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World Day Against Child Labour (12 June 2007) Each year the World Day Against Child Labour has often focused on one of the “Worst Forms of Child labour” listed in Convention No.182, starting with the Unconditional Worst Forms, such as child trafficking. This was then followed by child domestic work and then child labour in mining last year. The event is aimed at mobilizing people around the world against child labour and its worst forms, reflecting local cultures and customs, while encouraging the participation of authorities, the media, civil society and the public at large. This year the World Day Against Child Labour focuses on the elimination of child labour in agriculture. Worldwide, agriculture is the sector where the largest percentage of working children is found - nearly 70 percent. Over 132 million girls and boys aged 5 to 14 years old often work from sun up to sun down on farms and plantations, planting and harvesting crops, spraying pesticides, and tending livestock. _____________________________________________________________ ILO-International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour (IPEC)The International Labour Organization’s goal with regard to child labour is the progressive elimination of all its forms worldwide. The worst forms of child labour, which include hazardous work, commercial sexual exploitation, trafficking of children and all forms of slavery, among others, should be abolished as a priority. The ILO seeks to strategically position child labour elimination at the macro-level in socio-economic development and poverty reduction strategies of its member countries in order to encourage mainstreaming and integration of child labour issues and concerns. In doing so, the ILO – through its International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour (IPEC) – emphasizes the need for assessing and monitoring the extent and nature of the problem, the strengthening of institutional capacities and the provision of assistance for the development and implementation of national policies. It is clear from IPEC experience that parents and families who are given a viable choice prefer to keep children out of the workplace. Thus, the ILO’s strategies have put increasing emphasis on poverty alleviation particularly through the promotion of opportunities for decent work for parents as well as expanding and improving institutional mechanisms for education and law enforcement, among other key areas of work. As such, the work of IPEC fits into and supports various development frameworks, such as the Millennium Development Goals, the Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers and the Education for All Initiative. |