- June 12 marks the World Day Against Child Labor. The General Assembly of the United Nations (UN) declared 2021 as the International Year for the Elimination of Child Labor.
- The number of girls and boys in child labor currently stands at 160 million worldwide, after an increase of 8.4 million in the past four years, and several million more children are at risk due to the effects of COVID-19.
The number of children in child labor currently stands at 160 million worldwide, after an increase of 8.4 million in the last four years, and several million more girls and boys are at risk due to the effects of COVID-19, according to the results of a new joint report by the International Labor Organization (ILO) and UNICEF.[1]
Within the framework of World Day Against Child Labor, The initiative Weaving Childhood Nets in Latin America and the Caribbean, carried out the Webinar How to face the challenges for child labor from civil society? with the participation of Latin American experts.
The virtual event was moderated by Juan Martín Pérez García, Regional Coordinator of the initiative. In his first speech, he mentioned that despite the reduction in the figure regarding child labor in recent decades in Latin America and the Caribbean, as a result of the global pandemic due to Covid-19, mothers and fathers have lost jobs and income family members, affecting girls, boys and adolescents who, as a necessity of survival, join child labor, therefore, it is important to listen to them and recognize their right to participation.
During the intervention of Nadia Cruz, Ombudsman in Bolivia, shared that some Latin American societies integrate their own work activities, including child labor, as an important part of community organization, which contributes to the culture and family economy, maintaining a firm stance of rejection of the worst forms of child exploitation.
Isaac Ruiz, from the Center for Social Studies and Publications Marcha Global (CESIP) in Peru, pointed out that, as part of the figures presented by the ILO, the increase in hazardous work stands out, which harms the development, integrity and future of children. Some of the productive activities that represent a risk for children are: mining, agriculture and contact with agrochemicals or the sale of products in the street with long hours, before which the State must act as a guarantor of rights.
For the activist Nadia Cruz, it is important to differentiate between child exploitation and the economic activities that girls and boys can carry out in an organized, accompanied and protected way to pay for the family economy.
Nadia, a Bolivian teenager and childhood rights activist, emphasized that the coronavirus pandemic has affected the rights of working families with significant economic losses, a situation that has contributed to students abandoning their studies in order to work and contribute to the family economy, therefore the States must promote public policies that do reach the vulnerable population.
In this regard, Juan Martín Pérez said that beyond the regulation of public policies, the institutional factor means that laws are not complied with or are partially complied with and officials can act contrary to rights with documented practices of social cleansing. and discrimination towards the poorest families. "The focus is not on the families that involve girls, boys and adolescents in productive activities, but on the State that is not generating the necessary public support policies", he stressed.
Talking about the prohibition of child labor results in not looking, not working on prevention, from the guarantee of rights, contemplating the diversity of situations that children experience around child labor, stressed Nadia Cruz.
Isaac Ruiz pointed out that given the evidence that unemployment, poverty and educational exclusion encourage unprotected child labor, it is necessary to strengthen family protection, economic and public education policies, guaranteeing the rights of girls, boys and adolescents, beyond prohibition and invisibility.
"The step is not to eliminate child labor, it is to go against exploitation and seek accompanying standards, the state should generate greater employment support", said Nadia Cruz,
Finally, Juan Martín Pérez concluded the event by recalling the importance of listening to working children and adolescents to eliminate labor exploitation with progressive public policies and not through the persecution of poor families.
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Ollin.TV is an Internet television channel created as part of Weaving Childhood Nets in Latin America and the Caribbean an initiative co-financed by the European Union, which seeks to contribute to the strengthening and consolidation of a platform for the defense of children and adolescents in 20 countries of Latin America and the Caribbean.
The content of this publication is the sole responsibility of Children's Rights Mexico AC / Weaving Childhood Networks and in no case should it consider that it reflects the views of the European Union.
Press contact: Alejandra Gallardo / [email protected]
[1] https://www.ilo.org/global/about-the-ilo/newsroom/news/WCMS_800096/lang–es/index.htm