Child labour has been on the increase for a decade at least. As adult unemployment has spread so has child labour and this has happened in the industrialised countries as well as in the developing world, though not to the same extent. Yet we are witnessing to-day a convergence of forces that could well end child labour world-wide in the next decade.

Early childhood services, schools - primary and secondary - teachers and teacher training institutions, education support staff and education unions have a critical and particular contribution to make to the elimination of child labour, as do politicians, education bureaucrats, employers, the business community and the international financial institutions.

This dossier looks at the facts about child labour as it flourishes to-day, facts which are horrific, shameful, enraging

•   In the service sector, tens of millions of children, especially girls, work long hours as unpaid domestic servants;
•   Crime and poverty force millions of street children into prostitution, drug dealing and other illicit activities;
•   Children as young as 3 years of age are reported to work in unventilated rooms where they are exposed to dust, fumes, vapours and airborne concentrations of hazardous substances;
•   Mortality among children farm workers from pesticide poisoning is greater than the number of child deaths resulting from a combination of childhood diseases.

The dossier examines the plans for a new international convention intended to ban forthwith the most intolerable forms of child labour and shows how we can help it become a reality - including how to get involved in the great Global March Against Child Labour.

As the campaign to rid the world of child labour has grown those who benefit from it have tried to confuse the issue by claiming that opponents of child labour want to stop children contributing to the housework or helping out on the farm or earning pocket money after school and during the holidays. Some singularly misguided  advocates of child labour are even arguing that it is a child's right to work. So it is important to be clear about what we mean by child labour.

Children can gain a sense of responsibility and pride in carrying out tasks that contribute to the general well-being of family life. Also by observing and working with others they may acquire knowledge and skills that will be useful to them throughout their lives. Work in this sense becomes a door to the real world and is considered to be a rite of passage to adulthood. In other words work in these circumstances makes a positive contribution to growing up. The  quote  comes from the ILO-IPEC/EI resource kit which will shortly be available to educators and EI affiliates - it provides a start for classroom activities as well as for work with adults.

So when does children's work become child labour?

Work that endangers a child's physical, mental, spiritual, moral or social development and that interferes with their education and schooling is child labour.

Such work is hazardous and as UNICEF has so bluntly put it hazardous child labour is a betrayal of every child's rights as a human being and is an offence against our civilization.[UNICEF, The State of the World's Children 1997, p.18].

Child labour may be categorized into seven main types: domestic service, forced and bonded labour, commercial sexual exploitation, industrial  and plantation work, street work, work for the family both domestic and agricultural and girls' work.

The UNICEF report The State of the World's Children 1997 contains one of the clearest analyses of the nature of child labour, its causes and its devastating impact. It is worth reading!

It identifies the causes of child labour as:

* the exploitation of poverty

The report notes that where society is characterized by poverty and inequity , the incidence of child labour is likely to increase, as does the risk that it is exploitative.
If employers were not prepared to exploit children there would be no child labour. The parents of child labourers are often unemployed or underemployed , desperate for secure employment and income. Yet it is not they who are offered jobs. Why? Because children can be paid less of course....Because children are more malleable... Because children are more powerless....Put simply, children are employed because they are easier to exploit.

The report notes that poverty begets child labour begets lack of education begets poverty and that poverty has been sustained by political and economic decisions which, both national and international, have in recent decades served to increase inequality and poverty.
In the 1980s in Africa and Latin America spending per pupil fell even in primary education and this has contributed to a decline in quality which must be reversed urgently. Overall 30% of those children in developing countries who do enrol in primary school never complete it. Equally tragic is the fact that for many children who do complete primary school there are no places in secondary school or their families simply cannot afford the expenses of secondary education, so at 12 or 13 they are out on the street looking for work.

In the industrialised world as well as in the developing world, the report records that the dominant cultural group may not wish its own children to do hazardous labour, but it will not be so concerned if young people from racial, ethnic or economic minorities do it.
The UNICEF report is unequivocal about the crucial role of education in ridding the world of child labour: "Education is one of the keys that will unlock the prison cell of hazardous labour in which so many children are confined. It is almost impossible to overemphasize this point.
Education helps a child develop cognitively, emotionally and socially, and it is an area often gravely jeopardised by child labour". [UNICEF p.25]

Rosslyn Noonan
EI's Human and Trade Union Rights Coordinator

IPEC activities are targeted, in the first instance, on three priority groups :

* children working under forced labour conditions and in bondage;
* children in hazardous working conditions and occupations;
* young working children under 12 years of age.

IPEC runs some 700 action programmes against various forms of child labour in over 20 developing countries. Initially supported by Germany, the programme has expanded to include Australia, Belgium, Canada, France, Italy, Luxembourg, Norway, Spain and the United States and the European Union as donors.

The starting point for implementing IPEC's strategy in participating countries is the will and commitment of individual governments to address child labour in cooperation and consultation with trade unions, employers' organizations, NGOs and relevant parties in societies, such as schools, universities and the media.

EI is involved in a programme called "Mobilizing educators, teachers and their organisations in combating child labour".  The first stage of the programme involved 13 country studies identifying the impediments to the elimination of child labour and suggesting proposals, involving the teachers and their unions, to improve this situation.

No time to go to school

Some 250 million children between the ages of 5 and 14 are currently working, according to the International Labour Office (ILO). Of this total, some 120 million children are working full-time. Some 61% of child workers (153 million) are found in Asia; 32% in Africa and 7% in Latin America.
There is evidence that child labour also exists in many industrialized countries, including Italy, Portugal, the United Kingdom and the United States. The problem is also emerging in the many East European countries which are experiencing the transition to a market economy.

The suffering of these children takes many forms. In developing countries, as many as 90 per cent of working children in rural areas are engaged in agriculture or related activities. In the manufacturing sector, including glassworks, brick kilns, mines and carpet weaving, millions of children work in slave-like conditions, involving long hours, dangerous chemicals, the lifting of heavy loads and machinery.
In the service sector, tens of millions of children, especially girls, work long hours as unpaid domestic servants, while others are involved in street trade and petty services. Crime and poverty force millions more children into prostitution, pornography, drug dealing and other illicit activities.

Working children grow up shorter ...
Children may be physically crippled by being forced to work at too young an age. For example, a large-scale ILO survey in the Philippines found that more than 60 percent of working children were exposed to chemical and biological hazards, and that 40 percent suffered serious injuries or illnesses.
In addition, a comparative study carried out over a period of 17 years in India on children who attended school and children who worked in the agriculture, industry or the service sector showed that working children grow up shorter and weigh less than school children.

In studies carried out in Bombay, the health of children working in hotels, restaurants, construction and elsewhere was found to be considerably inferior to that of a control group of non-working school children. Working children exhibited symptoms of constant muscular, chest and abdominal pain, headaches, dizziness, respiratory infections, diarrhoea and worm infection.

Girls, because of their employment in households, work longer hours per day than boys. This is one important reason why girls receive less schooling than boys. Girls are also more vulnerable than boys to sexual abuse and its consequences, such as social rejection, psychological trauma and unwanted motherhood. Boys, on the other hand, tend to suffer more injuries resulting from carrying weights which are too heavy for their age and stage of physical development.

Children put to work in the agricultural sector often face grave hazards through exposure to biological and chemical agents. Mortality among Sri Lanka children farm workers from pesticide poisoning is greater than the number of child deaths resulting from a combination of childhood diseases such as malaria, tetanus, diphtheria, polio and whooping cough. The operation of farm machinery by children also leads to many accidents that kill and maim.

Child miners work long hours without adequate protective equipment, clothing or training. They are also exposed to high humidity levels and extreme temperatures. Mining hazards include exposure to harmful dusts, gases and fumes that cause respiratory diseases.

Forced labour of children
The practices of slavery are often underground and hidden, but an ILO report points out that children are still being sold outright for a sum of money. In other examples, landlords buy child workers from their tenants, or labour "contractors" pay rural families in advance in order to take their children away to work in carpet-weaving, glass manufacturing or prostitution. Child slavery of this type has long been reported in South-East Asia and West Africa, despite vigorous official denial of its existence.

The commercial sexual exploitation of children is on the increase, even though the subject has in recent years become an issue of global concern. Children are increasingly being bought and sold across national borders by organized international networks. Some one million children in Asia alone are victims of the sex trade, with reports showing that the trafficking in young girls is on the rise in Thailand. European countries were recently in the spotlight when paedophile networks were exposed. Australia, Canada, Germany, France and Sweden among others have developed laws enabling the instigation of criminal proceedings against their citizens who have committed acts of paedophilia while abroad.
In Latin America, a large number of children work and live on the streets, where they become the easy victims of commercial sexual exploitation. A number of African countries are also faced with rising child prostitution.

5 million domestic child workers in Indonesia ...
The employment of children in domestic service is a widespread practice in many developing countries, with employers in cities often recruiting children from rural villages through family, friends and contacts. Violence and sexual abuse are among the most serious and frightening hazards facing children who work in domestic service. There are no estimates on how many children are employed in domestic service because of the "hidden" nature of the work, but the practice, especially in the case of girls, is certainly extensive. For example, studies in Indonesia (whose total population stands at 200 million) estimate that there are around 400,000 child domestic workers in Jakarta and up to 5 million in the country as a whole. In Brazil, 22 percent of all working children are in domestic service, and in Venezuela, 60 percent of all working girls between 10 and 14 years are in domestic service.

Children as young as 3 are reported to work
Child labour in ceramics and glass factories is common in Asia but can also be found in other regions. Children must often carry loads of molten glass from tank furnaces which reach temperatures of 1500-1800 degrees Centigrade. They also work long hours in rooms with poor lighting and little or no ventilation. The temperature inside these factories, some of which operate only at night, ranges from 40 to 45 degrees C. The noise level from glass-pressing machines can be as high as 100 decibels or more, causing impairment of hearing.

Children as young as 3 years of age are reported to work in match factories in unventilated rooms where they are exposed to dust, fumes, vapours and airborne concentrations of hazardous substances. The production of matches normally takes place in small cottage units or in small-scale village factories where the risk of fire and explosion is present at all times.

In many Asian countries, especially Myanmar (Burma), Indonesia, the Philippines and Thailand, children work in muro-ami fishing, which involves deep-sea diving without the use of protective equipment. Each fishing ship employs up to 300 boys between the ages of 10 and 15 who have been recruited from poor neighbourhoods. Divers reset the nets several times a day, so the children are often in the water for up to 12 hours. Dozens of children are killed or injured each year from drowning or from decompression illness or other fatal accidents.

Trade unions, NGOs and international institutions try to focus attention on the "invisibility" of endangered children. "It is a matter of 'out of sight, out of mind'. Working children are often not readily visible and governments forget about them", says Rosslyn Noonan, EI Trade Union and Human Rights Coordinator.

In 1980 Kailash, then a 24-year-old engineer who had an enviable job as a lecturer of electrical engineering at the university, decided to give everything up to combat child labour. "I embarked upon an issue which was a non-issue" he recalls "Today things have evolved and more people are aware of the problem."
Kailash was seven years old when he was first confronted with the reality of child labour: "Outside the school I went to, a man and his little boy, who was my age, polished shoes for passers by. One day I asked the man why his boy didn't go to school like me. He thought about it, as if it were a ridiculous question, and said that his son had to work because that was his fate as an untouchable. It seemed so unfair."

Since he created the South Asian Coalition on Child Servitude in 1989, Kailash has released over 30,000 child slaves in secret raids across South Asia organised with the active cooperation of the judiciary and the bureaucracy. More than 400 organisations, associations and trade unions belong to the SACCS, 350 of them being in India where the work began in 1980. These activists are often subjected to threats and physical violence because of the huge financial implications of what they are doing. In India alone, 60 million children work.
Kailash believes in the abolition of child labour without compromise, because it is the cause of poverty, not the result, as is often suggested. "Child labour results in illiteracy, physical weakness and almost certain unemployment" he explains clearly.
Child labour is not an isolated problem. It has ramifications throughout society, and it continues because of the lack of political will and of social concern or activism. To reverse the trend, the SACCS organises awareness raising activities in all sectors of society: among parliamentarians and politicians, religious leaders, teachers, judges, etc.
The SACCS is principally financed by NGOs which share its objectives, and by western national trade union centres.

Education is a birthright of all children
Releasing children from servitude is important, but it is not enough says Kailash. "Children who are freed from bonded labour are traumatised, sick. Their emotions have been suppressed. We must put them in temporary rehabilitation centres where they can learn to live again. After a few months or years in these specialised institutions they will be reintegrated into the normal school system. Depending on their age we will guide them towards basic knowledge of education or towards vocational training, if they are over 13."

Another aspect of the SACCS work is to restore the confidence of the released children and instill a sense of activism: "the children are very much aware because of what has happened to them and they are very active in the organisation, in identifying the workshops that use child labour and liberating the victims. A lot of free bonded children became the pioneers of their community."

"Education is really the key to combating child labour", stresses Kailash, although he recognises that the school system is not up to the mark. "Many village teachers do not understand their responsibilities: they are often absent, they don't give the appropriate lessons, they use violence on the children...with the result that parents withdraw their children from school. But I understand that teachers are faced with a lot of problems and are struggling to survive". In India more than 40% of children drop out of school before the end of their primary education. With the shortcomings in school, it is difficult to persuade parents to keep their children in school. The situation might improve as India has committed to devote 6% of GDP to education by 2000.

In 1992, the SACCS began to approach the trade unions, particularly the teachers' unions, who
have been very receptive. "Before they had concentrated mainly on their members' economic demands, but they now realise that the fight for universal, free, good quality, public education is also part of the fight against child labour."

The teachers have rallied to the fight against child labour and are organising awareness raising campaigns for the rest of the population. Last year, 20,000 schools, covering a total of over one million children, took part in an information campaign on the production of fireworks during the Devali festival in October when thousands of fireworks displays are held in villages. Teachers informed their pupils that most of the fireworks had been manufactured in appalling conditions by young children, and asked their pupils to celebrate the festival of lights with light lamps instead of fireworks.

Kailash has now placed his hopes in the Global march, which will be supported by Education International and its member organisations as well as by other international trade secretariats and the ICFTU.
The Global march, which will be launched  in November 1997, will reach across  all the continents and will culminate in June 1998 in Geneva where the International Labour conference will discuss the draft of a new convention to end the most intolerable forms of child labour.

The campaign will be launched in the media on November 20th - International Children's Rights Day - and the march will take different forms in each region. In Asia and the Pacific, it will be a relay march starting in January 1998, linking the different countries by foot, bus and boat. In Africa, the details still have to be finalized, because the huge groundswell of support offers immense scope for different alternatives. On the American continent, major national events will intertwine with the march. In Europe, marches will start in the last week of May 1998 in different countries, converging on Geneva between June 3rd and 5th 1998 to coincide with the ILO's International Labour Conference's preliminary discussions on the draft convention and recommendation on intolerable forms of child labour.

Awareness-building campaigns directed at the general public, the media, politicians, and teachers will be organized at each stage of the march, which will also include concerts, musical, cultural and sporting events.

An international steering committee of representatives from all regions has been set up to plan the march. National coordinators have also been appointed and an international group has been set up to prepare the activities in Geneva.

EI affiliates, which were informed mid-June by the first EI bulletin on the march, are asked to contribute to the march by helping coordinate national activities and by preparing an action plan against child labour.

For more details, contact Sheena Hanley at EI.

The ILO has also formed a partnership with the Sialkot Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SCCI) and UNICEF, with the goal of eliminating child labour in the soccer ball industry in Sialkot. Over the next 15 months. The Sialkot district alone produces nearly 75% of the world's hand-stitched soccer balls for an export market which generates US$ 1 billion in annual retail sales. A recent ILO study estimated that as many as 7,000 children currently work in the industry.

Spending on the Sialkot project is expected to reach approximately US$ 1 million over the next 24 months, including
contributions of at least US$ 500,000 from the ILO (consisting of funds received from the US Government), roughly US$ 360,000 from local manufacturers (to fund the costs of the independent monitor), US$ 100,000 from the Soccer Industry Council of America (to support elements of the Social Protection Programme) and US$ 200,000 from UNICEF.

The decision of the International Labour Office (ILO) to adopt a new standard has been taken
with the aim of putting an end to "the most intolerable forms of child exploitation be it their
use in conditions of slavery, forced labour, debt bondage, the employment of children for
dangerous and hazardous work and in the sex industry, and the exploitation of the youngest
children".

This new standard, which will be discussed during the International Labour Organisation
(ILO)'s conferences in 1998 and 1999, in the hope of implementing new instruments by the
year 2000, will be added to Convention 138 on the minimum  age for employment.  This
Convention has only been ratified by 49 States, as it is considered by several governments,
both in the South as in the North, to be too restricting.  These governments have followed the
example of countries like Australia and the United Kingdom.

Trade unions, who have always supported a campaign for the mass ratification of Convention
138, are now mobilising themselves to ensure that the new labour standard meets as many of
their priorities as possible.

Education International (EI) has notably requested all its' member organisations to verify the
responses provided by their national governments to the ILO questionnaire which asked them
to provide suggestions as to the possible content of this new standard (control mechanisms,
application of dispositions, etc.) and its' complementarity with existing national legislation.

An important issue for EI is the actual form which this new standard will take.  Will it be a
convention or a recommendation, or will it even take the form of both a convention and a
recommendation?  EI would naturally prefer to see it take the form of a convention,
complemented by a recommendation.

EI is also insisting on the importance of maintaining the age limit contained in the standard.
Indeed, when the ILO asked governments if they considered it necessary to "promote and
support programmes aimed at paying particular attention to children under the age of 12",
EI reacted and insisted that the age limit be fixed at 15 years and under and that the threshold
of 15 be maintained.  After all, 15 has been fixed by Convention 138 as being the minimum
age for employment of a dangerous nature.

In addition, where the ILO has asked if state authorities should consider the particular
problems facing girls, EI is convinced that the answer must be "yes", without exception, as
many girls are put to work as domestic workers in a number of countries, are isolated from
their families at an early age, and are subjected to physical, mental and sexual abuse.

With regard to the development of national mechanisms for controlling the application of the
new labour standard, EI insists that governments submit a report on the programmes aimed at
the elimination of child labour which have been established in their countries.  EI is also of
the opinion that responsibility for implementing such programmes should be clearly assigned
at the national level.

Finally, EI believes that employers' and employees' organisations, as well as civic and
community organisations, should be given a central role in such control and reporting
mechanisms, as well as in the establishment of regulations stipulating the nature of dangerous
work.

The elaboration of this new labour standard has naturally given new life and energy to the
ongoing debate about the relevance of the ILO control system and the possible definition of
procedures aimed at examining the various aspects of forced work.  This is something which
is seen as highly desirable by trade unions.

The region's economies are currently creating few "traditional" jobs, but are seeing rapid expansion in the informal sector where child labour is widespread and where the proportion of very young boys and girls in the workplace is steadily rising. The report calls attention to the disguised, non-measurable ways of employing young workers: in home-based work, through subcontracting in micro-enterprises, and especially in small and medium-sized plantations where child labour abounds but is under-reported because children  are employed either  illegally or as unpaid assistants to their parents.

Child labour comes extremely cheap, if not free. Children tend to be paid poverty wages on the pretext that they are learning a trade. Children in domestic service very often receive nothing more than their food and lodging.

The ILO report also calls attention to the special vulnerability of the children of indigenous communities, whose labour force participation rate may be twice or three times that of the general population.

Successful alternatives

Two initiatives, launched in Brazil within the framework of the ILO/IPEC programme, one managed in collaboration with the CNTE union centre, appear to have borne fruit.  One of these initiatives, organised with the CNTE, focused on
raising the awareness of teachers with regard to the link between child labour and the abandonment of schooling.  Following a number of training sessions, the teachers, coming from 44 public schools in 6 cities, integrated the problem of child labour in their classes and endeavoured, successfully, to mobilise parents, influential members of the community and the media.

The other project, initiatied by the government following its' participation in the UN Conference on Education for All in Jomtien, aimed at identifying alternatives to the abandonment of schooling by children during the coffee reaping season.  Here too, the role of teachers in raising the awareness of teachers and the community was essential.
Indeed, the communities concerned have agreed to increase their education budgets by 25% to 40%.  A financial incentive was also established so that parents would no longer have to bear any of the costs related to their childrens' education (transport, school materials, meals) if they sent their children to school. The result was impressive: in two years, the drop-out rate fell by 70%.  In an even more positive light, new schools have had to be built, and a greater number of teachers hired, in order to meet demand.

A number of conclusive educational initiatives for Brazil's street children have been established under the ILO's IPEC programme. Street children are part of the urban landscape in Latin America, and account for between 5% and 20% of all child labourers in urban areas, where they work as scavengers, roadmenders, and in marginal activities. Crime and poverty enslave these thousands of children in prostitution, pornography, drug trafficking, and other illegal activities.

Working to learn
Many Latin American children work to pay their way through school. It makes things no easier, and may often put their education at risk, but paid work does not always equate with the abandoment of schooling. In fact, between 28% and 65% of all working children in Latin America are also in full-time education, but they face greater difficulties than their classmates. Hard work and long hours lead to tardiness and absenteeism; tiredness reduces concentration. Child workers therefore run a greater risk of academic failure.

For that reason, the ILO has called on governments in the region to introduce educational reforms, because education is a key to stamping out child labour. Not all children who drop out of school do so to work; the system itself may contribute if
there are too few schools, and educational standards are low. Parents often choose to send their children to work rather than school because of the immediate benefits in terms of income and labour market entry.

However the backlash is under way, and close collaboration between teaching unions, rural NGOs and local authorities has often helped to turn the tide.

The results, as you will have realised from reading some of the case studies reported in this dossier, were exciting, challenging, frustrating, concerning, hopeful, inspiring.

It is clear that educators and their organisations are central to eliminating child labour. We can make a difference and we can contribute to the campaign whether in the classroom, the union office or the community, as an integral part of our day to day work. It's not so much adding to our work but doing it differently.

Of course we can't do it alone. Education is a key tool in the elimination of child labour, but education alone will not eliminate child labour and its contribution will only be truly effective when other key sectors are also active.

The 13 country case studies evaluated in Geneva identified a number of impediments to the elimination of child labour:
 

• persistent poverty and deepening inequalities contributing to an increase in child labour
• the drive for increasing competitiveness in a deregulated environment which pushes employers to seek the cheapest most malleable labour;
• the impact of widespread unemployment leading to a loss of confidence in the value and relevance of education;
• poorly resourced education services;
• lack of government commitment and comprehensive policies and programmes specifically
• designed to prevent child labour;
• a sense of powerlessness and apathy amongst communities including teachers, parents, children and young people;
• social and cultural attitudes which perpetuate child labour

Within the education sector specifically, the studies provided a wealth of information and analysis and numerous examples of programmes that are effectively combatting child labour. The dossier has highlighted some of those and a full report should be available by October from IPEC. The studies  also threw up examples of programmes that, rather than eradicating child labour, are most likely to perpetuate it,  while modifying some particularly objectionable features. Such programmes highlighted the importance of  rigorous monitoring of aims and outcomes.

For governments, teachers, support staff and their unions there are some crucial messages:

• quality early childhood services, community based and actively involving parents, are one of the best ways of preventing children from ever starting work;
• quality in schools matters - quality curricula which children sense is relevant; quality teaching  which can respond to the special needs of children; class sizes which enable teachers to give students individual attention;
• flexible, quality, transitional services are required as an integral part of the education system. They are an essential bridge to formal education and to vocational training. At present they are largely provided by non-governmental organisations and the people working in them are generally paid a lot less than teachers in the formal education system;
• special preventative and rehabilitative programmes need to be targeted at children at high risk of becoming child labourers in particular girls, children from indigenous communities, ethnic minorities, migrants, children working the streets;
• integrated programmes for destitute families are required providing adult education, employment skills training and income replacement;
• anti-child labour and pro-children's rights material should be integrated into the curriculum.

Individually, within our workplaces and within the local community there are things we can do. We need to become knowledgeable about the issue so we can contribute to raising the awareness of our students and their families and to analysing the problem locally.

Through our local union or association branch we can make contact and build partnerships with other groups particularly other trade unions and any non-governmental organisations active on the issue.

We have a role to play in educating our communities about the value of early childhood education and schooling and the resources required to provide a quality education. And we can work to adapt the curriculum so it is appropriate and relevant to all children particularly the poorest and most vulnerable.

At the national level teachers organisations, education unions, can contribute to the elimination of child labour by developing, debating and adopting policies as a basis for action; by cooperating with other trade unions, national trade union centres and non- governmental organisations; by campaigning to improve the status of  teachers, for appropriate funding and for an expansion of early childhood services and schools to ensure access to education for all; and by contributing to the reviewing of the curriculum.

Education unions nationally and internationally need also to be reviewing policies on and attitudes towards ‘non-formal education' and developing strategies for ensuring that national education plans encompass that sector. Extending membership and union protection to educators in the ‘non-formal' sector warrants serious consideration. There is much to be learnt from the best in the ‘non-formal sector', and much to be gained from working with them.

If teachers, support staff and their unions are to become active partners in the elimination of child labour we will have to be prepared to rigorously and honestly examine our own practices and policies as much as urging others to change theirs. It will involve forging alliances with fellow trade unionists and with non-governmental organisations. It will mean
developing a working partnership with government. It will mean listening to, hearing and working with parents and families of child labourers as well as with the children themselves.

Child labour is an immensely complex issue but it can be tackled step by step. The priorities are :

• preventing anymore children becoming labourers
• withdrawing those currently involved and providing alternatives
• as a transitional measure only and as part of a comprehensive plan and time-line, improving working conditions.

Let's get the new millennium off to a good start by making universal free, quality and compulsory education a reality everywhere. That would be the greatest contribution we could make to giving every child a real childhood and some prospects for the future.

Rosslyn Noonan
EI's Human and Trade Union Rights Coordinator