World Day Against Child Labour (12/06)

It is unacceptable that economic growth and development should lead to complacency or humility with child labour, or be based on an inadequate assessment of the lives of the most vulnerable. 9th ILO Director-General Juan Somavia

World Day Against Child Labor is established by the International Labor Organization (ILO) and celebrated annually on June 12. The idea to introduce a new date into the calendar arose after the conference on combating the worst forms of child labor and the international conference on child labor, held in Amsterdam and Oslo in 1997.

The International Labour Organization (ILO) first held World Day against Child Labour in 2002. Its goal — is to draw attention to this problem and the need for measures to eliminate it. Every year on June 12, governments, employers' and workers' organizations, civil society representatives, and millions of people around the world join forces to combat child labor.

According to the latest data, the number of working children in the world, aged 5 to 17 years, is 160 million, with more than one hundred million victims of modern slavery, and 79 million of them engaged in dangerous work. Many of them have virtually no time to go to school, much less play —, often they do not receive proper nutrition and care.

Guided by the principles enshrined in ILO Convention №138 «On the Minimum Age for Admission to Employment» (1973) and Convention №182 «On the Prohibition and Immediate Action for the Elimination of the Worst Forms of Child Labor» (1999), the work of the International Program for the Elimination of Child Labor (IPEC) aims to achieve its effective abolition. The Soviet Union acceded to the «On the Minimum Age for Admission to Employment Convention» in 1979, and Russia ratified another Convention (№182) in 2003.

ILO member states have set out to eliminate the worst forms of child labor in the very near future. Achieving it will require both scaling up and strengthening political will.

It should also be noted that every year World Day against Child Labor is dedicated to a specific topic. So, over the years it was held under the slogans: «Attention! Children in dangerous jobs! Let's eradicate child labor!», «For human rights and social justice! Let's eradicate child labor!», «No to the work of children - domestic workers!», «Expand social protection, fight child labor!», «NET – to child labor, YES – to quality education», «Security and health of the new generation», «Children should dream, not work in the field», «General social protection to stop child labor», «Social justice for all. Let's end child labor!» et al.

In order to increase awareness and mobilize the public in solving the problems of child labor, for this Day in many countries of the world, public and government organizations and institutions are holding all kinds of events: exhibitions of paintings, presentations of websites, mass events, sports competitions, children's parties, performances, information campaigns.

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