Kailash Satyarthi pushes UN for high-level meeting on child labour

Washington: Nobel laureate Kailash Satyarthi has urged UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres to summon a high-level meeting of the organisation’s various bodies to achieve the global commitment of eradication of child labour by 2025.

“I urge the UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres that he should call a high-level meeting of heads of UN agencies like UNICEF, UNESCO, ILO, UNDP and WHO on issue of child labour in the context of sustainable development,” Satyarthi said in a recent interview.

During November’s ‘Fourth Global Conference on the Eradication of Child Labour’, in which more than 100 countries took part, the governments had pledged to take immediate action towards eradicating child labour in all its forms by 2025.

“In that case, the UN secretary general should take a proactive and strong step towards co-ordination and more integrated approach in making various sustainable development growth rates with regard to children towards implementing,” Satyarthi said.

“It is essential that the UN leadership should take the lead to protect our children to have a comprehensive, coordinated and aggressive approach in this regard,” he said.

Satyarthi said there is an urgent need to put an end to “the scourge of child labour and forced labour.”

“Governments across the world need to give much more attention to early childhood protection and education. Agriculture child labour is a major area of concern,” he said.