Summary Ambassador says it is crucial for Pakistan to eliminate child and bonded labour GSP+ beneficiary.
ISLAMABAD (Web Desk) - The EU Ambassador Lars-Gunnar Wigemark has said that to become a GSP+ beneficiary, it is crucial that Pakistan eliminates child and bonded labour, especially its worst forms ".
Addressing this public awareness event for the European Union-funded project Combating Abusive Child Labor CACL-II), he also stressed linking child labour in Pakistan with preferential trade access to the EU and emphasizing on the need of its elimination.”
Appreciating Government of Pakistan and ILO’s efforts to combat abusive child labor through the CACL-II project, he also ensured that EU will continue to promote improved protection of children and the elimination of the worst forms of child labour in its initiatives--in particular in the UN General Assembly, the Human Rights Council, and the International Labor Organization. While praising government’s initiative of launching a similar €1.5 million program in Punjab province to replicate good results of CACL-II project.
The event provided opportunities for students to highlight the fight against child labor by producing video documentaries/short films on child labor including causes, consequences and impact on development issues related to child labor, under the research component of CACL-II by communication and media students of seven different universities across Pakistan.
Country Director ILO Pakistan Francesco d’Ovidio, expressed that it was responsibility of every human to look after the next generation (children) with care, love, protection for their equal opportunity in future.”
Federal Secretary of Overseas Pakistanis and Human Resource Development Abdul Khaliq said, “in the 21st century, it is our duty to address child labor on an urgent basis and secure the rights of every child”; citing the CACL-II project , setting successful institutional mechanism in all provinces for combating worst forms of child labor, and its pilot-tested district model approaches being instrumental in reducing, gradually eliminating all forms of hazardous child labor from various sectors of Punjab’s Sahiwal district and Sindh’s Sukkur district.
