The Campaign

The Stop Child Labour School is the best place to work, is a campaign inspired by the work of the Indian NGO the MV Foundation and run by the Alliance 2015 network of Development organisations.

We believe that all children everywhere deserve the chance that only education can provide; a chance to escape poverty, a chance to enjoy better health and a longer life, a chance to have a decent standard of living, a chance to live free from exploitation and a chance to have fun

What are we doing about Child Labour?

• The stop child labour campaign is working with groups around the world, in countries like India, Kenya, Honduras, Ethiopia, and many, many more to help end all forms of child labour by providing schools for all children

• In places where children are now working we are asking that special ‘bridge’ schools be started to help children adapt from the world of work to the world of school

• In Europe the Stop Child Labour campaign is made up of groups from 7 countries who are asking our politicians and business leaders to make sure that we do not buy products or support governments that allow child labour- check out our European website www.stopchildlabour.eu

• We are working with children and young people all over Ireland to let them know about the terrible problem of child labour so that they will help us to get all children into school

• We are asking people everywhere to ‘Look behind the label’ and to ask retailers and companies to ensure no child labour was used in the making of their products.

The ‘school is the best place to work’ campaign believes:

1. Child labour is the denial of a child’s right to education. The elimination of child labour and the provision of full time formal education are inextricably linked. The focus of attention must be to actively integrate and retain all ‘out of school’ children into formal education systems. Children have the right to education at least until the age they are allowed to work which is 15 (while developing countries can choose 14). In addition efforts must be made to remove all barriers to local schools as well as ensuring the necessary financial and infrastructural support for the provision of quality education.

2. All child labour is unacceptable. The Convention on the Rights of the Child along with a host of other international agreements unequivocally affirms the right of all children to live in freedom from exploitation. Approaches to the issue have tended to prioritize and segregate solutions to different types of child labour depending on certain categories. These range from children working in hazardous industries, children doing so-called non-hazardous work but missing out on school, to those working as full time domestic servants at home or elsewhere. The SCL campaign believes that such distinctions, while helping to cast a spotlight on the worst abuses and specific strategies, tend to be too narrow in their focus and offer only partial solutions. Efforts to eliminate child labour should focus on all its forms, preferably aiming at all children in a certain community.

3. It is the duty of all Governments, International Organisations and Corporate Bodies to ensure that they do not perpetuate child labour. All governments have a duty to ensure that they do not permit, or allow child labour to exist within their state. Furthermore they have a duty to ensure that state agencies, corporate bodies as well as their suppliers and trading partners worldwide, are fully compliant with the CRC and other international agreements protecting the rights of the child. As part of their corporate social responsibility, all transnational and other business enterprises using child labour should create and implement a plan to remove children from their workforce, including their supply-chain, and enrol them in full time education.

4. Core Labour standards must be respected and enforced to effectively eliminate child labour The eradication of child labour is closely linked to the promotion of other labour standards in the workplace: the right to organise and collective bargaining, freedom from forced labour, child labour and discrimination. A living wage, health and safety at work, the absence of forced excessive overtime are also crucial. Child labour undermines the opportunities for adult employment and decent wages. Experience has shown that child labour is highly unlikely to exist when a free trade union is present and where core labour standards are respected. ‘It’s only through concerted action that we will rescue our children from the child labour and prevent a new generation of children from becoming victims’ Nelson Mandela 1998