The 6th Global Conference on the Elimination of Child Labor just ended in Marrakech, Morocco, with a reiterated call to end child labor globally. While the delegates acknowledged that they failed to achieve target 8.7, which aimed to eliminate child labor by 2025, a few items of progress were noted, including a reduction in the number of children engaged in child labor, the progress was decidedly minimal.
In reflecting on the conference, it is essential to recognize that the 6th Global Conference on the Elimination of Child Labor once again failed to center survivors and to place the voices of lived experience at the heart of the discussions and deliberations. No survivor of child labor was allowed to take their rightful place at the plenary table. Instead, political high profiles defined the solutions for ending child labor, thus speaking and deciding for survivors, without survivors, disregarding the anthem of the survivor leadership movement, “Nothing for us, without us.”
I am wondering, “How will the leaders find solutions to meet the needs of survivors of child labor without including them in the process?”
The outcome document recognizes the need to center survivors. However, after including “survivor-centered” approaches on page one, there is no further mention of survivor engagement, survivor leadership, or inclusion of survivors’ wisdom and lived expertise in developing, implementing, and evaluating solutions to child labor. The rest of the document simply repeats the same framing of diplomacy and the expression of intention that led to the failure to achieve the goal of eliminating all forms of child labor by 2025. 6th_Global_Conference_Provisional_Record-EN-13022026-FINAL.pdf
How about civil society? Local and national civil society organizations are the ones who live with and in communities affected by child labor. They were also excluded from the main stage, relegated to voice their concerns on the margins in the side events.
The disappointment felt by survivors and civil society organizations stems from the perception that the 6th global conference was business as usual. The same rhetoric, same political show, same figurative passion, same failure to change course, meet the moment, and invite those most affected and those on the frontlines into the center of the discussion. A failure to pause, listen, and learn from lived experience and lived expertise.
This was my first-ever global conference on child labor. After joining Free the Slaves, I came to realize how survivors are truly the experts on this issue. I had a chance to meet so many survivors, including survivors of child labor in agriculture and mining, forced labor, and human trafficking. I spend time with them during the course of my work at Free the Slaves, and I provide technical support to pathfinder countries of Alliance 8.7 as they engage with survivors in the development and implementation of their roadmaps.
Coming to this global conference, I was filled with hope that the world leaders would define new solutions in partnership with survivors. In fact, at Free the Slaves, we sponsored a survivor to attend the global conference and participate in the discussion. The Alliance 8.7 side event we organized with the Alliance 8.7 secretariat was one of the few that included survivors in the discussions, but that was just a side event.
How about the main stage events, the plenaries? Of the 6 plenaries, none included survivors. Instead, they were high-profile officials from governments, international agencies, and unions, all saying the same thing, repeating what they think we want to hear.
Now that everybody is leaving Marrakech, one question we should have in mind is: What are we bringing home? A political declaration? An Expression of intention? I am not sure.
Over and over, eminent speakers and experts, leaders and representatives, insisted on the need for inclusive solutions. I’d agree that inclusion is key to eliminating child labor. However, the reality of the 6th Global Conference seemed to be non-inclusive, a stark contrast to the rhetoric from the stage. Do we think the outcome document will imply some kind of inclusivity on the ground?
I have learned that the work we are doing at Free the Slaves is needed more than ever. We will keep fighting for survivors and for survivor-led solutions to achieve target 8.7. I hope leaders will take note of the mistake and make the necessary corrections to avoid it in the future.
Marie Helene Bouchard,
Director – Global Engagement, Policy and Advocacy
Free the Slaves
