• News
  • Sport
  • TV
  • Radio
  • Education
  • TV Licences
  • Contact Us
  • SOUTH AFRICA
  • POLITICS
  • BUSINESS
  • SPORT
  • AFRICA
  • WORLD
  • FEATURES
  • OPINION
No Result
View All Result
1
Home World

UN goal to end child labour by 2025 deemed impractical, out of touch: Academics

28 January 2021, 2:24 PM  |
Reuters Reuters |  @SABCNews
The United Nations launched the International Year for the Elimination of Child Labour last week.

The United Nations launched the International Year for the Elimination of Child Labour last week.

Image: SABC News

The United Nations launched the International Year for the Elimination of Child Labour last week.

A goal to stamp out child labour by 2025 is out of touch with global realities and could push many working children into worse poverty and marginalisation, a group of academics said this week as they called for more realistic targets.

The United Nations launched the International Year for the Elimination of Child Labour last week, saying urgent action was needed to meet the goal as COVID-19 puts more children at risk of underage work and threatens decades of progress.

According to the academics, the objective was unrealistic even before the pandemic disrupted schooling and increased hardship for millions of children around the world.

“Removing them from work is no help if this drives them deeper into the famine and broken lives that the work was undertaken to mitigate,” said an open letter signed by 101professors and researchers and published by Open Democracy.

Instead of basing anti-child labour targets on “emotional and ideological convictions”, the academics said policies should consider the varied experiences and coping mechanisms of working children and their families, as well as scientific research.

“The current global effort to eradicate child labor is based on the experiences of the ideal of white, Western, middle-class childhoods,” said Tatek Abebe, professor of childhood studies at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim.

“It draws on the belief that children should go to school, and not participate in labour. However, the reality of children’s lives in most parts of the world is not labour-free. Child labor is not necessarily bad,” said Tatek, one of the signatories.

Appropriate work can bring educational benefits and should be encouraged, the letter said, calling for long-term strategies to eliminate harmful child labour in ways that improve children’s wellbeing rather than striving for an outright ban.

Tatek said improving children’s working conditions rather than banning them from working, and ensuring access to institutional and legal support to protect them from harm and exploitation were more realistic approaches.

“Eliminating child labour as a resolution without addressing fundamental structural problems of poverty and inequality will not be successful,” he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

Interventions should also be adjusted to other challenges such as climate change, which will further worsen children’s lives and conditions in the post-pandemic world, the letter said.

Share article
Tags: United NationsChild labourCOVID-19International Year for the Elimination of Child Labour
Previous Post

Shonisani Lethole’s family demands suspension of Tembisa Hospital CEO

Next Post

Acting CAF president Selemani disqualified from FIFA elections

Related Posts

Israelis demonstrate during the "Day of Shutdown", as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's nationalist coalition government presses on with its judicial overhaul, in Tel Aviv, Israel March 23, 2023.

Israeli government in chaos as judicial reform plans draw mass protests

27 March 2023, 11:02 AM
Commuters walk on a Berlin transport company BVG subway platform at Alexanderplatz station during a nationwide strike called by the German trade union Verdi over a wage dispute, in Berlin, Germany, March 27, 2023.

Largest strike in decades leaves Germany at a standstill

27 March 2023, 10:16 AM
Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant attends a news conference with US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin at Ben Gurion Airport in Lod, Israel,

Netanyahu sacks defence minister who opposed judicial overhaul

26 March 2023, 10:15 PM
President of the National Assembly of  National Assembly of Popular Power of the Republic of Cuba and Council of State, Esteban Lazo, exercising his right to vote in the Cuban 2023 national elections at district 10, in the municipality of Playa on Sunday.

Cubans head to the polls, all eyes on voter turnout

26 March 2023, 9:07 PM
US Vice President Kamala Harris.

US Vice President Harris to address China’s influence and debt distress in Africa visit

26 March 2023, 3:15 PM
Russian President Vladimir Putin

Putin says Moscow to place nuclear weapons in Belarus, US reacts cautiously

26 March 2023, 8:29 AM
Next Post
Constant Omari Selemani had been seeking re-election to the FIFA Council when CAF holds its elections on March 12 in Rabat, Morocco.

Acting CAF president Selemani disqualified from FIFA elections

Most Viewed

  • 24hrs
  • Week
  • Month
  • Unions set the record on wage settlement agreement reports
  • 320-ton steam generator removed at Koeberg Power Station
  • Zimbabwe Reserve Bank faces sanctions over money laundering accusations
  • Two taxi owners assassinated in Durban
  • Shabangu deplores growing racism in the ANC
  • Corporates prepare for a possible national blackout
  • Unions set the record on wage settlement agreement reports
  • UPDATE | Court hears evidence regarding Zuma’s medical records
  • SABC News crew attacked on N2 while monitoring protests
  • Wits SRC sued
  • Zimbabwe Reserve Bank faces sanctions over money laundering accusations
  • Cabinet set to discuss ICC arrest warrant for President Putin, his visit to SA in August
  • Parliament to seek clarity from Dirco on its handling of Putin’s visit to SA
  • South Africa chase down record T20 target to beat Windies
  • SACP’s Mapaila criticises the ICC for its lack of credibility and consistency

LATEST

[FILE IMAGE] Unit 4 at Medupi power station has been out of commission since an explosion in August 2021.
  • Business

‘Deliberate design flaws at Medupi Power Station to cost taxpayers millions’


Ambulances seen parked outside the Department of Health.
  • South Africa

DA concerned over lack of patient transport in De Aar Municipality


Cricket - Second Twenty20 - South Africa v West Indies - SuperSport Park Cricket Stadium, Centurion, South Africa - March 26, 2023  South Africa's Aiden Markram with West Indies' Rovman Powell at the end of play.
  • Sport

Proteas set up a mouth-watering series decider against West Indies


Workers walk beneath cooling towers at Hwange Power station's Phase 8, currently under construction, in Hwange, Zimbabwe, October 19, 2021.
  • Business

China Energy plans 1000 MW floating solar plant in Zimbabwe


The City of Tshwane’s Council.
  • Politics

Special council meeting in Tshwane is illegal: Mncedi Ndzwanana


Bullet cases and a crime scene tape
  • South Africa

Three people shot dead in Umlazi south of Durban


Weather

  • About the SABC
  • Contact Us
  • Jobs
  • Advertise
  • Disclaimer
  • Site Map

SABC © 2023

No Result
View All Result
  • SOUTH AFRICA
  • POLITICS
  • BUSINESS
  • SPORT
  • AFRICA
  • WORLD
  • FEATURES
  • OPINION

© 2023

Previous Shonisani Lethole’s family demands suspension of Tembisa Hospital CEO
Next Acting CAF president Selemani disqualified from FIFA elections