Combating Child Labour in Central Asia. Commitment becomes Action
The ILO-IPEC Project “Combating Child Labour in Central Asia. Commitment becomes Action” organized two sub-regional workshops for tripartite participants from Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkey and Uzbekistan.
The main focus at the workshops was given to cooperation among governments, employers and trade unions in the elimination of child labour.
The workshop on Good Practices held in Issykkul, Kyrgyzstan, on September 11-12 gave an opportunity to improve skills and knowledge and helped partners to exchange best practices for further possible replication. Participants could increase their awareness, knowledge and common understanding of child labour issues through the exposure to innovative good practices developed and applied in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Turkey. In this regard, presentation of Turkey’s experience, a country with different context and background, was very useful. Participants explored the opportunity to create a regional knowledge network on the basis of the official website of the ILO DWT/CO Moscow Office.
The workshop on Reporting on Child Labour Conventions was organized in Baku, Azerbaijan, on October 6-7 and facilitated by experts from the International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour under the Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work Branch of the ILO Governance and Tripartism Department – Ms. Snezhana Bedalli, Senior Desk Officer for Europe, Central Asia and Arab States and Ms. Yoshie Noguchi, Senior Legal Officer, Labour Law and Reform Unit.
The workshop opened with a presentation on the international labour standards’ supervisory system, and the emphasis of other presentations was placed on the legal obligations under each article of the ILO Minimum Age Convention, 1973 (No. 138) and the Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention, 1999 (No. 182) and their implications on practical measures and action.
The requirements of the conventions were wider and deeper than a simple prohibition of child labour in national labour legislation, and that reporting should be seen not as an administrative burden for government officials, but as a stock taking exercise involving social partners, participants said.
The linkage with other UN reporting (e.g. under the Convention on the Rights of the Child) was one of the practical questions on the agenda. Participants also discussed the newly adopted standards on forced labour, in particular the Protocol of 2014 to the Forced Labour Convention, 1930 (No.29) and the Forced Labour (Supplementary Measures) Recommendation, 2014 (No. 203).
“It seemed a successful strategy to have an exchange of the good practices already, and to start building a sub-regional networking among the tripartite constituents interested in the elimination of child labour,” Ms. Yoshie Noguchi, Senior Officer, said, summing up the workshop results.
Within the framework of the ILO mission to Azerbaijan Snezhana Bedalli had meetings with the ILO constituents, representatives of the UN agencies in Baku and the Embassy of the USA and others.
The workshop on Good Practices held in Issykkul, Kyrgyzstan, on September 11-12 gave an opportunity to improve skills and knowledge and helped partners to exchange best practices for further possible replication. Participants could increase their awareness, knowledge and common understanding of child labour issues through the exposure to innovative good practices developed and applied in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Turkey. In this regard, presentation of Turkey’s experience, a country with different context and background, was very useful. Participants explored the opportunity to create a regional knowledge network on the basis of the official website of the ILO DWT/CO Moscow Office.
The workshop on Reporting on Child Labour Conventions was organized in Baku, Azerbaijan, on October 6-7 and facilitated by experts from the International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour under the Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work Branch of the ILO Governance and Tripartism Department – Ms. Snezhana Bedalli, Senior Desk Officer for Europe, Central Asia and Arab States and Ms. Yoshie Noguchi, Senior Legal Officer, Labour Law and Reform Unit.
The workshop opened with a presentation on the international labour standards’ supervisory system, and the emphasis of other presentations was placed on the legal obligations under each article of the ILO Minimum Age Convention, 1973 (No. 138) and the Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention, 1999 (No. 182) and their implications on practical measures and action.
The requirements of the conventions were wider and deeper than a simple prohibition of child labour in national labour legislation, and that reporting should be seen not as an administrative burden for government officials, but as a stock taking exercise involving social partners, participants said.
The linkage with other UN reporting (e.g. under the Convention on the Rights of the Child) was one of the practical questions on the agenda. Participants also discussed the newly adopted standards on forced labour, in particular the Protocol of 2014 to the Forced Labour Convention, 1930 (No.29) and the Forced Labour (Supplementary Measures) Recommendation, 2014 (No. 203).
“It seemed a successful strategy to have an exchange of the good practices already, and to start building a sub-regional networking among the tripartite constituents interested in the elimination of child labour,” Ms. Yoshie Noguchi, Senior Officer, said, summing up the workshop results.
Within the framework of the ILO mission to Azerbaijan Snezhana Bedalli had meetings with the ILO constituents, representatives of the UN agencies in Baku and the Embassy of the USA and others.