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Brazil, ILO launch South-South cooperation against child labour

The Brazilian Government and the International Labour Organization launch a major new initiative to promote specific South-South technical cooperation projects and activities that contribute effectively to the prevention and elimination of child labour, in accordance with the international obligations of each country.

News | 14 December 2007

BRASILIA (ILO Online) – The Brazilian Government and the International Labour Organization (ILO) launched a major new initiative in Brasilia to strengthen the worldwide fight against child labour.

The Memorandum of Understanding signed by the Brazilian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Celso Amorim, and the Director of the ILO Office in Brasilia, Laís Abramo, lays the foundation for South-South cooperation to prevent and combat child labour. Together with the Memorandum, the Brazilian government also announced a programme to fight child labour in Haiti coordinated by the ILO’s International Programme on the Elimination of child Labour (IPEC).

The initiative will promote specific South-South technical cooperation projects and activities that contribute effectively to the prevention and elimination of child labour, particularly in its worst forms, in accordance with the international obligations of each country.

The launching event was attended by the ministers of labour from Brazil and Guinea Bissau, as well as representatives from Haiti and the Community of Portuguese-speaking Countries’ (CPLP), including Angola and Mozambique.

The objective of the ILO-Brazil initiative is to create a forum for South-South cooperation in the fight against child labour, including regional groups such as the Andean Pact, MERCOSUR, CPLP, and India-Brazil-South Africa Trilateral (IBSA) to foster horizontal cooperation between countries sharing successful experiences in the fight against child labour. Over the last decades, Brazil has gained considerable experience and consolidated good practices in the fight against child labour with a strong potential to be shared with other countries.

The initiative will also work closely together with employers’ and workers’ organizations to promote this new form of South-South cooperation.

The launch event and a series of technical meetings this week here in Brasilia are also intended as a contribution to the United Nations Day for South-South Cooperation on 19 December.

For more information, please contact the ILO office in Brasilia, brasilia@oitbrasil.org.br, /public/english/support/publ/textcl.htm#b6531.