CHILD LABOUR: Declaration adopted at global conference

[11 October 2013] - 

The III Global Conference on Child Labour, held in Brasilia from 8 to 10 October, took stock of the progress made since The Hague Global Child Labour Conference 2010, assessed remaining obstacles and agreed on measures to strengthen actions to eliminate the worst forms of child labour by 2016, as well as to eradicate all forms of child labour.

As highlighted by the Special Representative on Violence Against Children, Marta Santos Pais, “Violence and child labour go hand in hand, and they keep the child hostage in a dramatic vicious cycle. Both compromise children’s development and education, as well as their adequate standard of living; they hamper children’s health, rest and play; and at times lead to the prosecution and deprivation of liberty of child victims. In all cases, it constitutes a denial of children’s right to protection from violence, abuse and exploitation. But beyond the serious and long lasting impact on individual children, child labor and violence have a high social cost, holding back human development and preventing progress in the promotion of equity and social inclusion. But these child rights violations are not inevitable; they can be prevented and effectively addressed, she added.”

The Brasilia Declaration expressed resolve to promote efforts to encourage social change by addressing attitudes and practices that play a significant part in condoning or tolerating child labour, including violence and abuse. It reiterated the importance of promoting the universal ratification and effective implementation of ILO standards and of the United Nations (UN) Convention on the Rights of the Child and its Optional Protocols, and called for the establishment and further improvement of legal and institutional frameworks to prevent and eliminate child labour, for more and better national statistics and information and for measures to extend and improve access to free, compulsory and quality education for all children, as well as for the progressive universalization of social protection. 

FURTHER INFORMATION:

• Read more about violence against children on CRIN's microsite
• Visit the official page of the Third Global Conference on Child Labour
• Read about the campaign to urge governments to ratify the Domestic Workers Convention