Six months to the day after the unanimous acclamation on 11 May 2010 of the Roadmap for Achieving the Elimination of the Worst Forms of Child Labour by 2016 at the Global Child Labour Conference in The Hague, Global March Against Child Labour today announced that it will be organising an international multi-stakeholder consultation on the implementation of the Roadmap in the garment sector.

The consultation, “Roadmap 2016 and the Garment Sector”, will be held in New Delhi on 11 May 2011, 12 months after the acclamation of the Roadmap on 11 May 2010. The one-day event will be open to participation of all stakeholder groups, including relevant government departments, domestic and international manufacturing and retail companies, trade unions, civil society organisations, certification and social compliance initiatives, UN agencies and relevant international organisations. The objective will be to bring together all the different interest groups to discuss a way forward in tackling child labour and promoting the application of core labour standards at all levels of the supply chain in garment manufacturing.

“Roadmap 2016 is very clear in stating that we need leadership from all stakeholder groups in accelerating efforts to eliminate worst forms of child labour by 2016,” said Global March Chairperson Kailash Satyarthi in making the announcement on 11 December. “Global March is assuming its responsibility in moving the Roadmap forward and giving it meaning. If it does not lead to action that can bring about change in the lives of those children and vulnerable workers being exploited then it will have failed. The ILO Governing Body has now endorsed the Roadmap at its meeting in November and this means we all have to work swiftly and with determination to tackle not only the worst forms of child labour, but all forms of child labour.”

Action needs to be taken in all sectors to implement the Roadmap which highlights the importance of identifying and tackling child labour in the informal sector. Global March would like to see greater coherence and solidarity between stakeholder groups in their endeavours to combat child labour and ensure decent working conditions in the garment sector, particularly given the significant number of public and private initiatives that already exist.

“There are considerable opportunities to build greater momentum in tackling child labour and promoting decent work in the garment sector by ensuring improved knowledge management, communications and capacity-building and combining human, financial and knowledge resources,” said Global March Executive Director Nick Grisewood. “The process will require a great deal of goodwill and trust on all sides, particularly in terms of opening up supply chains to greater scrutiny so that we can comprehensively map the challenges and problems and direct joint action and resources into dealing with causes, and not only responding to consequences. We believe that the time is right to take this step forward together now which is why we are organising this consultation. 2016 is just around the corner and the Roadmap calls on us all to upscale and accelerate action, so let’s do it.”

Further information on the consultation will be available in due course and queries should be addressed to nick@globalmarch.org.

For a copy of Roadmap 2016 in English, French and Spanish, click here