World Vision Australia has welcomed a commitment from G20 labour and employment ministers to prioritise measures aimed at eliminating forced and child labour.
Chief executive Tim Costello said last week’s G20 Labour and Employment Ministerial Meeting – hosted in Melbourne by Australian Employment Minister Eric Abetz – had resulted in an “important first step towards greater international coordination of efforts to address the scourge of child labour” which affects some 168 million children around the world.
“One in ten of the world’s children aged over five are labouring to the detriment of their health, their education and their future,” he said. “The scale of this issue, and the complexity of global supply chains, many of which rely on exploitative labour, means a coordinated global effort is needed to reduce demand for products made off the back of children living in poverty.”
In the declaration released at the end of last week’s meeting, the G20 ministers said they would look to prioritise measures to “support under-represented and vulnerable groups and, for those who particularly affected by informality and low quality jobs, to escape working poverty and eliminate forced and child labour”.
Earlier this year, World Vision International released a report calling for the G20 to take coordinated action to influence the market conditions which allow child exploitation to continue. It argued the need for a common approach to identifying, reporting and addressing child labour in the value chains of $10 to $15 trillion worth of goods and services expected to be purchased by G20 nations this year.
Nat Burke, child protection policy advisor at World Vision Australia, said the statement released by ministers at the end of last week’s meeting was a “powerful acknowledgement” that tackling child labour is everybody’s business.
“We’re delighted to see the G20 labour and employment ministers standing up for some of the world’s most vulnerable children, and hope to see an equally strong commitment at the Leaders’ Summit in November,” he said.