Fighting Child Labour
How Did it Start?
Egypt was amongst the first countries to ratify ILO's conventions
No.138 on the Minimum Age for Admission to Employment, and No.182
concerning the Worst Forms of Child Labour. Nonetheless, child
labour is a pervasive phenomenon in the Egyptian society, and
economy, and decisive action is needed to ensure effective steps
are taken to eliminate the problem progressively, starting from
its worst forms.
- The ILO Subregional Office for North Africa,
Cairo has stepped up its work in this area in
recent months:
- Analyzing the causes of child labour and formulating
policy recommendations accordingly
- Helping the National Council for Childhood and
Motherhood (NCCM) finalize Egypt's first "National Strategy
for the Elimination of Child Labour", launched in January 2006
- Helping translate this strategy into a Plan of Action,
starting in May 2006
- Launching a "Red Card to Child Labour Campaign" at the
Africa Cup of Nations (Jan-Feb 2006), under the auspices of
Egypt's First Lady, Mrs. Suzan Mubarak, and in partnership
with NCCM. Various key national and international NGOs and
agencies participated in this Campaign, by establishing
strategic contacts, mobilizing media, personalities, developing
ideas and organizing sensitization events in football
stadiums, cities, communities and in their projects.
- The success of this campaign has led to several
requests for follow up that ILO is addressing, including:
- Formalizing a Child Labour Forum from the group of
national and international NGOs, that meets regularly on
SRO Cairo premises
- Launching shortly IPEC's package "SCREAM"
(Supporting Children's Rights through Education,
the Arts and the Media
- Developing in the coming months responses to requests for
specific interventions; such as stopping child labour in
quarries in Menya (Upper Egypt), undertaking a cost-benefit
analysis of child labour in Egypt, and introducing schemes
to provide alternatives to working children and their
parents
- Undertaking, in May 2006, capacity building in
the measurement of the child labour phenomenon
|
