2023-06-12 02:07:35
“Child labor will only come to an end when families do not depend on it to survive,” said Christian Schneider, Managing Director of UNICEF Germany. “Child labor comes from poverty. To eliminate them, we must address the causes of distress and promote protective factors. All children must be able to go to school reliably. But it also needs decent and appropriately paid work for parents and social security for disadvantaged families whose children are otherwise at risk of exploitation.”
The primary responsibility of the respective governments in the affected countries – especially in sub-Saharan Africa, southern Asia, Latin America and the Middle East – is to ensure the protection of children and to comply with international agreements and conventions that prohibit children of child labour, also to be complied with. But companies also play a crucial role. According to UNICEF Germany, the German Supply Chain Due Diligence Act that came into force in January is a step in the right direction. Among other things, it obliges companies to identify child labour, put in place effective remedial measures and enable factories or suppliers to eliminate child labor in the future.
However, the German law also has weaknesses. For example, simply banning child labor risks shifting the problem. It is possible for children to switch to an employer with less strict regulations or to the informal sector. In this case, the root cause of child labor – the oppressive poverty of the families – remains or the situation worsens.
This is also the case when companies pull out of a country or region to avoid liability if child labor is discovered in their supply chain. Then the income opportunities for families either disappear completely or companies that do not check compliance with human rights standards take the place of German companies. This could make the work situation even worse.
In principle, a supply chain law alone is not enough to abolish child labor – if only because it occurs not only in product supply chains, but above all in the informal area, for example in family farming or street sales. In addition, companies from other countries as well as German companies would have to ensure that human and children’s rights are observed in their supply chains.
From the point of view of UNICEF, companies can also do a lot to prevent this on the basis of the current legal basis: In order to recognize the likelihood of child labor at an early stage, they should carry out risk analyses. Together with partners in the countries, they should work on improving the living situation (education, health care, decent work, childcare). In this way, the systems on site are strengthened and the companies have a more stable working environment in the long term. When children are involved in child labour, effective remedial action must be taken. In the Democratic Republic of the Congo and in India, for example, UNICEF supports reintegration programs for former working children so that they can go back to school.
UNICEF is committed to overcoming child labor
Enlightenment: UNICEF regularly draws attention to the negative consequences of child labor, for example as part of educational programs, through press and public relations work and in social media.
Help: UNICEF helps affected children and works to combat the causes of child labor – specifically, for example, through learning programs especially for working children or through cash assistance for disadvantaged families.
Advice: UNICEF works with governments and agencies around the world to push for effective child protection laws. In addition, UNICEF supports companies in implementing children’s rights along their supply chains and in all their actions – also in Germany. For example, the “Principles for the protection and promotion of children’s rights by companies” provide orientation on how they can implement children’s rights in their due diligence processes.
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» Global child labor estimates are produced every four years. The last available estimates were published by the ILO and UNICEF in June 2021 and relate to the period 2016 to 2020. With the Sustainable Development Goals (Goal 8.7), the international community had agreed to end child labor by 2025. However, progress has stagnated.
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