- In the collective consciousness, children labour has long since ceased to apply in Europe: yet children’s rights are not respected everywhere, as shown by the 8% of Ukrainian children who are forced, either by a third person (in any case an adult) or because of poverty, to work in order to survive.In many countries of the world, in the Middle East, Africa, Latin America or Asia, children’s rights to education, access to health care and a decent life (comfortable and far from poverty), do not exist. In 2020, about 152 million children, aged between 5 and 17, are working, often in appalling conditions. Unfortunately, the health crisis caused by COVID-19 only reinforces these inequalities and pushes more and more children into precarious conditions.
Although this does not fall within the scope of Union Syndicale’s actions, we wish to denounce this situation by the means at our disposal and to raise awareness among our members and our representatives. It is through our efforts and our awareness that we can hope that the 21st century will finally mark the elimination of children labour and that the rights of all workers will be respected.
Would you like more information on this subject or would you like to support an organisation that fights against child labour? You can find it here:
- Humanium association : international child sponsorship NGO dedicated to stopping violations of children’s rights throughout the world.
- Unicef Foundation : UNICEF works in over 190 countries and territories to save children’s lives, to defend their rights, and to help them fulfil their potential, from early childhood through adolescence.
- ILO Report about the correlation between COVID-19 and children’s precarity
- ILO webpage about Child labour
- ILO call for action
Excessive workloads – enough is enough!
Excessive workloads have become the new normal in many GSC services, jeopardising the functioning of our institution.
