2021 is the International Year for the Elimination of Child Labour

Over 150 million children are still subject to child labour across the world today. In Nigeria, the International Labour Organization reports that over 40% of children are still trapped in child labour and exploitation.

Children should be learning and growing at home and in schools, not slaving away. No child should be deprived of a childhood, safety, health, or education. Child labour has no place in our society, and companies have a duty to stop child labour. It is time to accelerate the pace of progress and for business to take practical actions to help eliminate child labour for good.

Ending child labour and all forms of forced and compulsory labour is integral to the Ten Principles of the UN Global Compact. Our participating companies are committed to stopping these abuses, however, for most companies, the transition remains to be made, from policy commitments to concrete actions towards ending child labour and forced labour.

The reality is that a wide gap between business aspiration and business action still persists. In response to this, the UN Global Compact is prioritizing this topic, aligned with the International Year for the Elimination of Child Labour. 

At the UN Global Compact, we understand that making a real impact will require adopting a holistic approach and collaborating with all stakeholders. The UN Global Compact 2021 Action Pledge on eliminating child labour reflects our commitment to work with our participants and engage actively with all relevant stakeholders globally and locally.

We aim to inspire companies to step up efforts to help end the scourge of child labour and forced labour, by sharing good practices and mobilizing them to translate business aspirations into business actions. 

Nigeria’s organized private sector has a major role to play in ending child labour . We, therefore, call on all companies, large and small, to step up their due diligence on human rights. Specifically, we urge them to take proactive steps to identify, prevent, mitigate and account for all adverse human rights impacts in their operations and value chains, which will in turn help tackle child labour and forced labour across the country.

Your company can make a difference by taking action to end child labour for good. Take the pledge to end child labour today!