Creating safe futures: good practices to protect children and youth from hazardous work - Workshop report
In recognition of 2011 World Day Against Child Labour, the United States Department of Labor (USDOL) and the United States National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), in partnership with the International Labour Organization (ILO), through its International Programme on the Elimination Child Labour (IPEC), and the World Health Organization (WHO), joined efforts to host a workshop on good practices to protect children and youth from hazardous work.
In recognition of World Day Against Child Labour 2011, the United States Department of Labor (USDOL) and the United States National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), in partnership with the International Labour Organization (ILO), through its International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour (IPEC), and the World Health Organization (WHO), joined efforts to host a workshop on good practices to protect children and youth from hazardous work. The workshop was held on 2nd June, 2011, in Washington, D.C. Accompanying the workshop was an exhibit in the Senate Office rotunda of David Parker’s moving photographs of children in exploitative labour.
The workshop Creating safe futures: Good practices to protect children and youth from hazardous work, brought together specialists in occupational safety and health (OSH), youth employment, and child labour from around the world to learn from each other and to share strategies for preventing young children from being drawn into hazardous work and for protecting older children and youth of legal working age from working under dangerous conditions. It examined the unique ways that employers, unions, governments, donors, families, and the children themselves could contribute to resolving the problem of hazardous child labour. This report follows the flow of the workshop. It highlights key points made in the plenary presentations and tries to capture some of the rich discussion that took place in interactive breakout sessions.
The participants’ recommendations for action are grouped according to three themes:
The workshop Creating safe futures: Good practices to protect children and youth from hazardous work, brought together specialists in occupational safety and health (OSH), youth employment, and child labour from around the world to learn from each other and to share strategies for preventing young children from being drawn into hazardous work and for protecting older children and youth of legal working age from working under dangerous conditions. It examined the unique ways that employers, unions, governments, donors, families, and the children themselves could contribute to resolving the problem of hazardous child labour. This report follows the flow of the workshop. It highlights key points made in the plenary presentations and tries to capture some of the rich discussion that took place in interactive breakout sessions.
The participants’ recommendations for action are grouped according to three themes:
- Advocacy and social mobilization.
- Workplace protection and decent work for youth.
- Policies, enforcement, and knowledge.