EI has a comprehensive campaign to foster children’s rights which is designed to encourage the active participation of all affiliates and to produce measurable results. EI co-operates closely in this area with the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), the International Labour Organisation (ILO), the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), other Global Union Federations (GUF) such as IUF and BWI, national trade unions, union centres and various non-governmental organisations such as the Global March Against Child Labour and Stop Child Labour Campaign.
The EI World Congress has passed a number of resolutions on the elimination of child labour. They are: "Child Labour" (2011), "Gender and HIV/AIDS" (2004), "Trafficking in Women, Girls, and Boys" (2001), "The Rights of the Child" (1998), "Children of Refugees and Asylum Seekers" (1998), "The Girl Child" (1998) and "Child Labour" (1995).
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The elimination of child labour requires a substantial strengthening of development funds. EI therefore encourages its member organisations to lobby their respective governments to devote, as quickly as possible, at least 0.7% of their GNP to development assistance and to increase the proportion of this assistance dedicated to the development and improvement of quality public education. EI also encourages its members to lobby their governments for the ratification of ILO Convention 138 (on a minimum working age) and Convention 182 (on ending the worst forms of Child Labour). This is to ensure that there are adequate resources to allow for an expansion of public education, including quality early childhood services, schools, transitional and special education and vocational training to achieve the goal of Education For All (EFA). As we approach the Education For All deadline of 2015, it is everyone's responsibility to make sure that child labourers are not forgotten.
EI also lobbies for quality teacher training and in-service development to enable teachers to meet the diverse and special needs of children, particularly the most disadvantaged, those at highest risk of becoming child labourers and those who have been child labourers.
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Education is an essential tool for eliminating child labour, and EI believes that primary responsibility for ensuring the re-integration of former child labourers into the formal education system lies with national authorities.
EI affiliates have been involved in the ILO-IPEC programme for a number of years, through the ILO’s Bureau for Workers’ Activities (ACTRAV). In the Asia-Pacific region, ILO-IPEC frequently holds activities in Bangladesh, India, Nepal and the Philippines. Grassroots activities are organised through EI's local member organisations to raise awareness among populations where incidents of child labour are frequent, in order to encourage parents to send their children to school. In Europe, affiliates work with NGOs to lobby governments to eliminate child labour. One example is the "Stop Child Labour - School is the Best Place to Work" campaign launched by the Dutch affiliate AOb, in co-operation with the India Committee of the Netherlands, Dutch Trade Union Centre FNV, and Hivos.
At the international level, EI also participates in policy development with key partners such as the Global March Against Child Labour, the ITUC, ILO-IPEC, UNICEF and UNESCO.
Through its participation in the Global Task Force on Child Labour and Education for All, EI together with national delegations, UN institutions, other trade unions and civil society organisations contributed to the adoption of the landmark Hague Roadmap for the elimination of the worst forms of child labour by 2016. The Roadmap highlights education as a key strategy to combat child labour.
12 June is the World Day Against Child Labour. EI organises awareness-raising activities around the day to highlight the right of every child to free quality public education and encourages its member organisations to celebrate the World Day. Every 12 June, EI and the ILO-IPEC produce a joint publication highlighting the vital role of education in combating child labour.
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This short documentary shines the spotlight on successful strategies by the Moroccan National Teachers' Union (SNE) to prevent child labour by reducing school drop-out rates. A production of EI, in cooperation with SNE and NEA. Archival footage courtesy of the International Labour Organisation (ILO).
