Child labour

ILO trains Yemeni local actors and community leaders on the prevention of children’s recruitment in armed conflict.

Under the CRUCSY programme, the workshop aims to educate and build the capacity of government officials, community leaders, civil society organisations, and enforcement agencies on methods to prevent the use of children in armed conflicts in Yemen.

©ILO
The ILO, in collaboration with Yemen’s Ministry of Social Affairs and Labour (MoSAL), will hold a two-day training workshop with government officials, youth groups, community leaders, Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) and law enforcement agencies of Sana’a and Hajjah governorates in Yemen on the prevention of child recruitment in armed conflict.

The training, which will take place on the 18th and 19th of August 2019 in Sana’a, is a part of the ILO’s Countering the Recruitment and Use of Child Soldiers in Yemen (CRUCSY) programme. The programme’s objective is to prevent the recruitment of children and youth and  sustainably reintegrate children formally associated with the conflict in Hajjah, Sanaa and Lahj governorates in Yemen. Workshop participants include members of the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs, Ministry of Education, Ministry of Planning, Ministry of Interior Affairs, Chamber of Commerce, Yemen Labour Union, Local Councils, Higher Council for Childhood and Motherhood and NGO’s working in the governorates of Hajjah and Sana’a.

The workshop sessions will educate Yemen’s Child Labour Unit and labour inspectors on the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Children (UN CRC) as well as other fundamental conventions on child labour, such as the ILO Convention 138 on the minimum age and ILO Convention 182 (1999) on the Worst Forms of Child Labour. As a result, the Child Labour Unit will be able to better position child recruitment within its scope of work and respond better to the issue from a child labour perspective as well.

The sessions also aim to enhance the Local Council’s understanding of the role of community – based child protection networks. This understanding will allow the Local Council to play a greater role in promoting social cohesion in communities and in influencing children’s psychosocial behaviour in a protective environment. Additionally, it will allow them to designate the role of the Higher Council for Childhood and Motherhood on influencing mothers and youth through dissemination of information on children in armed conflict. In turn, this will create an enabling environment that will:
  1. Facilitate prevention, withdrawal and subsequent reintegration of children involved in armed conflict;
  2. build the capacity of NGO’s on how to provide psychosocial support to children affected by armed conflict and how to facilitate the establishment of community based networks on child labour, incorporating the issue of child recruitment; and
  3. highlight the latest statistics and information on child labour in Yemen.
At the end of the training programme, participants will have a solid knowledge on the following subjects:
  • Definition of child labour and the worst forms of child labour;
  • knowledge of ILO Conventions No. 138 and No. 182;
  • definition of the child and child labour in Yemeni law; and
  • the role of government officials, youth groups, community leaders, CSOs and law enforcement agencies in addressing child labour.
The workshop falls under the framework of the ILO’s Memorandum of Understanding with the Ministry of Social Affairs and Labour in Yemen.