First nationwide campaign against child labour launched in France
The ILO launched the World Day Against Child Labour on 12 June 2002 to raise public awareness and highlight the commitment of its member States and social partners to eliminating child labour. From 2-12 June 2005, the ILO Office in France started a national campaign to mobilize support for the fight against child labour in Paris and the Ile-de-France region.
PARIS (World of Work online) -- Each year, the World Day Against Child Labour focuses on a specific group of children: in 2003 on victims of trafficking, in 2004 on child domestic workers. This year, the plight of more than one million children working in small-scale mines and quarries has received worldwide attention.
With the support of the Geneva-based ILO, the French campaign drew on past experience, while at the same time adopting innovations that will provide a model for other donor countries.
The campaign was sponsored by the Minister of Employment, Labour and Social Cohesion, the Deputy Minister for Industrial Relations, and the Minister of National Education, Higher Education and Research. It also received the support of the French Government and organizations representing employers and workers. The Mayor of Paris, the regional government of Ile-de-France and RATP public transports offered free advertising space. The poster publicity agent METROBUS and the printing office RIP agreed to special conditions.
The campaign was officially launched at a press conference on 8 June at the Ministry of Employment, Labour and Social Cohesion, attended by the Minister Jean-Louis Borloo; the Deputy Mayor of Paris Anne Hidalgo; Stéphane Fouks, President of Euro RSCG; Ms. Thuy Phan, Senior Economist of the IPEC Programme; and Jean-Daniel Leroy, Director of the ILO Office in France.
Referring to the plight of 250 million child labourers worldwide and voicing strong support for the ILO's International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour and the World Day against Child Labour on 12 June, Mr. Berloo also cited the ILO's recent Global Report on forced labour which refers to cases of debt bondage and a growing number of children drawn into trafficking networks for begging, smuggling drugs or prostitution.
"France will continue to support IPEC and we will make this fight a priority for humanity", the Minister said.
According to Stéphane Fouks, President of Euro RSCG, it was easier to win colleagues for this cause than others: "This is a campaign that forces people to think, and we value this. In our view advertising also appeals to people's rational intelligence. We wanted to show that behind this façade of normality, there is a profoundly abnormal situation which we must reject and can combat."
Elements of the Campaign
The campaign used displays in metro and urban railway stations and luminous advertising all over Paris. It received major coverage by radio, TV and the written press, including media outlets of trade unions and the other partners of the campaign. Support also came from a wide range of other institutions, including schools and universities, child welfare agencies and recreation centers run by the regional government of Ile-de-France and the Ministry of National Education.
Posters and TV spots were produced free of charge by the agency Euro RSCG, which was responsible for posters and TV advertisement. Dailies, weeklies and monthly publications provided free space in their columns for campaign materials, and TV networks broadcasted the campaign spot.
The total support coming from the different partners can be estimated at half a million euros.
The purpose of the campaign was to make the realities, causes and consequences of child labour better known to the public and to take stock of the progress made since the creation of the ILO's International Program on the Elimination of Child Labour (IPEC) in 1992.
Almost all work performed by children in mining and quarrying is hazardous and considered to be one of the worst forms of child labour, defined by the Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention, 1999 (No. 182). As to April 2005, 153 of the ILO's 178 member States had ratified this Convention.
In addition, the French public was invited to learn more by visiting the Internet site of the ILO Office in France and to commit themselves politically and individually to combating child labour. The Internet site had been specially adapted for this purpose.
In her presentation of the IPEC programme, Ms. Thuy Phan explained that it was originally not intended to combat child labour itself but to support ILO member States in their efforts to eradicate it. "The IPEC action programmes provide a useful starting point in efforts to combat a problem that is anchored in social customs and traditions. An important aspect of these programmes is prevention and the removal from work and rehabilitation of child workers. This includes documenting successful models in order to make them available to other ILO partners and thus influence national policy. Child labour is a vicious circle in which lack of education and extreme poverty perpetuate the problem. Breaking that circle is a major challenge for all of us".
The partners will meet again after the summer break to take stock of what has been achieved by the campaign and prepare the 2006 World Day Against Child Labour.
|
