Global March Against Child Labour will participate in the III Global Conference on Child Labour which is to be held next week, from 8-10 October 2013 in Brasilia, Brazil.
The objective of the III Conference is to take stock of all the actions taken till date in the fight against child labour and to widely exchange and share experiences of good practices and interventions from all countries and regions to accelerate progress in ending child labour. Recent statistics on child labour in the International Labour Organization (ILO)’s new report reveal a progress – a reduction to 168 million in 2013 from 215 million in 2010. The III Conference will evaluate against the measures laid down in the Roadmap for Achieving the Elimination of The Worst Forms of Child Labour, which was adopted in the II Conference held in 2010 at the Hague.
The III Conference will see participation from over 1,000 delegates representing governments, trade unions, employers organisations and civil society organisations.
Global March Chairperson, Kailash Satyarthi will participate as a speaker in the Plenary Session on Sustainable Elimination of Child Labour, which will be held on the first day of the III Conference. Mr. Satyarthi will also be a speaker in the semi-plenary on Child Labour in Agriculture which will be on the second day of the Conference. Last year, Global March had organised an International Conference on Child Labour in Agriculture at Washington D.C. to draw global attention on the issue of agricultural child labour, which constitutes the majority of all child labour (about 60%). At the III Conference, Global March will bring forth and share with other participants, the conclusive suggestions and discussions that came out from the Agriculture Conference as reflected in its outcome document, the Framework of Action.
Global March will also participate in the semi-plenary on Child Labour in Domestic Work. Global March earlier this year along with other organisations had actively demanded for a special session at the III Conference dedicated to the issue of child domestic labour. Child domestic labour is a current focus for Global March with an ongoing global campaign on the issue that is focusing on awareness raising and promoting ratification of Convention 189 on Decent Work for Domestic Workers, the only international treaty that explicitly deals with child domestic labour. With around 11.5 million children engaged in this invisible form of child exploitation that faces an increasing demand by the growing middle class for cheap domestic helps, child domestic labour is an important concern that needs a priority focus.
