According to the International Labour Organization (ILO), more than 200 million children in the world today are involved in child labour, doing work that is damaging to their mental, physical and emotional development. Children work because their survival and that of their families depend on it. Child labour persists even where it has been declared illegal, and is frequently surrounded by a wall of silence, indifference, and apathy. But that wall is beginning to crumble. While the total elimination of child labour is a long-term goal in many countries, certain forms of child labour must be confronted immediately. Nearly three-quarters of working children are engaged in the worst forms of child labour, including trafficking, armed conflict, slavery, sexual exploitation and hazardous work.

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The Asia-Pacific Knowledge Network on Youth Employment (APYouthNet) is an ILO-sponsored community of practice that brings together youth employment experts, practitioners and youth from across the Asia-Pacific region.  It serves as a gateway and platform to the region*s collective resources, experiences, ideas and solutions to the problems that youth face everyday

Become part of this network which currently consists of over 280 members who are dedicated to finding solutions to the youth employment challenge!  Current members include practitioners, experts, professions and youth themselves.  To register, please click here

As part of this initiative, we also regularly host online discussion forums - the next one will be begin on November 23rd and focus on the rights and conditions of employment of young workers.  More details on this will be posted online.

If you have any further questions/comments, please do not hesitate to contact apyouthnet@ilo.org.

More info about click here

More than 2 million children from some 60 countries took part in the 2009 international letter writing competition for young people organized by the Universal Postal Union (UPU). The theme chosen for this year was “Decent Work”, a notion at the heart of the work of the International Labour Organization (ILO). First prize was awarded to a 14-year-old girl from the Moravian-Silesian Region of the Czech Republic. Here is how her letter about a bar of chocolate lead to her realizing the value of decent work. Read more about this news, click here

The All India Association of Inspectors and Assistant Superintendants of Post Offices (AIAIASP) commemorated International Youth Day 2009 with the seminar under the theme of Trade Union Rights and ILO Mechanisms.

It is important topics to be shared to young workers that trade union rights and dignity at workplace need to be protected. Young workers have a same rights as other employees (senior). The union also shared on the role and responsible of the organisation to protect the rights of workers. This seminar aimed that young workers could able to speak up strongly to extend their rights at work, and actively participate in building of the unions as organisations that put workers’ rights first. It was also awareness campaign on unionism, if they join union it will better representation, protection and opportunity to influence working conditions in the workplace than that provided by union.

“We may have different religions, different languages, different colored skin, but we all belong to one human race.” – Kofi Annan 

by Ms. Tan Sze Wei, APYN Coordinator

The 2009 Durban review conference was held in Geneva, Switzerland from 20 to 24 April 2009 to evaluate progress towards the goals set by the 3rd World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimnation, xenophobia and Related Intolerance held in Durban, South Africa in 2001. As I was in Geneva to attend PSI constitutional meetings in the same period, I took some time to attend parallel events for the conference in the afternoon of 20 April 09.

The International Labour Organisation (ILO), together with International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) and other trade unions, held the side event “Combating racism in the world of work” on 20 April 2009 at 3pm. The session was chaired by Mr Kari Tapiola, ILO Executive Director, Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work sector, ILO and the panelists were, Ms Gulnara Shahinian, United Nations Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, Ms Kamalam from the International Trade Union Confederation, Equality Department, Mr Sipho Ndebele from the Government of South Africa and Mr Khulile Nkushubana, General Secretary of the Confederation of South African Workers Union. In total, there were more than 60 trade unions under the leadership of ITUC, together ! with GUFs such as PSI who had come to lobby for equal treatment regardless of gender, race, sexual orientation, social status etc at the workplace. All of us firmly believed that there should be employment equity in terms of recruitment, wages and promotion etc.

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