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Education is Key to Eradicating Child Labor

According to participants at the Children's World Congress on Child Labour, achieving universal free primary education worldwide is an essential part of the solution to ending the continuing scourge of child labour worldwide. The three-day congress convened 10-13 May, in Florence, the capital of Tuscany, Italy.

Around 250 million children are still involved in child labour, according to the International Labour Organization (ILO). There is clearly a mismatch between the universal public condemnation of child labour, and the reality, which is that the international community has not yet taken the necessary steps to combat it - children from all over the world were joined by a wide range of organizations and governments, the ILO, the ICFTU, representatives of several national and international NGOs, as well as the World Bank, the International Labour Organization, and representatives of several national governments, including Brazil, Mozambique, Costa Rica and the United States.

... A statement drafted by the child participants expressed frustration with the "empty promises" of governments and had a strong emphasis on education for all. "Most children have expressed that they are losing faith in the governments because of their empty promises. They have made many promises to end child labour through education and better social services. But they do not act. Their promises are not met with real commitment or resources."

ICFTU General Secretary Guy Ryder spoke of the importance of education as the main tool to fight child labour, "Just taking children out of work is not a sustainable approach. Such programmes must be linked to free and universal primary education, and this must be linked to respect for the rights of adult workers. Any development projects which serve to perpetuate the involvement of children in child labour are counterproductive".

For the full story, go to: http://www.icftu.org/displaydocument.html?Index=991219271&Language=EN

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