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The Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) has commemorated this year’s World Day Against Child Labour with a call on all stakeholders to accelerate efforts towards the complete eradication of the practice by 2030. 

In a statement signed by the CHRAJ Commissioner, Joseph Whittal, it also urged stakeholders to strengthen inter-sectoral coordination, implement well-targeted community sensitisation programmes on issues of child labour and enhance access to quality education.

It further urged the government to ensure adequate budget allocation to finance social service initiatives, especially at the decentralised level, while harmonising child labour monitoring and remediation systems in the country to ensure effective outcomes.

Commemoration
The World Day Against Child Labour is commemorated on June 12 every year to create awareness of the prevalence of child labour around the world for prompt action towards abolishing the menace in all its forms.

The theme for this year's celebration was: "Let's act on our commitment: End child labour!." It focuses on improvement in the implementation of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) Convention No.138 for Minimum Age for Admission to Employment or Work (1973) and Convention No.182 on the Worst Forms of Child Labour (1999).

Initiatives
The statement acknowledged initiatives being undertaken by stakeholders to resolve the practice in the country such as child labour monitoring systems, integrated social services and social welfare information management systems all aimed at improving coordination between social protection, child protection and health service providers.

It said while child labour was a global phenomenon, it was more prevalent in Africa, adding that one in every five children in Africa (19.6 per cent) is a child labourer, while in absolute terms, 72.1 million children are in child labour situations across the continent.

Africa and Asia Pacific Region account for nearly 90 per cent of all children involved in child labour globally. And in Ghana, about 28 per cent of children between 5-17 years are engaged in child labour, while around 21 per cent are in hazardous working conditions.

Also, the statement said child labour was prevalent among children who were out of school in the country. It said more than one million primary and secondary school age were currently out of school.

In addition, about 33 per cent of young women and 28 per cent of young men were not in school, employment or training. Children in the country work in various sectors, including fishing and mining.