The International Center on Child Labour and Education (ICCLE), the North American regional office of the Global March and its International Advocacy Office, is organising an international panel discussion in collaboration with the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars on 19th April 2010 in Washington D.C., USA. The theme of the discussion will be “Policy lessons from India, Brazil and South Africa on the development and implementation of National Plans of Action on the Elimination of Child Labour.”
The event will bring together the Ministers of Labour from three leading economies from three separate continents:
Mr Mallikarjun Kharge, Minister of Labour and Employment, India;
Mr Carlos Roberto Lupi, Minister of Labour and Employment, Brazil;
Mr Membathisi Mdladlana, Minister of Labour, South Africa.
The three ministers will be joined by Global March Chair Mr Kailash Satyarthi to review their national approaches in tackling child labour as a priority. Ministers will present key government programmes on child labour and present lessons learned in harmonising policy frameworks to ensure the mainstreaming of the issue across public service provision to reinforce sustainability. Presentations and discussions will also consider the importance of broad-based awareness activities aimed at the general public and various stakeholder groups.
Challenges and lessons learned in policy mainstreaming will be presented and discussed, as well as the crucial importance of adaptation and replication of programmes that effectively combat child labour. The panel is being organised on the eve of a major global event focusing the attention of the international community on the challenge of eliminating child labour and how to accelerate, expand and improve efforts to achieve this vital development goal. The Global Conference on Child Labour is being co-organised by theInternational Labour Organization (ILO) and the Ministry of Social Affairs and Employment of the Netherlands and will be held in The Hague from 10 to 11 May 2010.
The conference will effectively map out a strategic plan to support the elimination of the worst forms of child labour by 2016 and underpin a broader ambition of eliminating all forms of child labour as soon as possible. Part of the focus of the panel will be to take into account the long experience of these three countries in considering ways to achieve a world without worst forms of child labour by 2016.
Global March is looking forward to the strategic vision and political courage that India, Brazil and South Africa will bring to the debate on child labour elimination to ensure that not only the goal of 2016 can be achieved, but that greater efforts to eliminate all forms of child labour could be improved. This crucial development goal will not be achieved unless there is a significant and accelerated increase in the level of resources directed towards the implementation, follow-up of national action plans and into existing multi-stakeholder mechanisms, such as the Global Task Force on Child Labour and Education.
Global March hopes that this panel discussion will assist in the moulding of a meaningful outcome to the global conference and to examining potential roles and responsibilities of India, Brazil and South Africa in supporting the follow-up and monitoring process and providing leadership and guidance across their respective regions.
The event will be moderated by Mr Paulo Sotero, Director of the Brazil Institute of the Woodrow Wilson Center and Dr Sudhanshu Joshi, Director of the ICCLE. The programme will start at 9:00 and finish at 11:00 and will be held in the 6th floor auditorium. The event is open to all and registration should be made in advance to Ms Amanda Earley (amanda.earley@wilsoncenter.org). Further details can be downloaded here and a full report of the panel discussion will be available on the Global March web site following the event.
Download – Summary Report
Press Release:
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