12 June 2020- World Day against Child Labour.

Target 8.7 of the UN Sustainable Development Goals calls for an end to child labour in all its forms by 2025.

While the number of children in child labour has declined by 94 million since 2000, the rate of reduction slowed by two-thirds in recent years. Almost one in ten of all children worldwide are in child labour. Poverty is one of the main factors pushing children into such exploitation, desperately vulnerable children are trafficked for the purposes of labour exploitation, robbing them of their childhood and leaving them exposed to certain psychological and physical harm, often leading to death.

World Day Against Child Labour 2020 focuses on the impact of crisis on child labour. The COVID-19 health pandemic and the resulting economic and labour market shock are having a huge impact on people’s lives and livelihoods. Unfortunately, children are often the first to suffer.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, this year, the World Day is conducted as a virtual campaign and a joint ILO-UNICEF paper on the impact of COVID-19 on child labour, has been released on 12 June, looking at some of the main channels through which the pandemic is likely to affect progress towards the eradication of child labour.

To access the report: https://www.ilo.org/ipec/Informationresources/WCMS_747421/lang–en/index.htm?ssSourceSiteId=global

For additional information:

https://www.un.org/en/observances/world-day-against-child-labour

https://www.ilo.org/ipec/Campaignandadvocacy/wdacl/lang–en/index.htm