The UN Millennium Goal Development Summit will be held in New York from 20-22 September 2010. In this respect Global March is launching a campaign to demand the inclusion of child labour elimination as a global priority and a prerequisite for the realisation of the MDGs. While not explicit in the list of eight Goals, eliminating child labour is as critical as the others and cuts across the themes of them all.

Several international organizations, mainly from Africa, had the opportunity to see how the MV Foundation in India tackles child labour problems and get children back to school.

The Council of the European Union of the Ministers of Foreign Affairs has decided to take a number of policy measures to increase the European contribution to the elimination of child labour. The Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs in particular has been pushing for this in the European Union. During the last few years the campaign `Stop Child Labour - School is the best place to work´ has been suggesting a number of ways in which the European Union could contribute to the elimination all forms of child labour. The Council Conclusions can be found here.

More than half a million children in India below 18 years are growing cottonseed and vegetable seeds under hazardous conditions, including very long working hours and exposure to pesticides. Around 230.000 of them are below 14 years of age. They produce the seed on the land of small and marginal farmers to which multinational and Indian seed companies have outsourced their hybrid seed production.

Child labour below 14 in cottonseed production, though still a huge problem, has decreased in India with 25%. The decline is much more in areas where the MV Foundation (an NGO) and companies like Bayer and Monsanto have made efforts to eliminate it.

On the 26 of May FNV chair Agnes Jongerius en ICN director Gerard Oonk presented the Dutch version of the Action Plan for Companies to Combat Child Labour' to the Dutch Minister of Foreign Affairs Mr. Maxime Verhagen. The Minister wrote a preface to this Dutch edition in which he urges companies to use the Action Plan in a step-by-step approach to eradicate child labour in their supply-chains.

Stop Child Labour has welcomed the adoption of a new child labour “Roadmap” at the Global Child Labour Conference in the Dutch capital The Hague from 10-11 May 2010. The Roadmap gives a new push to reach a target set by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) to eliminate the worst forms of child labour by 2016, including through area-based and sector-based programmes aimed at the elimination of all forms of child labour.

A new study commissioned by the Dutch Trade Union Confederation FNV on the links between child labour and decent work for adults reveals that adults can substantially improve their wages and working conditions in cases where (almost) all child labour is eradicated.

The 'Stop Child Labour' campaign's petition 'Eradicate All Child labour - Get Every Child Into School' has been signed by thousands of organizations and individuals. The petition will be presented to the chair of the Global Child Labour Conference, Minister Donner of the Dutch Ministry of Social Affairs and Employment, on the 10th of May by the chair of the Dutch Federation of Trade Unions, Mrs. Agnes Jongerius together with Mr. Venkat Reddy, co-ordinator of the MV Foundation in India, an organization which has spearheaded a movement which has brought 600.000 children from work to full-time schools.

The World Day against Child Labour will be celebrated on 12 June 2010. It comes just one month after a major Global Conference on Child Labour is to be held in the Netherlands, the first event of its kind for more than 10 years. The World Day will provide an early opportunity for national and local activities to follow up on the momentum generated by the Global Conference, and to scale up the worldwide movement to tackle child labour.

More information on the World Day, special publications and advocacy materials can be downloaded from the web page.

The 2nd of April the campaign ‘Stop Child labour – School is the best place to work’ launched a worldwide petition in the run-up to the Global Child Labour Conference in The Hague, The Netherlands which takes place on the 10th and 11th of May this year. The petition urges for a major shift in the international approach to child labour. The conference in The Hague will focus on the worst forms of child labour. However, Stop Child Labour feels that time has come for a global action plan against all forms of child labour that keep children out of school and/or harm their health. Also employers have to guarantee not to make use of any child labour, including in their supply chain.

Sign the petition here.