Global Petition: Child Labour and the Millennium Development Goals

Global Petition: Child Labour and the Millennium Development Goals

The TUC is calling for the UN summit this month (20-22 September, New York) to develop a concrete plan to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by the target date of 2015. All eight goals are vital to tackling global poverty, but some are more closely related to our work as trade unionists than others.

That's why the TUC is supporting the Global March Against Child Labour petition to encourage the UN to put greater emphasis on abolishing child labour and getting children into full-time education. While not explicit in the list of eight MDGs adopted by world leaders in 2000, eliminating child labour is a critical issue that cuts across all the other Goals, aimed at slashing poverty, hunger, disease, maternal and child deaths and other ills by 2015.

By signing this petition, you will be adding your voice to make visible the hidden ninth MDG and ensure that the plight of millions of children around the world will be brought to the attention of the UN and the Heads of State attending the MDG Summit in New York from 20-22 September 2010 and beyond into the follow-up action to accelerate progress to achieve the MDGs.

This petition is to ensure that the Heads of State around the world and the UN Keep The Promise of 2015 for child labourers worldwide by:

• Mainstreaming child labour into the MDG monitoring and review process.
• Establishing child labour indicators for each of the MDGs.
• Allocating adequate resources to eliminate and prevent all forms of child labour, including through the establishment of Financial Transactions Taxes.
• Reinforcing coherence across development programmes to ensure more effective and efficient use of development aid, in particular linking the MDG monitoring and review process with the Roadmap for Achieving the Elimination of the Worst Forms of Child Labour by 2016.

Global March will present a copy of the petition and signatories to the UN Secretary-General in September 2010 and will maintain the campaign during the follow-up to the MDG Summit.

The petition is backed by the International Trade Union Confederation and Education International. The Global March Against Child Labour is an international movement to protect and promote the rights of all children. It began with a worldwide march in 1998, when thousands of people marched together to jointly put forth the message against child labour.