ILO (SUVA) –Over 150 students and teachers in Fiji will participate in student leadership seminars to observe World Day Against Child Labour. The Student Leadership Seminars on Child Labour was launched in Suva on Friday June 10th by the Ministry of Employment, Productivity and Industrial Relations at the Novotel Conference Centre.
With the support of the Ministry of Education, student leadership seminars on child labour will also be conducted in the North and the West (Labasa, Nadi) to celebrate World Day Against Child Labour and raise awareness about this phenomenon among children. The Honorable Minister for Education, Culture and Heritage, Dr. Mahendra Reddy will officially open and provide the keynote address at the Student Leadership Seminar for the northern division to be held in Labasa at Kshatriya Hall, at 9am on Tuesday 14th June 2016. The Student Leadership Seminar for the western division to be held in Nadi at the Hotel Capricorn Conference Room on June 17th.
The Student Leadership Seminars in the northern and western divisions are organised by the Tackling Child Labour through Education Project, funded by the European Union. In launching the seminars in Suva, Mr Osea Cawaru acting Permanent Secretary for the Ministry of Employment, Productivity & Industrial Relations said that "child labour deprives children of their childhood, potential and dignity”. “The employment should not affect children’s education. We need to focus attention on the global problem and concentrate our efforts to eliminate child labour".
His Excellency Andrew Jacobs, European Union Ambassador for the Pacific, who gave the keynote address at the seminar in Suva, reminded the audience that “child labour is a terrible crime and that partners need to work together to eliminate it. It is both a result and a cause of poverty, and it means that children spend their day at work, rather than in education, to the detriment of their own future…This responsibility is yours, in 20 years from now, you will be the ones making sure children won't be trapped in child labour". He also underlined the fact that after cyclone Winston, the risk for children to be working is even more important, and we all need to make sure that schools are operating, and that children are attending school.
At the occasion of World Day against Child Labour, Officer-in-charge of the International Labour Organization Office for Pacific Island Countries, Mr. Satoshi Sasaki said that “the eradication of child labour in supply chains is a necessary step on the path to decent work for all and for sustainable development. It is essential that governments continue to target ending child labour and especially its worst forms, often due to working conditions in supply chains. Fiji has made advanced progresses in working towards ending child labour thanks to the work of various stakeholders (MEPIR, Child Labour Unit, Ministry of Education, NGOs such as Homes of Hopes, Save the Children and People’s Community Network) and must maintain their continuous efforts in ending child labour in Fiji”.
According to Guy Ryder, the Director-General of the ILO, “it is unacceptable that there are still 168 million children in child labour, 85 million of whom are in hazardous work. Acting together, it is within our means to make the future of work a future without child labour”.
In 2002, the International Labour Organization (ILO) launched the World Day Against Child Labour (World Day) to focus attention on the global extent of child labour and the efforts needed to eliminate it. Each year on 12 June, the World Day brings together governments, employers and workers organizations, civil society, as well as millions of people from around the world to highlight the plight of child labourers and what can be done to help them.
All supply chains – including in agriculture and fishing, manufacturing and mining, services and construction, and whether global or national – may involve the 168 million children still in child labour. Child labour is work that deprives children of their childhood, their potential and their dignity, and that is harmful to their physical and mental development. Child labour denies girls and boys their rights to be safe from harm, to quality education and vocational training, and to play and rest. Freedom from child labour is a fundamental human right of all children. Therefore, eliminating child labour in supply chains is everyone’s business!
