Ibero-America actively supports the fight against the exploitation of children

Brazil strengthens through SSC the Regional Initiative Latin America and the Caribbean Free of Child Labour, together with ILO.

Child labour is one of the most serious forms of exploitation suffered by children around the world. The most common types of this exploitation are domestic work and sexual exploitation. According to UNICEF’s estimates (2023): “in the least developed countries, slightly more than one in five children (ages 5 to 17) are engaged in labour that is considered detrimental to their health and development”. The prevalence in Latin America and the Caribbean is 5%.

In 2021, on the occasion of the commemoration of the International Year for the Elimination of Child Labour, the International Labour Organization (ILO) in partnership with the Brazilian Cooperation Agency (ABC) and other entities, launched the project ‘Consolidation of the advances of the Regional Initiative Latin America and the Caribbean Free of Child Labour’.

This SSC initiative aims to contribute to the consolidation of the Regional Initiative that seeks to prevent and eradicate child labour in the region through innovative and urgent policies, strategies and actions, associating multiple stakeholders: 30 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, with the active participation of employers’ and workers’ organisations (International Labour Organisation – ILO, 2024). At the institutional level, the National Secretariat for Social Development (Ministry of Social Development and Fight Against Hunger) and the Special Secretariat for Social Security and Labor (Ministry of Economy) are leading the project.

It is expected that with this project, which is part of the SSC Programme between the ILO and Brazil, it will be possible to share with other countries Brazil’s experience in labour inspection, data generation and local coordination of national policies to combat child labour. The project focuses on interventions to support the Regional Initiative’s member countries – especially the Caribbean ones. In fact, already between 2018 and 2019, Brazil supported activities in the Bahamas, Grenada, Guyana, Saint Lucia, Suriname and Trinidad and Tobago.

It is worth noting that Brazil has been leading the fight against this issue for several years, as one of the founders and major supporters of the Regional Initiative, as stated by the Director of the Brazilian Cooperation Agency (ABC), Ambassador Ruy Pereira:

From the perspective of development cooperation, Brazil has a history of active regional involvement in the fight against child labour through the exchange of best practices, the establishment of partnerships and a multi-sectoral approach to strengthen the fight against the roots of the problem (ABC, 2024).

On the other hand, in October 2023, during the IX Annual Meeting of the Regional Initiative, the Labour Inspectorate presented in Lima (Peru) the Brazilian policy on this issue and discussed “key issues to accelerate and increase action, including supply chains and due diligence on child labour, the care economy and child domestic work, and education” (Regional Initiative Latin America and the Caribbean Free of Child Labour, 2023).

The Regional Programme for Accelerating the Elimination of Child Labour in Latin America and the Caribbean (PRAETI, according to the Spanish acronym) was also discussed. This programme aims to strengthen national action plans in order to achieve a first generation free from child labour (Brazilian Ministry of Labour and Employment, 2023).

The meeting was attended by 31 government representatives, regional representatives of the International Organisation of Employers (IOE) and the Trade Union Confederation of the Americas (TUCA) (Regional Initiative, 2023). It should be noted that this meeting also recognised the negative and differentiated impact that COVID-19 had on children in child labour.

Finally, according to the Regional Initiative’s website, among the most recent achievements of these SSC exchanges a few of them stand out: the dialogue between the Ministries of Labour of Costa Rica and the Dominican Republic on good practices in the prevention and eradication of child labour, the internship of representatives of Caribbean countries in Brazil during the development of the national household survey and the exchange led by Ecuador on the implementation of Child Labour Risk Identification Models.

September 2024

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Source: SEGIB based on Agencies and Directorates-General for Cooperation, Brazilian Cooperation Agency – ABC (2024), Brazilian Ministry of Labour and Employment (2023), Regional Initiative Latin America and the Caribbean Free of Child Labour (2023), ILO (2024) y UNICEF (2023).

Photo: Regional Initiative Latin America and the Caribbean Free of Child Labour.