COVID-19: Protect Children from Child Labour, now more than ever!

World Day Against Child Labour - 12 June 2020

World Day Against Child Labour 2020 will focus on the impact of crisis on child labour. The COVID-19 health pandemic and the resulting economic and labour market shock are having a huge impact on people’s lives and livelihoods. Unfortunately, children are often the first to suffer. The crisis can push millions of vulnerable children into child labour. Already, there are an estimated 152 million children in child labour, 72 million of which are in hazardous work. These children are now at even greater risk of facing circumstances that are even more difficult and working longer hours.

This year, the World Day will be conducted as a virtual campaign and is being organized jointly with the Global March Against Child Labour and the International Partnership for Cooperation on Child Labour in Agriculture (IPCCLA).

A joint ILO-UNICEF paper on the impact of COVID-19 on child labour, released on 12 June, will looks at some of the main channels through which the pandemic is likely to affect progress towards the eradication of child labour.