• News
  • Sport
  • TV
  • Radio
  • Education
  • TV Licences
  • Contact Us

For all official information and updates regarding COVID-19, visit the South African Department of Health's website at www.sacoronavirus.co.za

No Result
View All Result
  • SOUTH AFRICA
  • POLITICS
  • BUSINESS
  • SPORT
  • AFRICA
  • WORLD
  • SCI-TECH
  • LIFESTYLE
  • FEATURES
  • OPINION
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

Smoke rises over the remains of a building destroyed by a military strike, as Russia's attack on Ukraine continues, in Lysychansk, Luhansk region, Ukraine June 17, 2022. REUTERS/Oleksandr Ratushniak/File Photo

Russia says its forces now have full control of Ukraine’s Luhansk region

3 July 2022, 5:08 PM
The aftermath of a shelling on an office building near the centre of Kharkiv, which hadn’t been shelled in weeks, as Russia’s attack on Ukraine continues in Kharkiv, Ukraine,

Blasts kill three in Russian city near Ukraine border

3 July 2022, 9:28 AM
A general view of market Barabashovo after a fire caused by shelling, as Russia's invasion of Ukraine continues, in Kharkiv, Ukraine March 19, 2022.

Fighting intensifies for Ukraine’s last bastion in eastern Luhansk province

3 July 2022, 2:45 AM
Airport strikes ground some flights in Paris leaving commuters stranded and frustrated at delays caused.

Paris airport workers protest for pay increase amidst inflation

2 July 2022, 10:01 PM
U.S. President Joe Biden participates in a virtual meeting with governors while discussing reproductive health care, following the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in the Dobbs v Jackson Women's Health Organization abortion case, overturning the landmark Roe v Wade abortion decision, at the White House in Washington, U.S., July 1, 2022. REUTERS/Tom Brenner

Biden predicts states will try to arrest women who travel for abortions

2 July 2022, 4:09 PM
Elon Musk attends the opening ceremony of the new Tesla Gigafactory for electric cars in Gruenheide, Germany, March 22, 2022. Patrick Pleul/Pool via REUTERS/File Photo

Musk breaks silence on Twitter, posts a picture with the pope

2 July 2022, 12:50 PM
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
  • EMS says fire at Bree Street Taxi Rank in Johannesburg has been extinguished
  • The public has until 18 May to make submissions on Icasa’s regulations for extension of expiry period for data, airtime
  • ANC NEC expected to hold a special meeting on Sunday
  • Eastern Cape flood victims plead for support as access to food, services remains difficult
  • Amathole Regional Secretary elated to have corruption charges against him dropped
  • Interpol arrests suspect for swindling US citizens millions of dollars
  • Missing Soweto boy’s body found at Eldorado Park wastewater plant
  • Police close investigation into Enyobeni tavern tragedy
  • Taxi commuters to pay an additional R5 in fare from Friday
  • LISTICLE: Enyobeni Tavern saga – What we know
  • Interpol arrests suspect for swindling US citizens millions of dollars
  • East London police search for clues that led to tavern death; calls to revoke tavern’s licence 
  • UPDATE: At least 17 people killed in an East London tavern stampede
  • SANTACO and NTA calls on COSATU to join the national shutdown over the hiking fuel prices
  • NTA yet to decide whether to support calls for national shutdown amid fuel price hikes

LATEST

People dressed as the characters Bob, Otto, Stuart and Kevin pose on the red carpet for "Minions: The Rise of Gru" at the TCL Chinese Theatre in Los Angeles, California, U.S., June 25, 2022
  • Lifestyle

‘Minions: The Rise of Gru’ Going Bananas With Projected $129.2 Million Independence Day Opening


Two bodies of sisters were recovered after their floating bodies were found at Hermanus beach in the Western Cape.
  • South Africa

Bodies of two sisters recovered after drowning in Hermanus


UK's Katie Healy to fight against South Africa's Matshidiso "The Scorpion Queen" Mokebisi at Steve Tshwete Banquet Hall in Middelburg, Mpumalanga, on July 8th.
  • Sport

Boxing: Four belts to be contested in one night


File image: A lightbulb glows
  • South Africa

Civilians cautioned of directing traffic during blackouts


Socio-Economic Rights Institute of SA (SERI) conducting a workshop entitled “Taking Back Democracy: From Marikana to Makhanda.” n Saturday with family members of slain Marikana Miners.
  • South Africa

President Ramaposa expected to account for orchestrating Marikana massacre


Labour expert, Mamokgethi Molopyane says there's a possibility that mining companies may cease operations in the next coming years should load shedding continue and this will lead to retrenchments.
  • Business
  • Mining in SA

Mining companies could cease operations should load shedding persist


Weather

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

SABC © 2022

No Result
View All Result
  • SOUTH AFRICA
  • POLITICS
  • BUSINESS
  • SPORT
  • AFRICA
  • WORLD
  • SCI-TECH
  • LIFESTYLE
  • FEATURES
  • OPINION

© 2022

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