CHILD LABOUR: Statement on the Global Child Labour Conference

Statement on the Global Child Labour Conference - The Hague, 10-11 May, 2010 (European Network of Masters in Children's Rights)

Professors, researchers, guest professors, allies, of the European Network of Masters in Children’s Rights (ENMCR), regarding the Global Child Labour Conference organised by the International Labour Organization (ILO) and the Dutch Government in The Hague (The Netherlands) on 10 and 11 May 2010 express publicly their opinion as friends of working girls, boys and adolescents and state the following:

1. To urge competent authorities, within the remit of the United Nations and States parties, to revise ILO Conventions 138 and 182 in order to:

a) Find juridical coherence between ILO Conventions 138 and 182 and the Convention on the Rights of the Child under the principle of the best interest of the child;

b) innovate in social action to include the principle of participation of organised working boys, girls and adolescents, through their own representatives in a direct way within the ILO, expecting a favourable attitude towards their participation from this Organization;

c) respect the principle of non-discrimination of working girls, boys and adolescents, and accept their demand to be valued as workers;

d) implement actions against: i) economic exploitation, commercial sexual exploitation of children, slavery and similar forms of exploitation and to take to court the members of the mafia organisations who support those activities; ii) defend the rights of working girls, boys and adolescents when these are violated.

2. To demand from the competent authorities:

a) To carry out an independent and complete appraisal of the International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour (IPEC) so as to asses its pertinence, consistency, efficiency and impact;

b) To assess public policies aimed at the eradication promoted by the IPEC and implemented by the States Parties around the world;

c) To disseminate the results of the aforementioned evaluations.

3. As regards working girls, boys and adolescents in the context of a fair world for the future, it is recommended:

a) To take into account their right to express their opinion and their right of association so as to respect fully their participation as protagonists in all national and international decision taking instances in all matters concerning them;

b) To take into account and articulate their way of life within public policies, programmes, development projects and democratic governance;

c) To adopt inclusive policies for working girls, boys and adolescents living in the street as unemployed workers searching for work;

d) To adopt inclusive policies for sexually and economically exploited children and adolescents who are trying to free themselves from this subjection and have access to work in dignity;

e) To adopt inclusive policies for farming girls, boys and adolescents, members of communities and ethnic minorities, respecting their customary traditions, their education cultures, care for environment, territory and work, and particularly the right of girls, boys and adolescents to work in dignity within their communities.

4. As regards the policies of the European Governments, the European Union and the Council of Europe, it is recommended:

a) To respect and take into account in their policies the opinions and demands of working children and adolescents and their organisations in their continents;

b) To acknowledge the fact that there are many children and adolescents in Europe who have the experience of work and are searching for legal opportunities to work in dignity and free from exploitation;

c) To guarantee, at local, national and European level, and active and efficient participation of children and adolescents when decisions affecting their lives are taken, particularly those children and adolescents in disadvantageous conditions and social exclusion.

5. The undersigned will stay alert and examine academically the ILO Global Report on Child Labour 2010 when made public, and will state publicly their professional technical opinion if considered pertinent.

International Labour Day – May 1, 2010
Dr. Priscilla Alderson, Professor of Childhood Studies, Institute of Education, University of London, UK.
Dr. Tom Cockburn, Senior Lecturer in Applied Social Sciences, Department of Social Sciences and Humanities, University of Bradford, UK.
Dr. Susanne Elsen, Professor of Social Work, Free University of Bolzano, Italy.
Dr. Natália Fernandes, Lecturer and Researcher at the Institute of Education, University of Minho, Braga, Portugal.
Dr. Lourdes Gaitán, Sociologist, Independent Researcher in Childhood Studies, Madrid, Spain.
Dr. Máire Nic Ghiolla Phádraig, Senior Lecturer in Sociology, University of Dublin, Ireland.
r. Karl Hanson, Associate Professor, Children’s Rights Unit, Institut Universitaire “Kurt
Bösch”, Sion, Switzerland.
Dr. Beatrice Hungerland, Professor of Childhood Studies, University of Applied Sciences,
Magdeburg-Stendal, Germany.
Dr. Antonella Invernizzi, Research Consultant, France, and Honorary Research Fellow,
Swansea University, UK.
Dr. Mélanie Jacquemin, Sociologist, Centre d'Etudes africaines, Paris, France.
Dr. Nada Korać, Professor of Psychology, Faculty of Education in Jagodina, University of
Kragujevac, Serbia.
Dr. Madeleine Leonard, Professor of Sociology, Social Policy and Social Work, Queens
University, Belfast, UK.
Dr. Manfred Liebel, Professor Emeritus of Sociology, Technical University of Berlin; Senior
Fellow at the International Academy for Innovative Pedagogy, Psychology and Economy, Free
University of Berlin.
Dr. Jim McKechnie, Professor, Child Employment Research Group, University of the West of
Scotland, UK.
Dr. Brian Milne, Children's Rights Research Consultant, UK and France.
Dr. Virginia Morrow, Reader of Childhood Studies, Institute of Education, University of
London, UK; Editor of 'Childhood - A Journal of Global Child Research'.
Dr. Olga Nieuwenhuys, Lecturer, Department of Geography, Planning and International
Development Studies, University of Amsterdam, Netherlands; Editor of 'Childhood - A Journal
of Global Child Research'.
Dr. Jens Qvortrup, Professor Emeritus, Department of Sociology and Political Science,
Norwegian University for Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway.
Dr. Iván Rodríguez Pascual, Professor at the Department of Sociology and Social Work,
University of Huelva, Spain.
Dr. Maria Roth, Professor at the Faculty of Sociology and Social Work, University Babes-
Bolyai, Cluj-Napoca, Rumania.
Dr. Georg Rückriem, Professor Emeritus, Science of Education, University of Arts, Berlin,
Germany.
Dr. Manuel José Jacinto Sarmento Pereira, Professor, Director of the Social Studies on
Education and the PHD Program on Childhood Studies of Institute of Education at the
University of Minho, Braga, Portugal.
Dr. Giangi Schibotto, Lecturer and Researcher at the University of Bologna, Italy.
Dorte Thorsen, Associate Tutor, Centre for Migration Studies, Univerty of Sussex, Falmer,
Brighton, UK.
Dr. Catarina Tomás, Lecturer, Polytechnical Institute of Lisbon, Lisbon College of Education,
Portugal.
Dr. Ben White, International Institute of Social Studies, The Hague, and Professor at the
University of Amsterdam, Netherlands.
Dr. Anne Wihstutz, Lecturer, Department Science of Education, Martin Luther University
Halle-Wittenberg, Germany
Dr. Helmut Wintersberger, Lecturer at the University of Vienna and Senior Fellow at the
Ludwig Boltzmann Institute of Human Rights, Vienna, Austria.
Dr. Margherita Zander, Professor of Social Sciences, University of Applied Sciences, Münster,
Germany.
Grupo de Sociología de la Infancia y la Adolescencia, Colegio de Politólogos y Sociólogos de
Madrid, Spain.
Non-Europeans in support of this statement:
Dr. Michael F. C. Bourdillon, Professor Emeritus, Department of Sociology, University of
Zimbabwe, Harare, Zimbabwe.
Dr. Kristen Cheney, Assistant Professor of Anthropology, University of Dayton; Convener and
Advisory Board Chair of the American Anthropological Association's Anthropology of Children
and Childhood Interest Group, USA.
Dr. William E. Myers, Visiting Scholar, Department of Human and Community Development,
University of California, Davis, USA.

For more information, contact:
European Network of Masters in Children's Rights (ENMCR)
Coordination Office: Noëmi Fivat and Johanna Richter
International Academy at Free University of Berlin
Habelschwerdter Allee 45, D-14195 Berlin, Germany
Tel. +49-30-83852734
Fax: +49-30-83854656
Web: www.enmcr.net

Further information

• Read the Statement directed to the Global Child Labour Conference - The Hague, 10-11 May 2010 by MOLACNATs here.