The document discusses international efforts to address child labour. The International Labour Organisation, UNESCO, and UNICEF lead frameworks working globally to eliminate child labour. Turkey has also made progress, reducing child labour by 50% from 1994 to 1999 through compulsory education laws and awareness campaigns. The International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour (IPEC) has implemented over 100 programs in Turkey and helped develop local coordinating mechanisms. Some major companies have also adopted policies to prevent child labour in their direct and indirect operations.
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The document discusses international efforts to address child labour. The International Labour Organisation, UNESCO, and UNICEF lead frameworks working globally to eliminate child labour. Turkey has also made progress, reducing child labour by 50% from 1994 to 1999 through compulsory education laws and awareness campaigns. The International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour (IPEC) has implemented over 100 programs in Turkey and helped develop local coordinating mechanisms. Some major companies have also adopted policies to prevent child labour in their direct and indirect operations.
The document discusses international efforts to address child labour. The International Labour Organisation, UNESCO, and UNICEF lead frameworks working globally to eliminate child labour. Turkey has also made progress, reducing child labour by 50% from 1994 to 1999 through compulsory education laws and awareness campaigns. The International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour (IPEC) has implemented over 100 programs in Turkey and helped develop local coordinating mechanisms. Some major companies have also adopted policies to prevent child labour in their direct and indirect operations.
Copyright:
Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
The document discusses international efforts to address child labour. The International Labour Organisation, UNESCO, and UNICEF lead frameworks working globally to eliminate child labour. Turkey has also made progress, reducing child labour by 50% from 1994 to 1999 through compulsory education laws and awareness campaigns. The International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour (IPEC) has implemented over 100 programs in Turkey and helped develop local coordinating mechanisms. Some major companies have also adopted policies to prevent child labour in their direct and indirect operations.
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International Response On Child Labour There are many institutional frameworks working across the globe, striving to realise
a world without child labour. Among these institutional frame-works, International Labour Organisation, UNESCO and UNICEF are at the forefront. These organisations
Addressing child labour in Turkey The protection of children from exploitation has been at the forefront of the national agenda since the formation of the Turkish Republic in 1923. Turkey was one of the first countries to join IPEC in 1992 and has ratified both key Conventions on child labour. Under IPEC over 100 action programmes have been implemented with national partners. IPEC strategies in Turkey have evolved, building from a foundation of improved knowledge to awareness raising among policy-makers to developing institutional capacity of key partners. IPEC has also developed successful intervention models and made efforts to have these taken up by partner organizations, including other United Nations agencies such as UNICEF, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). IPEC has also provided support for the establishment of coordinating mechanisms such as the National Advisory Group and Action Committees at local government level. In 2002 Turkey adopted the target of eliminating the worst forms of child labour within ten years. Turkey can point to a significant reduction in child labour in recent years. While roughly 1 million children were engaged in economic activity in 1994, this figure declined drastically to half a million in 1999 a drop of 50 per cent in five years. This was due to a combination of factors, including the extension in 1997 of compulsory education from five to eight years, covering the 6-14 age group, as well as enhanced awareness and capacity developed over a decade of IPEC experience. The Governments commitment to child labour elimination featured in its 8th Five-Year Development Plan (2001-05), which also sets the goal of providing education to every girl and boy under the age of 14 years. The Plan also addresses the eradication of poverty as the most significant factor behind the elimination of child labour. Source: IPEC project on combating the worst forms of child labour in Turkey Supporting the time-bound national policy and programme for the elimination of the worst forms of child labour in Turkey (2004-06).
Even Business Organisations have shown serious intent on putting a stop to Child Labour and many organisations have pledged to prevent any sort of Child Labour in their businesses whether direct or indirect. Some of the companies have anti Child Labour policy in the companies Operating Guidelines and universal across all its organisations around the world. Some of them are Reebok, Levi Strauss &co., Pentland Group plc , IKEA. Levi Strauss & Co. Employment standards are one of five issues covered by the Levi Strauss and Co. Global Sourcing and Operating Guidelines. The specific requirement on child labour is one of eight employment issues mentioned. The company states: Child Labor: Use of child labor is not permissible. Workers can be no less than 15 years of age and not younger than the compulsory age to be in school. We will not utilize partners who use child
labor in any of their facilities. We support the development of legitimate workplace apprenticeship programs for the educational benefit of younger people. Taking corrective action Levi Strauss was one of the businesses sourcing in Bangladesh at the time that suppliers in the country became concerned about child labour in 1992 and 1993. Suppliers feared that US-based retailers would stop sourcing their products in Bangladesh. Two local suppliers were found to be employing children under 14, which violated Levi Strauss sourcing guidelines at the time. The suppliers argued that child labour was a normal and acceptable practice in Bangladesh and that to dismiss the children would cause severe hardship to their families. Levi Strauss reportedly explored with the supplier and some local NGOs an arrangement whereby the children under 14 would be removed from the factories and paid their wages and other benefits (paid partly by their former employer and partly by Levi Strauss) whilst receiving an education and other services. This was on the understanding that they would be re-employed on reaching the age of 14.4 In using this approach, Levi Strauss was evidently working to reconcile its corporate ideals with developing country realities.
International Trade Union Confederation- an organisation for workers across the world with more than
