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BACKGROUND
AND JUSTIFICATION
The
first ever Children’s World
Congress on Child Labour took place
in Florence, Italy, from 10th to
13th of May 2004. Organized by the
Global March Against Child Labour,
and hosted by its European Coordinator
Mani Tese and the Italian Trade
Unions CGIL, CISL and UIL, the event
was attended by over 130 child delegates
(former child labourers and child
activists) from 45 countries. These
children selected by children themselves
through a fair and democratic process
over one year of national and regional
consultations assembled in Florence
to share their views and to demand
a child-labour free world.
After
three days of discussions, workshops,
questions-and-answer with leaders
and law makers, international agencies
and other stakeholders, the child
delegates developed the Children’s
Declaration, a passionate and powerful
appeal to the world to end child
labour and make children’s
rights a priority and closed the
Congress with a big march which
overwhelmed the city of Florence
and showed the enthusiasm, the strength
and the solidarity of adults and
children together in the fight against
child labour.
The
Children’s World Congress
sent a clear message to the international
community about their commitment
and resolve to eliminate child labour.
It demonstrated the strength of
child and youth participation and
leadership on child labour and education
issues. Florence was not the ultimate
goal, but a platform to give a clarion
call to the world leaders. Children,
who participated in the event, took
their experiences along with them
to share within their own communities,
political leadership, trade unions
and civil society and rally support
from various stakeholders. The strong
message from the Children’s
World Congress resounded at national,
regional and international levels.
The voices of the children challenged
the conscience of the world leaders
and Government Heads who participated
and responded at the Children’s
World Congress.
Together,
we believe the children can play
a defining role in shaping the future
of the world. Children are not only
leaders of the future, but also
the leaders of today.
Despite
its great success, the Florence
Congress was deprived of many valuable
contributions: 300 children were
supposed to attend the Congress,
but at the last moment, the large
part of them, especially from Asia
and Africa, were denied the visa
to enter Italy because the Italian
Government considered them a security
risk.
For
this reason the Global March Against
Child Labour is organising the Second
Children’s World Congress
on Child Labour and Education, which
will be held in New Delhi, India,
from 4-7 September 2005, and followed
by a physical march on 8 September
2005.
One
year after the first ever international
conference, where children were
the main speakers, decision makers
and beneficiaries, 150 child delegates
mainly from Asia and Africa whose
right to participation was unfairly
stolen last year will get justice
in the end. They will be meeting
to share their experiences and propose
their solutions to a social plague
that still affects the lives of
more than 246 million children worldwide.
There will also be a representative
delegation from Europe and Americas
that will include the members of
the Children’s Reference Group
from Florence. Together they will
be carrying forward the torch of
their predecessors, continuing their
work and transforming the appeal
of the Children’s Declaration
to a Children’s Plan of Action
to fight child labour and achieve
education for all.
The
Second Children’s World Congress
will give once again the children
the opportunity to emerge as social
activists and world leaders at the
forefront of the fight for children’s
rights. The Congress will offer
unique opportunity and power to
the children in fashioning the future
growth and development of the children's
movement.
Overall
Goal
To empower children to lead worldwide
efforts to end child labour and
to ensure free, quality education
for all
Objectives
The Second Children’s World
Congress on Child Labour and Education
will seek:
-
To provide justice to the
children, who were denied
the visa and could not participate
in the First World Congress,
giving them a platform to
share their opinions, experiences
and ideas and learn from one
another, and empowering them
in the process to emerge as
the leaders in the struggle
against child labour.
-
To
formulate a Children’s
Plan of Action to implement
the Declaration made by the
Children in the Florence World
Congress
-
To strengthen the Children's
Reference Group, elected in
the First World Congress by
the child participants with
the new child leaders to be
elected in the second congress.
The new Children’s Reference
Group will take lead to facilitate
the communication, coordination
and implementation of the
decisions made in the World
Congresses (Declaration/Plan
of Action) and to represent
the voices of children in
global, regional, or national
discussions or actions on
child labour.
-
To strengthen, broaden and
consolidate a worldwide child
and youth movement against
child labour and for education
for all through the establishment
of a strong network.
-
To
remind governments to fulfil
their promises to ratify and
implement ILO Conventions
182 and 138 and implement
Dakar framework of action
for education for all children.
- To
strengthen the struggle against
child labour and for education
for all involving the civil
society members, including trade
unions, teachers unions, NGOs,
and various other stakeholders,
which can give significant contribution
to the goal
- To demand for synergising efforts
on the elimination of child
labour, the achievement of education
for all, poverty reduction and
restoring security and peace
as one of the cornerstones for
children’s rights.
- To
urge international organisations
to increase their support to
programmes aimed at eradicating
child labour, poverty reduction,
achieving universal, free, and
quality education for all children.
-
To call on international development
agencies, development banks
and donors to give education
the support it needs.
-
To urge for debt and debt service
reduction in favour of national
and international educational
programmes
-
To transform an event into a
process in order to empower
children and make them realize
that they are capable of creating
a new world free of child labour
WHO
WILL BE THE PARTICIPANT TO THE CONGRESS?
Former
child labourers and child activists
from Asia and Africa already selected
as child delegates for the First
World Congress who were not able
to attend the Congress due to the
denial of visa by the Italian government
as well as few child representatives
from America and Europe.
Child
Reference Group members who were
democratically elected by all child
delegates during the Florence Congress.
Special
invitations will be extended to
adult speakers from UN organizations
and governments who are directly
involved in the implementation of
the ILO Convention 138 and 182,
on the rights of the child and Dakar
framework of Action on EFA, who
will participate in the accountability
session answering the questions
of the child delegates.
BEYOND
THE WORLD CONGRESS
Participants from the Second Children’s
World Congress will be involved
in:
-
Promoting and strengthening
children/youth groups/networks
at local, national and international
level.
-
Following-up on the decisions
and recommendations made during
the Second World Congress (Children’s
Plan of Action)
-
Meeting with different groups
involved in decision-making
at different levels to advocate
for concrete actions based on
their demands. The groups may
include politicians, civil society
leaders, and representatives
from international organisations,
such as UN specialised agencies
and funding agencies.
-
Participating in discussions
on the eradication of child
labour and promotion of universal,
free, quality education.
-
To pursue all available means
to increase the level of support
locally, nationally and internationally
for free, compulsory and meaningful
education, accessible for all
girls and boys. The March will
insist that children's education
be a top priority in local,
state/provincial and national
budgets.
-
Advocacy at local and national
levels to ensure that the demands
of the World Congress are heard
and felt at all levels of decision-making.
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