Mailand 2002

Movement of the Working Children of the World – Preparatory Conference in Milan, Italy, 25 November to 02 December 2002

Sample image.
(CC) Wikimedia Commons (edited)

We, the movements of working children and adolescents from Africa, Asia and Latin America, after several meetings in our respective continents and forums and conferences in the European level (Amsterdam, Oslo, Geneva etc.), have become conscious that, despite the diversity of our regions, our situations, problems and dreams are the same. Therefore, we, the delegates of the Bal Mazdoor Union, Bhima Sangha, Mouvement Africain des EJT, and MOLACNATs movements, have met in Milan - Lavanderie from the 25th of November to the 2nd of December, 2002. We have decided to create a world movement of working children and adolescents to:

  • Take part in social movements who fight for a more just, humane, and dignified world.  
  • Fight against all forms of exclusion and discrimination on the basis of race, ethnicity, caste, religion or gender, in order to respect all people and rights, and in particular those of working children and adolescents
  • To guarantee the strong social and political representation and  protagonism of working children and adolescents, at all levels.

As a worldwide movement we wan tot:

  • Fight for social recognition.
  • Continue to meet together as a movement to strengthen us mutually. 
  • Continue to share information and organize activities to improve the situation of working children and adolescents in all continents and fight to change it.
  • Encourage and facilitate other working children and adolescents an in our respective continents to start their own unions.

We insist that adults, authorities, NGO’s, and regional, international and world-wide organizations, as well as civil society as a whole to:

  • Recognize our movement.
  • Support us in strengthening our world-wide movement on the local, national, regional, and world level, ensuring our participation in all decision-making process about issues that concern us at all levels.
  • Guarantee the achievement of our right to participation and right to be heard. We insist that the members of the media, to provide us space to carry our voice to society.

WE the working children and adolescentsof the world are not the problem, but part of the solution!

Adopted in Milan – Lavanderie (Italy) on the 2nd of December, 2002

Sophie Faye - MAEJT (Africa)
Yennifer Garay, Tania Pariona - MOLACNATS (Latin America)
Manjula Muninarasimha, Anuj Chowduri, Raju Kumar - BHIMA SANGHA and BAL MAZDOOR UNION (Asia)

Updated: 14.12.2020