Help Combat Child Labour in Tajikistan

Further expansion of educational programmes, efforts to involve children in school education and other measures are part of the endorsed National Action Programme (NAP) for 2015-2020 outlining steps towards the elimination of hazardous forms of child labour for children aged 18 and younger.

The workshop was attended by 16 senior-level officials, including members of the Parliamentary Commission on Education and Legislation, representatives of the Federation of Trade Unions, the Union of Education and Science Employees, the Ministry of Education and Science, and the Academy of Sciences. The workshop was based on the ILO's Eliminating the Worst Forms of Child Labour: Handbook for Parliamentarians (2002), available in Russian.

The audience discussed the global situation with child labour based on the ILO Global Report, child labour trends in Tajikistan based on data from the 2013 Child Labour Survey, international instruments, such as ILO Conventions Nos.138 and 182 and the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, Tajikistan’s domestic legislation and institutional framework for prevention and elimination of child labour, and the ILO-IPEC work.

The workshop also featured a presentation of the endorsed National Action Plan for the Elimination of the Worst Forms of Child Labour in 2015-2020. Members of the Union of Education Employees presented educational programmes designed to involve children in schools. The workshop participants emphasised the vital importance of expanding access to quality education for working children. They also discussed effective approaches to mobilising public opinion to raise awareness of the issues and eliminate hazardous child labour through education.

The workshop was organised as part of the programme "Strengthening the Capacity of the Union of Education Workers to Engage in Advocacy Campaigns for Quality Education against Child Labour" and delivered by members of the Union of Education Employees of Tajikistan who have been trained in a series of capacity-building and awareness-raising seminars conducted by the ILO-IPEC and Education International in Tajikistan between 2010 and 2016.