Dear colleagues,

Every year, Education International (EI) marks the World Day against Child Labour (WDACL) celebrated on 12 June. EI encourages education unions to organise public activities showing the commitment of teachers and education support personnel to eradicating child labour and promoting quality public education for all children.

Over the years, EI has developed educational campaign material that may be used globally to undertake activities around child labour issues. It is available for download on EI’s website in various languages.

In collaboration with the Programme for the Elimination of Child Labour of the International Labour Organisation (ILO-IPEC), EI is now launching a new Resource Manual “Teachers and Education Unions: Ending Child Labour.”

The online resource manual describes the historical reasons for union involvement on the issue of child labour. It sets out reasons why education unions are well placed to contribute to the eradication of child labour and provides examples of union practice to underpin the arguments. A third section offers guidance on union actions in the areas of: internal union awareness-raising, policy and capacity-building; research and documentation; external awareness-raising, advocacy and lobbying; and collective bargaining and other forms of social dialogue.

Advocacy for the eradication of child labour is enhanced by union campaigns that aim to improve the status of teachers and other education workers, as well as their training, remuneration and working conditions. Improving teaching and learning conditions helps keep children in school and prevent child labour.

At the last Global Conference on Child Labour, held in Brasilia in October 2013, the EI delegation successfully lobbied for the inclusion of a paragraph in the final statement. The paragraph reads: “Education, health and social workers should be entitled to decent working conditions and relevant initial and continuous training, and related policies should be developed with workers’ organizations through social dialogue."

You will find additional information on EI policies and publications on child labour at go.ei-ie.org/childrenrights/ and www.ilo.org/ChildLabourWorldDay. Please contact EI (headoffice@ei-ie.org) if you have any questions.

We thank you in anticipation for your commitment and look forward to hearing about the WDACL activities that you are organising in your country.

Yours sincerely,

Fred van Leeuwen

General Secretary