World Day Against Child Labour 2022; June 12th.

 FORUM: "Universal Social Protection to End Child Labour" World Day Against Child Labour 2022.

12 June marks the World Day Against Child Labour under the theme “Universal Social Protection to End Child Labour.” On this day, the ILO, together with its constituents and partners, is calling for increased investment in social protection systems and schemes to establish solid social protection floors and protect children from child labour.

Social protection is both a human right and a potent policy tool to prevent families from resorting to child labour in times of crisis. However, as of 2020 and before the COVID-19 crisis took hold, only 46.9 per cent of the global population were effectively covered by at least one social protection benefit. Coverage for children is even lower. Nearly three quarters of children, 1.5 billion, lacked social protection.

 STATEMENTS

In his statement for World Day Against Child Labour 2022, International Labour Organization Director-General, Guy Ryder, warns the choices made by governments now will make or break the lives of millions of children. He says social protection is one of the most powerful measures to prevent child labour, providing families with income security in difficult times.

EVENTS

• World Day Against Child Labour: High-level Discussion on Universal Social Protection to End Child Labour 

Friday, 3 June 2022 at 15:30 until 17:00 (Europe/Zurich)
High-level event organized by the International Labour Organization (ILO) during the 110th Session of the International Labour Conference, with the support of Alliance 8.7 and the Global Partnership for Universal Social Protection (USP2030). The discussion will focus on the ILO/UNICEF report on social protection and child labour, released at the 5th Global Conference on Child Labour in May 2022. This report demonstrates that a majority of studies on the links between social protection and child labour have identified a child labour reduction effect.
Hosts
Guy Ryder. ILO Director-General International Labour Organization (ILO)
Catherine Russell, Executive Director United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF)

• 5th Global Conference on the Elimination of Child Labour

Durban, 15-20 May 2022.

PUBLICATIONS

For more information on social protection and child labour see the report: The role of social protection in the elimination of child labour: Evidence review and policy implications .

Durban Call to Actionon the Eliminationof Child Labour

We, the representatives of governments, employers’ organizations and workers’ organizations, together with United Nations Agencies, international and civil society organizations, businesses, children and academic institutions, the participants of the 5th Global Conference on the Elimination of Child Labour, gathered in Durban, South Africa and around the world, stand together in our commitment to prevent and eliminate child labour and forced labour; Welcoming the universal ratification of the Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention, 1999 (No. 182) by all ILO Member States, an historic first, which is also the most rapidly ratified Convention in the history of the ILO, and the decisive strides made by governments, employers’ organizations, and workers’ organizations resulting in a decline in child labour of some 86 million since 2000; Alarmed that, according to the 2020 Global Estimates of Child Labour, 160 million girls and boys remain in child labour, half of whom are in hazardous work; 112 million are in agriculture; and the recruitment of child soldiers continues; and that in the 2016-2020 period, child labour increased by 8.9 million, entirely among children aged 5-11; Noting with grave concern the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic, armed conflicts, and humanitarian and environmental crises, which threaten to reverse years of progress against child labour; Convinced that meeting target 8.7 of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, to end child labour in all its forms by 2025, requires immediate, intensified, gender-responsive, wellcoordinated, multi-sectoral, multi-stakeholder, rights-based action to scale up efforts to eliminate child labour and forced labour; Recalling target 8.7, the Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention, 1999 (No. 182), the Minimum Age Convention, 1973 (No. 138), the Forced Labour Convention, 1930 (No. 29) and the Protocol of 2014 to the Forced Labour Convention, 1930, the Abolition of Forced Labour Convention, 1957 (No. 105); the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child and its first and second Optional Protocols; the United Nations Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children, supplementing the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime, Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) Target 1.31 and the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child; Recognizing that decent work for all, including for women, in all their diversity, and adequate income for adults, inclusive and well-performing education systems, and adequate social protection systems are essential for child labour elimination and for protection against poverty, the main cause of child labour; Respecting children’s capacity to form their own views and their right to effectively participate and express those views freely in all matters affecting them; Recognizing the responsibility of businesses and their contribution to the elimination of child labour and forced labour by carrying out due diligence in their operations and supply chains and ensuring responsible and sustainable business practices that address the root causes of child labour and forced labour, in line with the Tripartite Declaration of Principles concerning Multinational Enterprises and Social Policy, and the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights; further acknowledging the role of guidance from the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, including the Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises and Due Diligence Guidance for Responsible Business Conduct. 

CALL TO ACTION 

We adopt on the twentieth day of May of the year two thousand and twenty-two this Durban Call to Action on the Elimination of Child Labour.

 We commit to scale up action to: 

I - Accelerate multi-stakeholder efforts to prevent and eliminate child labour, with priority given to the worst forms of child labour, by making decent work a reality for adults and youth above the minimum age for work. 

II - End child labour in agriculture. 

III - Strengthen the prevention and elimination of child labour, including its worst forms, forced labour, modern slavery and trafficking in persons, and the protection of survivors through datadriven and survivor-informed policy and programmatic responses.

IV - Realize children’s right to education and ensure universal access to free, compulsory, quality, equitable and inclusive education and training. 

V - Achieve universal access to social protection. 

VI - Increase financing and international cooperation for the elimination of child labour and forced labour