Participating in the 6th Global Conference on the Elimination of Child Labour, Sharing Ghana's Efforts and the Voices of Former Child Labourers with the International Community

(Originally published: March 2026)

Thank you always for your continued support. I'm Yuko in charge of advocacy at ACE.

From February 11–13, 2026, three ACE staff members — Yuka Iwatsuki, Tomoko Shiroki, and I (Yuko Kawamura) — attended the 6th Global Conference on the Elimination of Child Labour, held in Marrakech, Morocco.

At the conference, we:

- Shared ACE's work on Child Labour Free Zones (CLFZ) in Ghana with the international community

- Supported a side event bringing the voices of young former child labourers to policymakers

- Followed the latest global developments and discussed future directions for collaboration

What is the Global Conference on the Elimination of Child Labour?

The Global Conference on the Elimination of Child Labour is the largest international conference dedicated to child labour, held once every four years and co-hosted by the ILO and the government of the host country. Around 1,200 people gathered in Marrakech, including representatives from national governments, trade unions, and employer associations, as well as companies, international organizations, civil society organizations, young former child labourers, and members of Morocco's children's parliament.

The conference included high-level panels, thematic sessions, side events (both in person and online), and an exhibition-style innovation fair, with discussions covering lessons from global initiatives, ongoing challenges, and future directions.

The SDG 8.7 target of eliminating child labour by 2025 was not achieved. As a result, this conference focused heavily on reviewing progress on the Durban Call to Action, adopted at the previous conference (South Africa, 2022), and on strengthening international cooperation looking ahead to the period beyond 2030.

At the previous conference, the growing mainstreaming of "business and human rights" brought strong attention to the role of the private sector, including companies. This time, by contrast, discussions shifted more towards the root causes of child labour.

Specifically, many sessions explored how whole social systems could work together to address large-scale challenges such as agriculture, domestic work, and hazardous labour.

This conference also gave attention, for the first time on this scale, to the risks of child labour linked to digital technology. Sessions highlighted how new risks, such as the sexual exploitation of children through social media and their involvement in crime, are emerging worldwide and can lead to the worst forms of child labour.

Sharing Ghana's Child Labour Free Zone Experience

On February 12, the second day of the conference, ACE co-hosted a side event with UNICEF Ghana, the ILO, the International Cocoa Initiative, and Ghana's Ministry of Employment and Labour Relations to present Ghana's work on child labour.

Tomoko spoke on behalf of ACE, sharing our experience and lessons learnt from building the Child Labour Free Zone (CLFZ) system as part of a JICA (Japan International Cooperation Agency) project, in collaboration with partner organizations working towards a shared goal, including UNICEF Ghana, the ILO, and the International Cocoa Initiative. With Africa, the region where child labour challenges are most pronounced, at the centre of much of the discussion, around 120 people attended this side event, reflecting strong international interest.

Event details: Integrated, Multistakeholder Partnership Solutions to End Child Labour: Ghana’s Experience and Lessons for Cross-Country Learning

The Importance of the Area-Based Approach Was Reinforced

Child Labour Free Zones employes what is known as an "integrated Area-Based Approach": rather than targeting a single industry, government, businesses, and residents work together across an entire area to eliminate child labour. The importance of this approach was reinforced in the conference's outcome document (see below).

The conference also recommended strengthening interventions that combine the Area-Based Approach with efforts targeting corporate supply chains, in order to more effectively prevent and eliminate child labour. One example shared during the conference was a public-private partnership supported by  the Dutch government, linking corporate initiatives with support for strengthening  government systems in Ivory Coast.

(Outcome document: the Marrakech Global Framework)

Bringing Children's and Young People's Voices to Policymakers

Listening directly to the voices of rights holders is considered essential to designing and shaping policy on human rights issues.

On February 12, the second day of the conference, ACE, as a member organization of Global March Against Child Labour, an NGO network conducting global advocacy for the elimination of child labour, supported a side event bringing the voices of young former child labourers to the international community and policymakers.

Six youth representatives from around the world took part, speaking about their own lived experiences of child labour and delivering messages to policymakers as representatives of the 138 million children still in child labour today.

ACE sent Jacqueline, who worked in child labour harvesting potatoes as a child in an agricultural region of the United States, to speak at the event. At a conference where much of the focus was on child labour in developing countries, we see real significance in being able to convey that child labour also exists in developed countries. At the close of the session, youth presented their "Global Call to Action by Children and Youth," which was handed to UN Special Rapporteur on Contemporary Forms of Slavery, Tomoya Obokata.

Global Call to Action by Children and Youth

How ACE Helped Spark the "Red Card Action" at the Global Conference

Last November, during a visit to Martin Hahn at ILO headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, we presented him with a "Red Card" against child labour. This card was created by the Child Labour Network, for which ACE serves as secretariat, as the Japanese version of the red card used in the ILO's annual Red Card Campaign. Each year, around the time of the ILO's Red Card Campaign around June, the Child Labour Network calls on people in Japan to hold up a red card against child labour and share a photo on social media.

When we met Hahn again at the global conference, he told us that he had kept the red card we gave him in November on his desk ever since, and that seeing it had given him the idea to run a Red Card Campaign at this conference too. "You reinspired us!" he said. At the conference's opening, all participants held up red cards together for a photo, and throughout the conference people could be seen holding up red cards for photos in various parts of the venue.

From left: Yuka (ACE), Martin Hahn (ILO), Yuko (ACE)

Taking part in the Red Card Action with member organizations of Global March Against Child Labour

Calling for All ILO Member States, Including Japan, to Establish National Policies to Eliminate Child Labour by 2030

At a workshop hosted by the ILO and UNICEF, discussions focused on how efforts to address child labour should be positioned within the international framework for the period after the SDGs, from 2030 onwards.

ACE proposed setting indicators that look not only at trends in the number of child labourers, but also at whether societies have the systems in place to prevent and eliminate child labour.

The outcome document released on the final day set out, as an indicator, that all ILO member states should establish national policies on child labour by 2030.

In Japan, one challenge is the lack of statistics capturing the true scale of child labour, alongside a high prevalence of the worst forms of child labour, including the sexual exploitation of children and young people and coercion into crime. Developing effective policy will require a clearer picture of where risk is concentrated, by region, industry, and other factors. 

Looking Ahead

We will share what we learned at this conference, along with the content of the outcome document, with member organizations of the Child Labour Network, the Japanese government, and members of the Sustainable Cocoa Platform in Developing Countries.

We will continue working to build a society that protects children's rights, both by advancing Child Labour Free Zones in Ghana and by improving the child labour situation here in Japan. We appreciate your continued support.

Author: Yuko Kawamura, Advocacy officer