2021: International Year for the Elimination of Child Labor
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#ILO; #ChildLabor; #EliminationOfChildLabor; #Covid19Pandemic; #SDGs
ILO/Canadian-Media: The International Labor Organization (ILO), in collaboration with the Alliance 8.7 global partnership, is launching the International Year for the Elimination of Child Labor, to encourage legislative and practical actions to eradicate child labor worldwide ILO reports said.
Child labor has decreased by 38 percent in the last decade but 152 million children are still affected. The COVID-19 pandemic has considerably worsened the situation, but joint and decisive action can reverse this trend,
The International Year was unanimously adopted in a UN General Assembly resolution in 2019. The main aim of the year is to urge governments to do what is necessary to achieve Target 8.7 of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Target 8.7 asks the Member States to take immediate and effective measures to eradicate forced labor, end modern slavery and human trafficking, and secure the prohibition and elimination of the worst forms of child labor, including the recruitment and use of child soldiers, and by 2025 to end child labor in all its forms.
A virtual event will take place on 21 January to launch the International Year. A range of stakeholders will take part, including the ILO Director-General, Guy Ryder, UNICEF Executive Director, Henrietta Fore, the Nobel Peace Laureate, Kailash Satyarthi, and child labor survivor and activist, Amar Lal.
Throughout the year a number of events will raise awareness of a problem that affects one in 10 children.
The joint initiative encourages regional, national, and organizational stakeholders and individuals to identify concrete actions that they will take by December 2021, to help end child labor. The deadline to submit these Action Pledges is 30 March. Pledge makers are invited to document their efforts and progress throughout the year, through videos, interviews, blogs, and impact stories.
In the last 20 years, almost 100 million children have been removed from child labor, bringing numbers down from 246 million in 2000 to 152 million in 2016.
