Child Labour in Agriculture

Chairman, ladies and gentleman, my organisation, IUF, is the global trade union representing workers throughout the food chain. We are actively supporting the on-going work to develop a Convention and supporting Recommendation on domestic workers but on this occasion I want to speak about the situation in agriculture.

In 2010, as in 2006, the report of the Director General states clearly that agriculture remains the sector with the most child labour. Since 2006 there has been a slight decrease in the percentage but the absolute numbers remain the same. The
ILO estimates that 129 million girls and boys aged 5–17, equivalent to 60 % off all child labourers, are still working in agriculture, many of them under hazardous conditions

Continue reading "Sue Longley, IUF, speech to WDACL 2010" »

Posted by Svetlana Boincean at 02:43 PM | Permalink

On December 23 2009 in Bishkek (Kyrgyzstan) took place the Working Group meeting on the elimination of child labour in tobacco growing. The meeting was attended by the representatives of agricultural workers and healthcare workers unions, Solidarity Center (AFL-CIO), Kyrgyz Tamekisi state joint-stock tobacco company, the representative of Kyrgyzstan Ombudsman’ office, NGO “Save The Children”, ILO/IPEC and IUF. The members of the Working Group have been briefed on the results of the second phase of the project and discussed the plans for the third phase.

The ECLT project (Eliminating Child Labour in Tobacco Growing) in Kyrgyzstan was launched in 2005 in Alabuka district of Jalalabad region and in No’okat district of Osh region of the country. Its purpose is to create a sustainable mechanism for eliminating child labour in tobacco growing. The work has been underway to raise awareness across the local communities about the negative effect of work on children and grant micro credits to raise the level of livelihoods for the families, as poverty has been one of the key drivers of using child labour.

Continue reading "KYRGYZSTAN . The Project on Eliminating Child Labour in Tobacco Growing: about 3 000 children freed from work, the micro credits helping families to eke out" »

Posted by Svetlana Boincean at 09:42 AM | Permalink

This year, has been celebrated the tenth anniversary of the ILO convention Nr. 182 on the Worst Forms of Child Labour, a convention that has been rapidly ratified by most countries. WDACL 2009 is focused on girls child labourers as ILO says that the global financial crisis could push more children, in particulate girls to become child labour. The ILO report Give girls a chance - tackling child labour, a key to the futures says that around 100 million girls are involved in child labour worldwide.

Continue reading "WDACL 2009. THE GLOBAL FINANCIAL CRISES COULD PUSH MORE CHILDREN AT RISK OF BECOMING CHILD LABOURERS " »

Posted by Svetlana Boincean at 07:40 AM | Permalink