Leading Figures to Launch ILO Global Report on Child Labour in Klong Toey

Leading figures launch report by the ILO’s Director-General on the extent of child labour in the world today.

Press release | BANGKOK | 03 May 2002

BANGKOK (ILO News): Former Foreign Minister Dr. Surin Pitsuwan will join other leading Thai figures to present an ILO Global Report on Child Labour to the media, and to children and community leaders in Bangkok’s Klong Toey community on Wednesday 8 May at 10.30am.

The Report, by the International Labour Organization’s Director-General, is a comprehensive survey of the extent of child labour in the world today, the kinds of work that children undertake, and of measures to combat it. Dr. Surin is a prominent member of the ILO’s high level World Commission on the Social Dimension of Globalization.

Dr. Surin will be joined on the panel by Thailand’s Deputy Labour and Social Welfare Minister, Khun Ladawan Wongsriwong. Other guests will include founding Trustee of the Duang Prateep Foundation, Dr Vithavas Khongkhakul, community members, children and ILO technical experts. The Foundation is dedicated to serving the needs of the estimated 100,000 people who live in the Klong Toey slum community, in Bangkok’s port area.

You, or your representative, are cordially invited to attend the panel and press conference – at 10.30am at the Duang Prateep Foundation, Lock 6, Art Narong Road, Klong Toey. Please see the attached map for directions. A light luncheon will follow the presentation.

Copies of the global report will be available at the launch; Thai translations of parts of the report and background documents will also be available. The panel discussion and press conference will be held in English and Thai, with simultaneous translation facilities.

The global operations chief of the ILO’s International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour, Mr. Gek-Boo Ng, will also be available to answer questions about the report, or about child labour in general. The ILO is an agency of the United Nations dedicated to ensuring that women and men have access to decent and productive work, in freedom, equity, security and human dignity. The elimination of child labour is one of the Organization’s chief goals.