Thread: World Day Against Child Labour - 12 June

World Day Against Child Labour - 12 June



Hundreds of millions of girls and boys throughout the world are engaged in work that deprives them of adequate education, health, leisure and basic freedoms, violating their rights. Of these children, more than half are exposed to the worst forms of child labour such as work in hazardous environments, slavery, or other forms of forced labour, illicit activities such as drug trafficking and prostitution, as well as involvement in armed conflict.

The International Labour Organization (ILO) launched the first World Day Against Child Labour in 2002 as a way to highlight the plight of these children.The day, which is observed on June 12th, is intended to serve as a catalyst for the growing worldwide movement against child labour, reflected in the huge number of ratifications of ILO Convention No. 182 on the worst forms of child labour and ILO Convention No. 138 on the minimum age for employment.

The World Day Against Child Labour provides and opportunity to gain further support of individual governments and that of the ILO social partners, civil society and others, including schools, youth and women's groups as well as the media, in the campaign against child labour.

ilo.org

WORLD DAY AGAINST CHILD LABOUR 2011



World Day Against Child Labour 2011


Warning! Children in hazardous work - End child labour

The ILO’s most recent global estimate is that 115 million children are involved in hazardous work. This is work that by its nature or the circumstances in which it is carried out, is likely to harm children’s health, safety or morals. Children working in many different industries and occupations can be exposed to such risks and the problem is global, affecting industrialised as well as developing countries.

Hazardous work is among the worst forms of child labour which the international community has targeted for elimination by 2016. The need for urgent action in order to reach this target was both the theme of The Hague Global Child Labour Conference in 2010 which adopted a Roadmap for the elimination of the worst forms of child labour, and has been endorsed in the ILO’s Global Action Plan.

The 2011 World Day Against Child Labour will provide a global spotlight on hazardous child labour, and call for urgent action to tackle the problem. On this World Day we call for:

• New urgency in identifying and tackling hazardous child labour, as an important means to make progress on the global goal of eliminating the worst forms of child labour;
• Recognising that hazardous work is part of the larger child labour problem, scaling up global, national and local level efforts against all forms of child labour through education, social protection and strategies to promote decent and productive work for youth and adults;
• Building strong tripartite action on the issue of the hazardous work of children, using international standards and the experience of employers’ and workers’ organizations in the area of safety and health.

ilo.org

Migrant Children: The Most Vulnerable
Thursday, 19 December 2013

The International Labour Organisation (ILO) estimates that of the world’s 215 million child labourers, 115 million are involved in hazardous work, including 41 million girls and 74 million boys; 53 million are aged 5-14, and 62 million are aged 15-17. The number of child labourers engaged in hazardous work between the ages of 15-17 is increasing.

According to a 2011 report by the International Organization for Migration (IOM), an estimated 200,000 migrant children younger than 17 are in Thailand -– of which less than one third have access to education. Thousands of them come to Thailand unaccompanied by adults.

Under the UN Declaration of Human Rights, the children accompanying their parents across the border as well as those born stateless in Thailand have a universal right to education. In 2005 the Thai government passed a resolution, stating that all children living in Thailand should have access to education regardless of race, nationality or legal status. But for many, this fails to become reality.

Ko Naing Min, Director of the Committee for Protection and Promotion of Child Rights (CPPCR), aims to safeguard the welfare of migrant children in the Mae Sot area, but said that increased caseload of children was putting a strain on resources.

“According to our estimates we can say that between 28,000-30,000 migrant children in the Mae Sot area. 14,000 of them don’t attend school (outside school) making them more at risk to things like sexual abuses, exploitation, child labour and accidents (like getting hit by trucks).” He said these cases were on the increase and that the risks were great for migrant children.

“We focus on two education of these kids and responding to cases of abuse – sometimes this involves rescuing kids from dangerous places and putting them in safe houses.” He added.

Ko Naing Min said that the CPPCR was the only organisation of it’s kind in the Mae Sot area, which meant that children could easily fall through the cracks altogether. “At the moment groups working on the migrant children issue are dropping – in fact CPPCR is the only organisation providing this type of service for children specifically in the Mae Sot area. So the less groups working on this issue is causing more risk for the children involved.”

The children have good reason to seek a life in Thailand, better access to education, healthcare and relative political stability are what brings them across the border – some come to avoid becoming part of Burma’s civil conflicts which have raged for decades. In 2002, Human Rights Watch (HRW) estimated that there were around 70,000 children in the 350,000 strong SPDC armed forces. According to these statistics; one in five soldiers of the SPDC armed forces is a child. A 2013 report by CNN stated that recruiters of child soldiers were still active and that according to analysis from risk analysis company Maplecroft, Myanmar still ranks number eight on the global index, where its use of child soldiers is considered “extreme”.

bnionline.net