NGO lauds initiatives to fight child labour

Accra, June 12, GNA - Partners in Development, a non-governmental organisation, on Monday lauded various initiatives being adopted by the Government in the fight against the worst forms of child labour. In a statement to mark World Day against Child Labour, which falls on Monday, June 12, the NGO said the Government's determination to end child labour was in line with the International Labour Organisation (ILO) Convention on the Elimination of Worst Forms of Child Labour and the Children Act of Ghana, Act 560. It is on the theme: "The end of child labour: Together we can do it."

According to the statement, child labour did not encompass all economic activity undertaken by children but involved activities that impacted negatively on their mental, physical, social and moral development.

"They include activities that interfere with educational development; depriving them of opportunity to attend school; obliging them to leave school prematurely and requiring them to attempt to combine school attendance with excessively long hours of hard work." Such activities, it said, did not conform to the provisions of national legislation and international instruments such as ILO Conventions 138 and 182, which defined the boundaries of work undertaken by children that must be targeted for abolition.

The statement, however, noted that where children went to school and worked for short periods a day under the supervision by parents or guardians should not be defined as child labour. "In fact it must be acknowledged that this type of work helps to develop the skills of a child and encourages them to learn family responsibility as well as become responsible, productive and functional adults," it said.

Child labour, the statement said, was work that was exploitative and deprived a child of his/her education or personal development and had the potential to endanger the child's physical health, morality and safety.