New Delhi: On the eve of the European Union-African Union Summit, 86 Nobel Laureates and leaders including Nobel Peace laureate Kailash Satyarthi, His Holiness Dalai Lama, former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Spiritual leader Mata Amritanandamayi and Infosys founder Narayan Murthy, as part of Laureates and Leaders for Children, called on world leaders to ensure social protections for Africa children.
The statement was finalised following a roundtable consultation, chaired by Nobel Peace prize winner Leymah Gbowee, with a cross section of leaders from across Africa.
“Our children in Africa need us. With more than half of the world's child labour in Africa, we call on each of the world's leaders to stand up and act for the rights, dreams and future of our children,” said Kailash Satyarthi, Nobel Peace winner and founder of Laureates and Leaders for Children. “There is more than enough wealth for every child to be able to go to school instead of having to work to survive. The question is how we choose to share that wealth, and with whom. I urge governments to pay heed and take action and we must start with Africa.”
Leymah Gbowee said, “The transformation of Africa can be done. It is upon us to make our forefathers proud by re-shaping pan-Africanism into an inclusive, people-centered reality. Young people are the future of the continent. We can't squander their contribution by losing them to exploitation.”
In June 2021, the ILO and UNICEF announced the first shocking increase in the number of child labourers worldwide in two decades, during the first four years of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (2016-2019). Even before the start of the pandemic, the number of child labourers globally rose to an appalling 160 million children, over half of which (i.e. 86 million) are in Sub-Saharan Africa. This is the consequence of racial and systemic discrimination against Africa.