PETITION

ERADICATE ALL CHILD LABOUR – GET EVERY CHILD INTO SCHOOL

On the 10th and 11th of May a Global Child Labour Conference will be held in The Hague, The Netherlands, where also the ILO will present its last Global Report on Child Labour.

The campaign 'Stop Child Labour – School is the best place to work' urges governments, employers and workers represented in the ILO to develop and implement a time-bound global action plan to eliminate all forms of child labour as all children have the right to free full-time quality education. Governments have the main responsibility to make this happen. However, also employers have to guarantee not to make use of or otherwise benefit from child labour, including in their supply-chain.

Ten years ago the ILO Convention 182 on the Worst Forms of Child Labour came into force. It was to be a stepping stone for the implementation of the ILO Minimum Age of Employment Convention (Convention 138) which before 1998 was ratified by only 58 countries. Since then the emphasis lies on the eradication of the worst forms of child labour, culminating in a Global Action Plan of the ILO to ban these by 2016.

However, more than four out of five countries have now ratified both Conventions and are therefore ready to tackle all forms of child labour that both Conventions deal with. The international community is also obliged by Millennium Goal 2 to get every child in school by 2015. This can only be achieved by eradicating all forms of child labour.

We need a major shift in our approach to child labour now

The Hague Global Child Labour Conference will again primarily focus on the worst forms of child labour. However, time has come to eradicate ALL forms of child labour, including of course the worst forms for children up to 18 years of age.

Experience has taught us that when only children engaged in worst form of child labour are targeted they are still vulnerable and at risk of getting into other work. Focussing on all forms of child labour in an area and getting them into full-time education turns out to be more effective. It prevents children from becoming available for the labour market. And let us not forget: every working child takes away work from adults and depresses their wages. Focusing on tackling 'the worst forms' has also sent the wrong signal to a range of actors, including companies and NGOs, that same forms of child labour are acceptable though they keep children out of school and harm their development. However: a world without child labour and the right to education is something that we have promised to all children!

We call on the participants of The Hague Child Labour Conference to discuss the need for a Global Action Plan against all forms of child labour. In June the International Labour Conference of the ILO in Geneva should then decide to develop such an Global Action Plan before the end of 2010 and implement it by 2016. National Action Plans by all ILO members and a binding commitment by employers not to engage in and/or benefit from child labour, should be integral part of such a Global Plan.