Launching Ceremony of the China Advocacy Campaign for the World Day against Child Labour in Yunnan Province CPTING Project

The advocacy campaign is one of the main activities of China’s Project to Prevent Trafficking for Labour Exploitation (CP-TING Project), implemented by the ILO and ACWF. It aims to reach out to schools for migrant and leftover children, especially those who are at risk of trafficking, to migrant-concentrated communities and countryside middle schools. The ILO designs the campaign “Show the Red Card to Child Labour” to prevent children from shouldering the burden of family life too early through government commitment and public participation.

A football game, participated by students, teachers, movie stars and government officials kicks off this year’s advocacy campaign for the World Day against Child Labour in Kunming Yuntong Middle School, Yunnan Province on 12 June 2010. The theme for 2010 World Day against Child Labour is “Go for the Goal: End Child Labour”. During the match, a quiz testing players’ knowledge about trafficking prevention and the elimination of child labour made the campaign more interesting. Leaders from All-China Women’s Federation (ACWF), International Labour Organization (ILO) Beijing and Mongolia Office, Yunnan Provincial Anti-trafficking Working Group and officials from Kunming and Wuhua District, together with nearly 1000 persons attended the launching ceremony.

The advocacy campaign is one of the main activities of China’s Project to Prevent Trafficking for Labour Exploitation (CP-TING Project), implemented by the ILO and ACWF. The advocacy campaign aims to reach out to schools for migrant and leftover children, especially those who are at risk of trafficking, to migrant-concentrated communities and countryside middle schools. The ILO designs the campaign “Show the Red Card to Child Labour” to prevent children from shouldering the burden of family life too early through government commitment and public participation.

Ms Jiang Yue’e, General-Director of Legal Department of ACWF delivered a speech at the launching ceremony. In the speech she stated that “The elimination of child labour needs the attention and participation of people from all walks of life. On the other hand, the school, parents, teachers and students should act together to achieve the goal.”

Ms Guan Jinghe, Deputy Director of International Labour Organization Beijing and Mongolia Office said at the launching ceremony, “In the global campaign against child labour, we will continue to appeal to take the elimination of child labour as the inseparable part of the overall strategy of the elimination of poverty, the enforcement of social protection and the popularization of compulsory education. We have developed strategies to carry out the advocacy campaign and mobilize the social forces to help children to learn self-protection against trafficking and child labour. In addition, we support the enhancement of labour market supervision and call on all enterprises to take up their social responsibilities and ban the use of child labour.”

Ms Zheng Lu, Vice President of Yunnan Provincial Women’s Federation also said at the launching ceremony, “The purpose of the football game, the main activity of this advocacy campaign of anti-trafficking and the elimination of all the worst forms of child labour is to call on the whole society’s active participation, and high attention should be paid to children’s safe growth. We should further raise people’s awareness against child labour and on the protection of children’s legal rights so as to provide a safer and better environment for children’s growth.”

In the afternoon, CP-TING Project in cooperation with Yunnan Provincial Women’s Federation also launched an advisory activity with the same theme “Go for the Goal: End Child Labour” in the migrant-concentrated Lianjia community, Wuhua District, Kunming City. A professional voluntary team and a community service station under the Yunnan Women’s Federation for migrant women and children will be established there with the aim of involving more people to participate in the trafficking prevention campaign, targeting adolescents, migrant children and children who are at risk of trafficking.

The closing ceremony of the advocacy campaign was held on June 29 in Hunan Province.