRIENDS TO JOIN THE ACTION LIST: The best way to get the latest information about child labor and new ways to take action is to sign up for ILRF’s urgent action list. As we launch new campaign efforts in the coming months, we need more voices calling for change.
