 |
|||||||||
  |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|||||||||
       |
    
    |
    Yusef* acts big and strong because he must. He is a boy who belongs in school, but instead, he has to work long hours in a mechanics shop in Lebanon. Like hundreds of millions of children around the world, he is denied one of his most precious rights — the basic education that will equip him to build a better future for himself.More than 250 million children between the ages of five and 14 are exploited for cheap labour, according to a United Nations agency, the International Labour Organization (ILO). Many of these children work under appalling conditions and are denied their basic right to education. The horror of girls and boys toiling in dangerous mines, being sold for prostitution, forced to work long hours as domestic servants and on plantations and in sweatshops has propelled the issue of child labour to the attention of governments and civil society. The ILO and its International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour (IPEC) has launched a worldwide campaign to urge governments to ratify the Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention. This treaty calls for "immediate and effective measures to secure the prohibition and elimination of the worst forms of child labour as a matter of urgency." To sucessfully end child labour the ILO helps working children and their families develop alternative sources of livelihood. FIND OUT MORE about the ILO campaign to stop the worst forms of child labour and about how the UN works to protect the rights of children everywhere. Go to the links next to Yusef. ADDITIONAL LABOUR STORIES: Little Adrian works hard
*The names of the children have been changed to protect their identity. Photo credit: Ph. Lissac/ILO |
  |
 |