INT/96/M06/NOR: Africa, Asia and the Middle East
INT/00/M17/NOR: Africa, Asia, the Middle East and Latin America

Project Background: 

Child labour has become a major point of discussion in international fora, and the elimination of child labour is an idea whose time has come. With this change in world opinion, the ILO and of the Trade Union movement have been intensifying their efforts to fight child labour.

This project is a part of the PPC package (Integrated Programme for Building Partnership and Capacity Against Child Labour) which is financed by the Royal Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Workers' organizations are well-placed and, therefore, logical leaders in discovering and denouncing child labour at the local, national and international levels. With appropriate interventions, unions can become credible advocates for the protection of children against exploitation and abuse. It is a recognised fact that child labour contributes to adult unemployment as children are doing the work of adults at lower wages.Trade unions can and must assert the right of workers to adequate remuneration, thereby reducing the dependence of poor families on their children's labour. In addition to bargaining on behalf of their adult members, workers' organizations can further their cause through social mobilization to ensure that children are in school, not in the workplace.

To strengthen the ability of trade union organizations to start the process of developing policy and action plans to combat child labour.

The intended beneficiaries are children most at risk: those working under forced labour conditions and engaged in hazardous work.

The direct recipients of the project are trade unions and their leaders in selected sectors at the international, national and local levels.

Cooperation with the Global Union Federations and other international trade union organizations was a part of the first phase of implementation. The main outputs have been planning action at sub-regional and national levels, and the development of trade union policies on child labour.

Second phase is focusing on enhancing the capacity of workers' organizations at national level to take action in sectors, such as domestic work, tourism, and mining. This work assist workers' organizations to develop a better understanding of the ways to combat child labour. The project also encourage the integration of child labour into overall workers' education programmes, awareness campaigns as well as human and trade union rights programmes.