This new report from Human Rights Watch helps to put access to essential child health services in a wider context for child health and wellbeing, and draws attention to a surge in exploitative child labour.
Extracts below. Full text here: https://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/media_2021/05/crd_childlabor0521...
Covid-19 Pandemic Fueling Child Labor
Children in Ghana, Nepal, Uganda Describe Grueling Hours, Low Pay
- The unprecedented economic impact of the Covid-19 pandemic is pushing children into exploitative and dangerous child labor.
- Many children feel they have no choice but to work to help their families survive, but a rise in child labor is not an inevitable consequence of the pandemic.
- Governments and donors should prioritize cash allowances to enable families to maintain an adequate standard of living without resorting to child labor.
According to the Committee on Economic Social and Cultural Rights, which oversees compliance with the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights, states parties are required to:
- ensure access to a social security scheme that provides a minimum essential level of benefits to all individuals and families that will enable them to acquire at least essential health care, basic shelter and housing, water and sanitation, foodstuffs, and the most basic forms of education; [...]
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Neil Pakenham-Walsh, HIFA Coordinator, neil@hifa.org www.hifa.org
