11 June 2009 - The United Nations Children’s Fund in Afghanistan today committed itself to continue supporting efforts to stem the country’s continuing incidence of child labour.

Early this year, the Government of Afghanistan signed the landmark International Labour Organization’s Convention 182 which addresses the need for action to tackle the worst forms of child labour.

The Convention celebrates its 10th year this year.

UNICEF – which has 160,809 out-of-school children attending UNICEF-assisted community-based schools in 26 remote villages throughout Afghanistan – made the commitment to alleviate Afghan child labour at a press conference in Kabul in advance of World Day Against Child Labour on 12 June.

According to UNICEF most of the children attending UNICEF-assisted schools are girls.

This year’s Child Labour Day highlights the exploitation of girls.

An ILO publication titled “Give Girls a Chance” revealed that some 100 million girls worldwide are involved in child labour.

The same ILO report also pointed out that females make up almost two-thirds of the world’s illiterate population.

“They have a double burden as far as child labour is concerned,” stressed Ms Catherine Mbengue who lamented that while “many girls undertake similar work done by boys, many also take on additional household chores more than boys – childcare, cooking, cleaning and fetching water and fuel.”

UNICEF is also supporting the Child Protection Action Network (CPAN) of Government and Non-Governmental Organizations, including several UN agencies.

Last year alone, the CPAN recorded 1,500 cases, among them hazardous child-labour cases. 

UNICEF is pushing education as the “social vaccine” against child labour, noting that worldwide girls are often the last to be enrolled and the first to be withdrawn from schools if a family has to make a decision between sending a boy or girl to school.

“This pattern we see worldwide, and this pattern we see in Afghanistan,” said Ms Mbengue.

Also focusing on promoting girls’ access to quality education to break the cycle of poverty, UNICEF has a total of 45,331 partner female teachers facilitating the teaching and learning process for more than 2.19 million girls across Afghanistan.

As for Afghanistan’s street children, Ms Mbengue noted that “quite often, they come into conflict with the law” so that UNICEF is now linking with institutions such as the police to ensure that children’s rights are protected in accordance with the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC).

“The needs (to stem child labour) are enormous,” noted Ms Mbengue who stressed that “as long as we have not totally resolved the problem, we will never be satisfied.”

“It is a challenge to us and we are trying. It’s a challenge to us. We will try to do much more with a sense of urgency for the children. So, yes, we have made progress. The progress, so far, has not solved the problem yet, but it’s a challenge for all of us to do more for the children of this country,” she added.

By Aurora V. Alambra, UNAMA