The International Labour Organisation (ILO) in collaboration with the Alliance 8.7 global partnership is launching the international year for the elimination of child labour to encourage legislative and practical actions to eradicate the menace worldwide.
The International Year was unanimously adopted in a UN General Assembly resolution in 2019, with the main aim of urging governments to do what is necessary to achieve target 8.7 of the UN Sustainable Developmental Goal (SDG)
Target 8.7 asks Member States to take immediate and effective measures to eradicate forced labour, end modern slavery and human trafficking and secure the prohibition and elimination of the worst forms of child labour, including the recruitment and use of child soldiers, and by 2025 to end all forms of child labour.
A virtual event will take place January 21(Thursday) to launch the International Year.
A range of stakeholders, including the ILO Director-General Guy Ryder, UNICEF Executive Director Henrietta Fore, the Nobel Peace Laureate, Kailash Satyarthi and child labour survivor and activist, Amar Lal.
Throughout the year, a number of events will raise awareness of a problem that affects one in 10 children.
The joint initiative encourages regional, national and organisational stakeholders and individuals to identify concrete actions they will take by December 2021 to help end child labour.
The deadline to submit these Action Pledges is 30 March, even as pledge makers are invited to document their efforts and progress throughout the year, through videos, interviews, blogs and impact stories.
In the last 20 years, almost 100 million children were removed from child labour, bringing numbers down from 246 million in 2000 to 152 million in 2016.
