World Day against Child Labour observed

WORLD Day against Child Labour was launched for the first time in 2002 by the International Labour Organization (ILO).

Rev Deegbe said “there should always be a linkage between the church and the law enforcement authorities”.

The findings of a survey on child labor by the CECS in partnership with National Child Labor Project, shows that in the last few years, the supply sector had changed personnel: illegal migrants to local children from Tuensang, Mon and other districts.

“Don’t count your blessings in only the financial gains of your work, but count your blessings as well in how many people you are able to touch with your work; how many children your writing in Accra could save in Bunkpurugu or Akekaano”, he said.

The 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda reaffirms the goal of ending child labour.

“The ILO will continue to assist the efforts to eradicate child labour by supporting mechanisms for increased compliance with national legislation and respect for internationally recognised human and labour rights”, she said.

We condemn any employment of children and particularly in harmful, dangerous, exploitative and unhealthy conditions or in environments inimical to their best interest and which prevents them from pursuing their education. The companies all claim to be investigating the allegations, and say they have zero-tolerance approaches to child labour.

In an address read on his behalf, the General Secretary of GNAT, Mr David Ofori Acheampong, said despite several pieces of legislation passed at national and global levels, it was disheartening to note that a number of children were still engaged in child labour. The worst forms of child labour include hazardous work that can harm their health and safety.

As a signatory to the International Labour Organization (ILO) and the various Conventions that seek to eliminate child labour, Jamaica rejects and condemns any act of child labour and abuse of children, whether disguised or implicit, in the supply chain of business operations, and is committed to ensuring that child labour does not take place within our borders. In a report by Amnesty International, it was found that cellphone manufacturers were failing to do basic checks to make sure that cobalt mined by child workers was not used in their products.

Some types of work are however, totally prohibited for children and will never be acceptable whatever their age is (illegal activities such as drug dealing, prostitution, unsafe activities for children’s health such as working with chemicals in the agricultural industry).

“Close to 1.4 million child labourers in India in the age group of 7-14 years can not write their names”.

Whether or not these businesses know the extent to which child exploitation exists in their supply chains is important, as they need to stop profiting from these practices.