Not being able to go to school, not having leisure time or lacking elementary freedoms are some of the consequences suffered by children working in the world. And there are few: about 120 million children according to the latest estimates. Today June 12 marks the Day against child labor.
A date established by the International Labor Organization (ILO) with the purpose of publicizing the scope of this problem and promoting initiatives to solve it, with the participation of governments, companies, unions, civil society, and ultimately all of us.
This year, in World Day against child labor a call is made in favor of:
A quality, free and compulsory education for all children up to at least the minimum age for admission to employment and take action to reach those children currently in a situation of child labor.
New efforts to ensure that national policies on child labor and education are consistent and effective.
Policies that guarantee access to quality education and investments in teaching staff.
Poverty, lack of decent work for adults, lack of social protection and the inability to ensure the attendance of children to school until the legal minimum age for admission to employment are some of the reasons that perpetuate child labor, making children very vulnerable, so you have to act on those causes.
Among child labor is a very wide range of situations, all of which violate the rights of children, but there are some worse forms that are those forms of slavery or practices similar to slavery. We talk about the sale and trafficking of children, debt bondage and servant status and forced labor, forced recruitment of children for use in armed conflict, for prostitution, pornography or drug production and trafficking.
This year, the United Nations is committed to the motto NO to child labor - YES to quality education !, highlighting in this way the close relationship between child labor and education, in the sense that it deteriorates or is simply non-existent .
Another agency involved in this claim is the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, which has asked the member states of the Organization of American States (OAS) to take immediate measures to end the exploitation of minors in that area.
Will we see this topic today in the news? I hope so, so that we are increasingly aware of this sad situation for millions of children in the world and continue to act (or begin to do so) from the different areas involved. The Day Against Child Labor This year emphasizes the importance of access to education by all children, something for which much travel is needed.
