Sunday, November 19, 2017

Child Labour

The 4th Global Conference on the Sustained Eradication of Child Labour, which drew nearly 2000 delegates from 190 countries to the Argentine, left many declarations of good intentions but nothing to celebrate. Children were notably absent from the event. Child labour is declining far too slowly, in the midst of unprecedented growth in migration and forced displacement that aggravate the situation, said representatives. Unless something changes, the goal set by the international community, that child labour in all its forms is to be eradicated by 2025, will not be met.

The conference recognised that child labour is mostly concentrated in agriculture and is growing. While the general numbers for child labour dwindled from 162 million to 152 million since 2013, in rural areas the number grew: from 98 to 108 million. 71 percent of child labour is concentrated in agriculture, and 42 percent of that work is hazardous and is carried out in informal and family enterprises.

Bernd Seiffert, focal point on child labour, gender, equity and rural employment at the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) explained, “We heard a lot in this conference about the role played by child labour in global supply chains. But the majority of boys and girls work for the local value chains, in the production of food.”

2014 Nobel Peace Prize-winner Kailash Satyarthi said “We know that children are used because they are the cheapest labour force. But I ask how much longer we are going to keep coming to these conferences to go over the same things again. The next meeting should be held only if it is to celebrate achievements,” he said.

“We understand that children who work have no other option and that we should not criminalise but protect them and make sure that the conditions in which they perform tasks do not put them at risk or prevent their education,” said Anne Jacob, of the Germany-based Kindernothilfe, “it is outrageous that the problem of child labour should be addressed without listening to children. After talking with them, we understood that there is no global solution to this issue, but that the structural causes can only be resolved locally, depending on the economic, cultural and social circumstances of each place.”

Virginia Gamba, special representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict, explained that “modern armed conflicts use children as if they were disposable materials. Children are no longer in the periphery of conflicts but at the centre.”


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