National field studies monitoring the phenomenon of child labor and the Syrian Child Rights Law are in the process of completing its issuance

Damascus-Sana

The world celebrates on this day of each year the International Day to Combat Child Labor, as this year’s activities focus on the impact of the pandemic, as a benefit of 19 years, in the progress made towards eliminating child labor, as international efforts to find solutions to end this phenomenon intensify by 2030. The United States has 152 million children in the labor market, 72 million of them do dangerous work.

In Syria, governmental and non-governmental efforts are continuing to limit the phenomenon of child labor, which has increased during the years of the terrorist war on Syria, and the various effects that it has left on children, embodied in the phenomena of school dropout, exposure to violence in all its forms, loss of family care, in addition to begging and recruitment by armed terrorist organizations, where they are considered The last two phenomena are among the worst forms of child labor according to international rankings.

In a statement to Lana, Director of Social Services at the Ministry of Social Affairs and Labor, Maysa Midani, stated that the Ministry, within the precautionary measures to address the pandemic, as a representative of 19, undertook various health measures within the role and institutions of child care in coordination with NGOs, including sterilization and adherence to the health rules called by the Ministry of Health, and also coordinated with The Ministry of Interior and Health is following up the health status of the child on the street, whether to beg or homeless before being admitted to social care homes and institutes or juvenile observation centers.

Meidani noted that the precautionary measures to tackle the Corona virus also included, in coordination with the Ministry of Justice, the mitigation of the presence of children arrested in juvenile centers by looking at the provisions related to them with a view to returning most of them to their families, noting that in cooperation with UNICEF, a work program has been developed to rehabilitate these Children within their families and provide enabling intervention in the fields of education and the economy, whether for the child or his family.

My field confirmed the importance of the case management program that the Ministry applies in dealing with various social phenomena and problems, including child labor, where the focus is on the causes of this phenomenon so that it can be addressed, pointing out that within the case management program also, the Ministry, in cooperation with the relevant authorities, has formed a central committee to address child victims of violence and trafficking Human and recruitment, where an awareness guide was developed to deal with them to rehabilitate them and integrate them into society, especially in the liberated areas.

Maidani indicated that the Ministry continues to complete the procedures for issuing the Child Rights Law, which is in the final stages of the amendment, explaining that it will be in the form of principles in accordance with those of the International Convention on the Rights of the Child.

In a similar statement, Director of Family Issues at the Syrian Commission for Family and Population Affairs Rana Khalifawi indicated that the authority prepared the national plan to combat forms of child labor and protect them from violence as it continued to update data and complete field studies on the reality of child labor in the work environment and the types of work they do and the economic status of their families and ended A field study on the reality of child labor in the Hassia area of ​​Homs and the industrial zone in Damascus, and a similar study is being pursued in other regions.

Khelifaoui pointed out that the outputs of these studies contribute to developing solutions and response plans to address the phenomenon of child labor and work to enable them through addressing school dropout and economic empowerment of their families because the economic factor is one of the most prominent reasons for the widespread phenomenon of child labor, noting that the authority is working to update the early childhood strategy from 2020 until In the year 2030, after the implementation of its executive program, in cooperation with various ministries and relevant authorities, was established.

Khelifaoui explained that the Family Protection Unit opened by the authority in 2017 includes its work to protect women and children from violence and provide all health, psychological and educational services for cases of children who have been subjected to violence in all its forms, indicating that Syrian laws and legislation related to child protection are compatible with international laws, legislations and agreements.

It is noteworthy that the International Day to Combat Child Labor was approved by the International Labor Organization since 2002 with the aim of focusing attention on the extent of the phenomenon of child labor in the world and strengthening efforts to eliminate it. Syria joined the Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1993 and the two Optional Protocols annexed in 2003 related to the prevention of child trafficking.

Enas Svan