Regional Meeting of National Coordinators of Central America, Mexico and The Caribbean of Global March Against Child Labour

The main objective of this meeting was to evaluate the efforts developed in the region addressing the eradication of child labor since 1998, as well as the identification of the main themes and key challenges for the work of the Global March in each country and for the region, looking to strengthen the work of Global March for Central America, Mexico and The Caribbean, within an International, regional and national context.

Achievements

The Global March is an international movement that mobilizes efforts to protect and to promote  children's' rights, especially the right to access quality education, and to be free of the economic exploitation and any 
another activity that injures their social, moral, spiritual, mental, and physical development, having the Convention concerning Minimum Age for Admission to Employment C 138 and the Worst Forms of Child Labor Convention C182 of ILO, as well as the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child as framework.

Global March works to eradicate child labor at national, regional and international levels through developing monitoring and advocacy actions. Since 1998 the movement mobilized efforts with the objective of promoting
and impacting the elaboration and ratification of the Worst Forms of Child Labor Convention of ILO, C182.

In Central America, Mexico and The Caribbean, the Global March has addressed it works around mobilization and raised awareness of the child labor problematic in the region, it also has promoted the elaboration of national legislation concerning the protection of the working children, as well as the ratification of international human rights instruments, mainly the C 182 and C 138 of ILO.  Global March has provided a valuable support in the definition of national positions respect the child labor problematic, and has participated in the construction of the national plans for the eradication of the child labor, as well as in the characterization of the worst forms of child labor.  The establishment of the new mechanism of the Global Task Force on Child labor, Education and Poverty was hailed and it was seen as an important first step in the direction of addressing the cross cutting issues of structural poverty and prevalence of child labor. 

It was expected that this new mechanism will enable guide the work of the countries that have very high rates of poverty and endemic child labor situation. The context of Central American countries in this regard was important because of very high percentage of aggregate poverty and deteriorating child labor situation. It was stressed that ILO should re- invigorate itself to face this challenge of particularities of Central American countries.

After the evaluation, national coordinators studied the progresses and current limitations, this way they present the need to establish a strategic action plan for the next years.  The following are the priority perspectives that the national coordinators defined:

To promote and guarantee children's active participation at national and regional levels to eradicate the child labor.

To intensively promote the integration of the child labor elimination in the national plans, strategies in the ongoing efforts on poverty alleviation, education for all and the Millennium Development Goals. The regional consultations concluded that the only way to ensure success in the realization of the MDG's rests on addressing the issue of elimination of child labor on priority. The National Coordinators will dedicate themselves in working with the Governments on making conscious adjustments in the national plans, strategies and resources allocation from this perspective.

To promote and strengthen the existing alliances within trade union sectors, mass media and business sector in order to combine efforts in the eradication of the child labor in the region.

To strengthen the monitoring and demanding process to put pressure on governments to carry out the international commitments, regarding the application of the public policies and legislative and institutional reforms and social investment, in order to develop the nationals plans of child labor eradication.

To strengthen the capacities of the national coalitions, and the articulation and coordination links between the national and regional coordination of the Global March in Central America, Mexico and The Caribbean.

To promote the agenda of mobilization of Global March to a regional level, about the child labor issue: such as the access, permanence and quality of the education, child labor and child domestic work, trafficking
and sexual commercial exploitation, child labor at the informal sector and the relation within the migration process and its impact in migrant child workers.

To study and analyze the implications and impact of the coming into effect of the Free Trade Agreements, globalization process and the structural adjustment policies from the perspective of children's rights, in 
order to raise awareness and to incorporate the effect and incident of these processes in the fulfillment of children's human rights, especially in the Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, on the approach of the politics and economic programs. It was also stressed that the new thrust of the work will be to invest in identifying the involvement of the child labor in the supply chains to the markets in European Union and the United States in goods, products and commodities.