To fight for the eradication of child labour

Written declaration No. 732 | Doc. 15412 | 01 December 2021

Signatories:

Ms Susana SUMELZO, Spain, SOC ; Mr Omar ANGUITA, Spain, SOC ; Ms María Luisa BUSTINDUY, Spain, SOC ; Ms Edite ESTRELA, Portugal, SOC ; Ms María FERNÁNDEZ, Spain, SOC ; Ms Latifa GAHOUCHI, Belgium, SOC ; Mr Héctor GÓMEZ HERNÁNDEZ, Spain, SOC ; Mr Jean-Pierre GRIN, Switzerland, ALDE ; Mr Antonio GUTIÉRREZ LIMONES, Spain, SOC ; Mr Sergio GUTIÉRREZ PRIETO, Spain, SOC ; Mr Marc LAMUÀ, Spain, SOC ; Ms Carmen LEYTE, Spain, EPP/CD ; Mr Pere LÓPEZ, Andorra, SOC ; Mr Manuel MIRANDA, Spain, SOC ; Mr Joseph O'REILLY, Ireland, EPP/CD ; Ms Esther PEÑA, Spain, SOC ; Mr Gonzalo ROBLES, Spain, EPP/CD ; Mr Andrzej SZEJNA, Poland, SOC ; Mr Salvador VIDAL, Spain, SOC ; Ms Martine WONNER, France, ALDE

This written declaration commits only those who have signed it.

We, the undesigned, declare the following:

Each year, every November 20, we celebrate the World’s Children Day. The 1989 Convention on the Rights of the Child was adopted on the same day. 2021 has been a special year, declared by the General Assembly of the United Nations as “International Year to fight for the Eradication of Child Labour”.

One in ten children in the world is required to perform some kind of labour that, given its nature and circumstances, they should not perform, depriving them of their childhood, their potential and their dignity.

The Convention on the Rights of the Child lays down that all States Parties recognise the right of the child to be protected from “performing any work that is likely to be hazardous or to interfere with the child's education, or to be harmful to the child's health or physical, mental, spiritual, moral or social development”.

Although the pace of the eradication of child labour has accelerated in recent years, it is still insufficient to achieve it in a reasonable timeframe. As warned by Unicef, the Covid-19 pandemic has only made the situation worse.

In order to consolidate our achievements and avoid setbacks, this issue must continue to be a priority within the political and economic agenda.