Campaign overview april 2017

Join Us

Dear Friends, I have always believed that every child has the fundamental right to enjoy their childhood, live freely, be healthy and receive a quality education. For the past 35 years, my fellow activists and I have worked tirelessly to reduce the number of child laborers globally and increase the number of children enrolled in school. We have established three rehabilitation centers in India and rescued more than 84,000 children from slavery and bonded labor. Being given a childhood has meant all the difference in the world to these children and their families, and many of the children have become empowered, giving voice to the fight against exploitation and end the vicious cycle.

The time has come to drastically scale our efforts, because, unfortunately, my work represents a tiny fraction of the overall problem, when looked at on a global scale. According to the International Labor Organization, there are 168 million child laborers worldwide. Of those, 85 million are engaged in hazardous work, 5.5 million are enslaved and, every year, 1.2 million are trafficked. Another 124 million children (ages 6 to 15) are out of school. Children most vulnerable to exploitation are generally from poor families in 'hot-spot' regions around the world – parts of Africa, South Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East.

Nearly twenty years ago, I had an idea for a global awareness campaign to highlight child labor and to advocate for the need for an international treaty banning it in its worst forms. Most people told me the plan was way too ambitious and that it would be impossible to pull off. My colleagues and I ignored the naysayers and pressed forward anyway. The result was a physical march on five continents with over 7.3 million marchers which led to the adoption of the ILO Convention 182 on the worst forms of child labor in 1999. The Global March Against Child Labor galvanized unions, civil society and most importantly, children, to produce lasting change which is still being felt today by millions of children. There has been a reduction in child labor from 250 million (in 1998) to 168 million as a result of the Global March Against Child Labor, ILO Convention 182 and the work of our partner organizations around the world.

Our track record in engaging and mobilizing the public is now well documented. In 2008, the Global Campaign for Education, an organization I founded and led until 2011, held the largest simultaneous lesson involving more than 8.8 million children, which earned us a spot in the Guinness Book of World Records. In 2010, we were able to garner nearly 20 million signatures for the 1Goal campaign and secured results that enabled millions of children to go to school.

Since the Global March Against Child Labor, the world has become far more connected. The internet was still in its infancy then and cell phones were a luxury in most of the world. However, today six billion of the world's seven billion people have access to cell phones and three billion have internet access (according to the UN). This is one of the many reasons I firmly believe the time for mobilizing again and on a scale like never before has come. In September 2015, as a response to my and our partners' advocacy, ground-breaking language was included in the UN's Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that linked the elimination of violence against children, specifically child labor, child slavery and child trafficking, as a requirement to ending global poverty.

It is now the job for all of us – corporations, civil society, governments, and citizens – to hold our governments and the international community accountable and ensure these promises become a reality.

Despite this positive step, there is still a lack of awareness among governments, the public and corporations regarding the challenges with respect to protecting children from the worst forms of exploitation (i.e. forced labor, trafficking, child marriages, child soldiers, and others). Many people, no matter how educated, are unaware that child slavery still exists, and it's impossible to solve a problem when people do not recognize that there is one. In a 2013 survey of over 1,000 Americans, conducted by Ipsos Public Affairs, only 1 percent estimated the number of child laborers to be as high as it actually is: over 150 million. The majority (73%) of survey respondents said there were fewer than 1 million child laborers.

Significantly increasing the level of public awareness and grassroots support for children's rights is critical. The more we raise awareness, the more we will be able to prevent child labor. From educating at-risk youth and their families to be on the lookout for predatory traffickers, to helping youth and their families to better understand the need for the ethical child-labor-free production of the things that we consume everyday, these are the sustainable changes that we envision being the outcomes from a large-scale global awareness campaign – a campaign that instills a sense of global citizenship and engagement among children and youth. After all, they are the next generation of leaders, and it is only with their involvement that we can ensure a longterm sustainable solution.

For all these reasons, and maybe most importantly because of the lessons I've learned from 36 years in the field, we are launching the 100 Million for 100 Million Campaign, a global campaign focused on engaging and mobilizing youth for youth.

The way to ensure children's well-being is through a holistic, multi-dimensional approach of prevention, protection and policy.

Tackling the problem on all of these fronts is critical. However, of these, prevention is the most important of all, because going upstream will translate into lower incidences of rescuing yet another child from exploitation and misery. Building global awareness around how children are exploited is the single most effective way to prevent them from being exploited in the first place. Prevention is the underpinning of the Foundation's work in the policy and direct action spheres, and this campaign will tie the three together.

This campaign will become the largest global network of like-minded individuals and organizations standing together until no child anywhere is deprived of their freedom.

We hope you will join us. Help us help children get the childhood they deserve.

In Solidarity, Kailash Satyarthi 2014 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate

DEVLI KUMARI Devli was forced to work 15-16 hours a day in stone quarries. Since she and her family were freed, Devli has grown to be a voice for millions of trafficked and enslaved children. She has become a leader fighting against illiteracy by ensuring girls in her village are enrolled in school.

Devli was selected to represent trafficked bonded child labourers at the United Nations in New York where she left global leaders speechless when she bravely asked: “If I as a girl could enroll 15 [girls into school], is it not possible for all the world leaders to enroll all children into schools?”

The 100 Million for 100 Million Campaign The 100 Million Campaign will be a combination of online and offline actions aimed at engaging and mobilizing youth to take action on behalf of exploited children everywhere.

There are two things that make this campaign unique.

The first is a deeper level of engagement. This campaign will not revolve around simply adding one's name to an online petition or sharing viral images via social media. Those things are important, but lasting change requires much more than that. It requires a change in behavior which starts with individuals and organizations who work directly with kids teaching them about the issues and their rights.

The second is engaging children and youth as their own ambassadors in their own social narrative and to formulate the solutions to their own as well as the world's challenges; teaching them about their rights and providing opportunities for them – the future generation – to become leaders.

Empowering youth in decision-making at all levels is essential.

What these two things have in common – deep engagement and youth empowerment – is that they create global citizens. Globally minded children, aware of the challenges faced by others like them, are our best bets as advocates for permanently stamping out violence against other children and youth. As they mature into adults, their empathy and compassion will translate into what we envision as unprecedented levels of globally sustained action and vigilance – the world's best chance for bringing about an end to child labor.

Children and youth are one of best vehicles for convincing their own parents, elected officials, community leaders and corporate leaders on the importance of this cause. The bottom line is that if we want to see child slavery and child labor eliminated in a generation, we must teach the youngest generations how their lives are connected to the lives of children all over the world. At the end of the day, all children have the same fundamental rights to be free, safe and educated.

The Campaign will reach over 100 million youth to support their taking action for the more than 100 million child laborers unable to receive an education because they are not free. In addition to educating and empowering youth, we aim to engage and educate corporations, consumers, governments and citizens on the issues related to children's rights. There will also be specific regional and national goals tied to policy outcomes and other measurable indicators aimed at prioritizing children's well-being.

The Campaign will initially focus on global “asks” tied to benchmarks established in the SDGs which have been agreed upon by the international community, followed by tailored national asks. This will increase the pressure on decision makers as the asks will relate to their national/local performance on agreed targets and the national/local aspect of the ask will ensure deeper and longer supporter engagement.

Coalition-building strategy

Activities

Such an ambitious effort requires a strategy of partnering and coalition-building. This is why we will be collaborating with scores of partners already engaged with youth to co-develop tools on issues of child exploitation and human rights, and leverage their success stories for sustained engagement and effective mobilization.

Online activities will include, among other things, personal pledges, viral photos, videos, digital petitions, and downloadable educational tools.

Campaign partners will include:

Civil society organizations Governments Thought leaders Campaign partners

Academic institutions and think tanks

Committed Celebrities Current and former heads of state

Corporations

Everyone has a role to play. Socially responsible corporations will exert pressure on those who exploit children to do the right thing. Consumers will demand that the brands they support clean up their supply chains. Celebrities will use their fame to help spread the message. Politicians and governments will use their influence to create new policies and pass laws. Thought leaders, academic institutions, and think tanks will come up with new solutions. Civil society will lead the charge, holding world leaders accountable for the commitments they've made. And the public, especially youth themselves, will help corporations, governments, and everyone else realize the priority these issues deserve.

Timeline Since our goal is to significantly change the global situation with a major decrease in the number of exploited children, we need a campaign that builds momentum. This will be a five-year campaign requiring significant planning and resources in order to meet our ambitious goals. The Campaign launched in India in December 2016 and is launching globally throughout 2017.

Offline activities will include public events, such as marches, concerts, candlelight vigils, art displays and auctions, film screenings, street theatre performances, volunteer opportunities, fundraisers, neighborhood parties, back to school events and school clubs.

Strategic days (international in nature or of regional importance) will be used for collective action to harness the global power of the movement. These may include: June 12 (World Day Against Child Labor) June 16 (International Day of the African Child) August 15 (International Youth Day) September 20 (Global Day of Action) September 21 (International Day of Peace) October 11 (International Day of the Girl Child) October 17 (International Day for the Eradication of Poverty) November 14 (India: Children's Day) November 20 (Universal Children's Day) October 2, 2019 (Gandhi's 150 birthday)

Success Ultimately, this campaign will be considered successful when millions of children are removed from exploitative situations such as child labor, slavery and trafficking through the work of our partner organizations and our preventative work. This campaign will also enable millions of young people to connect their lives with the lives of others – whether they live on the same street, neighborhood, country or the other side of the world – and use their voice to show the world that all children are the same and have the same fundamental rights.

The Campaign will work on clear output and outcome indicators and we will work with partner organizations to support this. Measuring impact is always complex, and we will be utilizing the latest developments in this field and judge ourselves against progress on the ground. This campaign is not just about clicking a button, but is focused on children and youth changing their behavior.

FreeEveryChild