Dakar 1998

Final declaration of the International Meeting (II Mini-World Summit) of the Movement of Working Children and Youth from Africa, Latin America and Asia in Dakar, Senegal, 1 to 4 March 1998

At our meeting we adopted the following declaration:

On the discussion about the new Convention on Child Labour

We call on the ILO to give us the floor at its forthcoming conference in Geneva so that we can express our views on the new Convention on "intolerable forms" of child labour.

We are against the exploitation of children in prostitution, slavery and drug trafficking. These are crimes, not activities.

  • Policy makers must make a clear distinction between work and crime.
  • Every day we fight against dangerous work and the exploitation of working children.
  • We are also fighting to improve the living and working conditions of all children on the planet.

We want all children on this earth to have the right one day to decide whether they want to work or not.

Work must be appropriate to the abilities and level of development of an individual child, not to a fixed age limit.

Initiatives and policies on child labour

The movements of working children and young people must be consulted on all decisions affecting them. When decisions are taken, they should be taken by all.

We will not take part in the worldwide "March against Child Labour" because its organisers did not want to take us into account when organising the march and because we will not march against ourselves.

Our movements

We have decided to create an International Coordination of the Movements of Working Children in order

  • to strengthen solidarity between us,
  • to make public Kundapur's 10-point declaration against poverty and the causes of our situation and to improve our living and working conditions,
  • to express our position on child labour everywhere.

We call on all movements of working children worldwide to join us.

The meeting was attended by 11 delegates elected by the movements of their countries and continents.

Updated: 14.12.2020