OUR IMPACT
JUSTICE FOR AFRICA'S CHILDREN: AFRICAN UNION ADMITTED TO THE G20
2023
Laureates and Leaders for Children published its landmark Justice for Africa's Children report in 2023. The report calls for world leaders to take urgent action to stop the acceleration of children’s rights violations across sub-Saharan Africa, focusing on how recent injustices have led to increased levels of child labour, children out of school, and extreme poverty across the continent in the last decade. One of the report’s demands was to recognise African leaders within global decision-making architecture, including full membership of the G20 for the African Union. Laureates and Leaders for Children has been demanding the inclusion of the African Union in the G20 over the last two years - first raising the issue in 2021 and making repeated recommendations in reports, G20 engagement groups and media interviews since. After advocacy conducted by Mr. Satyarthi and the Laureates and Leaders for Children Secretariat in advance of the G20 in India, the AU was formally admitted in the subsequent G20 communique.
JUSTICE FOR AFRICA'S CHILDREN: EUROPEAN AND AFRICAN UNIONS COMMIT TO CHILDREN'S RIGHTS
FEBRUARY 2022
In February 2022, 95 Nobel Laureates and world leaders mobilised for the Sixth European Union/African Union Joint Summit and released a statement calling for Justice for Africa's Children. Laureates and Leaders Steering Committee members raised the statement with the President of the European Council, after which children's rights featured prominently in the Summit Declaration.
FAIR SHARE TO END CHILD LABOUR HELPS PUT SOCIAL PROTECTION FOR CHILDREN ON GLOBAL AGENDA
SEPTEMBER 2021
Following the launch of the Fair Share to End Child Labour campaign, Laureates and Leaders produced a briefing and hosted a UN General Assembly event focused on universal social protection for children living in low-income countries. Social protection for children and their families can prevent the kind of extreme poverty that forces children out of school and into work. At the end of September 2021, the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and the International Labour Organization announced the global accelerator on jobs and social protection; and in 2022 the World Day Against Child Labour theme was 'Universal Social Protection to End Child Labour'. In 2022, the Laureates and Leaders for Children Secretariat discussed its recommendation for universal child benefits with the ILO in advance of the publication of the joint ILO/UNICEF report, More than a billion reasons: The urgent need to build universal social protection for children.
LAUNCH OF THE FAIR SHARE TO
END CHILD LABOUR CAMPAIGN
2021
The Fair Share to End Child Labour campaign was created as a direct result of the Fair Share for Children Summit, hosted by Laureates and Leaders for Children in September 2020. Launched at the start of the International Year for the Elimination of Child Labour, the Fair Share campaign aimed to accelerate an end to child labour by demanding a fair share of resources, policies, and protection.
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The campaign comprises a coalition of multilateral organisations, business leaders, student and trade union leaders, and faith leaders from all over the world. The launch featured speakers and supporters including Guy Ryder, DG of the International Labour Organization; Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, DG of the World Health Organization; Gabriela Ramos, ADG at UNESCO; and Kailash Satyarthi, Nobel Peace Laureate and Child Rights Activist.
LAUREATES AND LEADERS CALL FOR A FAIR SHARE FOR CHILDREN
MAY 2020
In May 2020, concerned by the impact of COVID-19 on vulnerable communities and inspired by the 100 Million youth leaders’ Justice for Every Child campaign, Laureates and Leaders convened 88 Nobel laureates and world leaders to release a joint statement calling for a fair share of the global economic response to be allocated to the world’s most marginalised children.
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A flagship report, A Fair Share for Children, called to protect children from the multitude of injustices that the pandemic brought, including child labour, hunger, lack of access to education, and lack of protection for children on the move. The report was launched during the 2020 Virtual Summit, which saw more than 9,000 participants across two days.
KAILASH SATYARTHI ADVOCATES WITH WORLD LEADERS, COMMITMENTS TO PROTECT CHILDREN ONLINE
2019-2020
Throughout 2019, Mr. Satyarthi lobbied world leaders calling for a comprehensive UN convention to address the online abuse of children, one of the core issues recognised in the Dead Sea Declaration. Leaders included HH Pope Francis, German Chancellor HE Angela Merkel, Argentina’s Minister of Foreign Affairs and Worship HE Jorge Faurie, the Prime Ministers Offices of Canada and Norway, as well as the governments of France and Thailand. The Laureates and Leaders for Children Secretariat also engaged the governments of Afghanistan, Bhutan, Germany and Singapore, and in December 2019 contributed to the WeProtect Global Alliance document Global Strategic Response to Online Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse.
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As part of this work, the secretariat, through the Kailash Satyarthi Children's Foundation US, was invited to join the WeProtect Global Alliance. In 2021, the OECD revised its recommendation on children in the digital environment, and the G20 Rome Declaration included a commitment to protect and empower children online.
ENDING CHILD LABOUR IN GLOBAL SUPPLY CHAINS
NOVEMBER 2019
The former Secretary- General of the OECD, Angel Gurría, continued to deliver his pledge to Laureates and Leaders for Children, and the OECD released a report in November 2019 on child labour in global supply chains.
Mr. Satyarthi has also been calling for a new due diligence supply chain law in Germany and the EU since 2019, meeting then-Chancellor Merkel, EU Commissioners, MEPs and Members of the Bundestag as well as holding press conferences and media interviews in Berlin and Brussels to champion new compulsory legislation.
ENSURING REFUGEE CHILDREN ARE SAFE, EDUCATED, AND REPRESENTED
2018-present
Following the 2018 'Children on the Move' Summit in Jordan, the youth-led 100 Million campaign, which supported the Summit’s youth delegation, made refugee children a priority. 100 Million joined a successful campaign to evacuate all unaccompanied minors from refugee camps on the Greek islands to safe facilities on the mainland.
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In 2020, 100 Million was invited to convene the youth-led constituency of the board of Education Cannot Wait, the multilateral fund for education in emergencies. It ensured that refugee children could directly participate in decision-making on funding for education in humanitarian and emergency settings. 100 Million remains the convenor of this constituency.
LAUREATES AND LEADERS ACT URGENTLY FOR PEACE
MARCH-SEPTEMBER 2019
In March 2019, Laureates and Leaders for Children convened a group of 74 Nobel laureates and 4 world leaders to write to the Prime Ministers of India and Pakistan, urging them not to go to war. In September 2019, Laureates and Leaders contributed to the outcome document at the 17th World Summit of Nobel Peace Laureates in Merida, Mexico, calling urgently to build a culture of peace.
G20 COMMITS TO END CHILD LABOR
JULY 2017
Angel Gurría, then-Secretary- General of the OECD and one of the leaders present at the inaugural Laureates and Leaders for Children Summit in India, ensured this pledge was included during the 2017 Hamburg G20 negotiations. Not only was this the first time child labour was discussed at the G20, it was the first ever overt commitment made to children by the G20. Ending child labour has remained a commitment of the G20 ever since.
HE LORENA CASTILLO GARCIA
PRESENTS DECLARATION TO
UN SECRETARY-GENERAL
2018
Laureates and Leaders Steering Committee member and then-First Lady of Panama, Lorena Castillo Garcia, presented the 2018 Dead Sea Declaration to UN Secretary-General António Guterres.
INDIA RATIFIES ILO CONVENTION 182
MARCH 2017
The Indian Labour Minister announced the ratification of ILO Convention 182 for the prohibition and elimination of the worst forms of child labour, and enacted legislation in India against the most hazardous forms of child labour.
16TH WORLD SUMMIT OF NOBEL PEACE LAUREATES CALLS FOR FINANCING FOR CHILD-FOCUSED SDGS
FEBRUARY 2017
At the 16th World Summit of Nobel Peace Laureates in February 2017, Nobel Laureates recognised the violence children suffer whether from conflict, climate change, early marriage, child labour or human trafficking, or poverty as a serious global crisis, and called on governments to allocate the financial resources to implement the related UN Sustainable Development Goals.
