ILO going all out to tackle inhumane practice

The International Labour Organization (ILO) is expected to ramp up efforts to encourage countries around the world to eradicate child labour.

In this regard, the ILO in collaboration with the Alliance 8.7 global partnership is expected to launch the International Year for the Elimination of Child Labour on Thursday, January 21.

A range of stakeholders are expected to take part in the virtual event, which will promote the joint initiative that is designed to encourage governments, national organizations and individuals to identify concrete actions they will take by December 2021 to help end child labour.

According to the ILO, almost 100 million children have been removed from child labour in the last 20 years, bringing numbers down from 246 million in the year 2000, to 152 million in 2016.

It is reported that almost half of all reported child labour takes place in Africa (about 72 million children), followed by Asia and the pacific (62 million), with 70 per cent of them in agriculture.

Addressing the opening of a recent National Child Labour seminar, Minister of Labour and Social Partnership Colin Jordan said Barbados had no reported cases of child labour and he warned everyone to play a role in ensuring the scourge never raises its head.

Countries and organizations will have until March 30, 2021 to submit their action pledges for the International Year for the Elimination of Child Labour. They will document their efforts and progress throughout the year through videos, interviews, blogs and impact stories.

The International Year for the Elimination of Child Labour was adopted in a UN General Assembly resolution in 2019.

The ILO said a main aim of the year is to urge governments to do what is necessary to achieve target 8.7 of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which 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 child labour in all its forms.