BELIZE CITY, Fri. Apr. 30, 2021– The Cabinet gave approval to the Ministry of Labour to proceed with the development and implementation of a National Child Labour Plan to protect children from exploitative jobs that could negatively impact their health or development.
It is worth noting that not all work done by children is considered child labour. According to the International Labour Organization (ILO), work that does not interfere with a child’s health, development and schooling are generally considered positive reinforcements.
Most countries have included legislation that prohibits, or restricts, certain activities involving the employment of children. Nonetheless, child labor continues to take place on a large scale in many countries.
The development of this plan will guide Belize down the path towards achievement of the Sustainable Development Goal 17, which requires that member countries of the United Nations “take immediate and effective measures to eradicate forced labour, end modern slavery and human trafficking and secure the prohibition and elimination of the worst forms of child labour, including recruitment and use of child soldiers, and by 2025 end child labour in all its forms.”
Belize had previously developed a Child Labour Plan in 2009, but it was never implemented. Ann Marie Thompson, Belize’s Labour Commissioner, said, “as a country we have a duty, a responsibility to protect our children, to protect their rights, education, welfare, their safety and security. And so this is where the national child labour policy will come in. So we prepared an information paper for the Cabinet to say that we are in the process of developing and instituting a national child labour policy.”
Ann Marie Thompson, in an interview with News5, says that this initiative remains a collaborative endeavor. The ministry has contacted relevant stakeholders to help devise a wholistic Child Labour Policy. Communication with the International Labour Organization; UNICEF; the unions and the Belize Chamber of Commerce and Industry are currently underway, and the ministry is ready to begin developing the plan that will improve the welfare of children in Belize.