Global March Against Child Labour is an international movement to build and strengthen worldwide efforts to protect and promote the rights of all children, especially freedom from economic exploitation and their right to a full-time quality basic education. Nobel Peace Prize 2014 winner Kailash Satyarthi, founded the organisation in 1998, and he continues as the President of the Global March.

We represent trade unions and civil society organizations across the world and have a proven track record of coordinating and completing one of the largest and most ambitious popular campaigns the world has ever seen around a social issue.

The physical global march in 1998, marked a turning point in the fight against child labour; bringing together like-minded organizations, institutions and individuals in a worldwide movement in about 140 countries. These organisations have sustained efforts in their countries to raise public awareness, support positive policy changes, foster partnerships and enhance knowledge to help reduce the exploitation of children and promote education for all children.

Unique to our organisation is the empowerment, engagement and involvement of children and young people in the fight against child labour, and for education for all. We have contributed considerably to the reduction of child labour and ensuring education for all, and most importantly have enabled and empowered thousands of children to stand up, speak out and to defend their own rights, among others by organising several Children?s World Congresses.

We have warm affiliations and good access to high-level fora and actors in industry, the UN, UNESCO, UNICEF, ILO, International Financial Institutions and high-level politicians and influencers worldwide. Global March under its strategic plan of action focuses on:
? Collating & developing knowledge-based evidences for advocacy, public policy interventions and to guide projects and programmes for reduction in child labour, child slavery and child trafficking, and promotion of education for all children;
? Building and strengthening a worldwide movement of stakeholders (members and non-traditional actors) through capacity building of members and partners;
? Coordinating advocacy (grassroots, national, regional and global) activities in partnership with members on policies and programmes impacting children?s rights; and
? Fostering meaningful and positive social change through awareness raising campaigns at grassroots, national, regional and global levels

Relevant to the UN SDG Summit, is our advocacy and campaign for the inclusion of greater protection for children in the post-2015 development goals. Global March is committed to the realisation of education for all children, and zero tolerance for violence against children globally, and through its programmes at all levels.

The Nobel Peace Prize has brought with itself an increased sense of responsibility, and at Global March, it provides us with the impetus to continue to work for protection of vulnerable children around the world with greater zest and zeal. In furtherance to fulfilment of this goal, Mr. Satyarthi along with other veterans fighting for the rights of the child initiated the End Child Slavery Week in November 2014, which is the boldest campaign of our times to put the international spotlight on child slavery and related issues, demanding the inclusion of child slavery, modern slavery and trafficking in human beings in the Post-2015 Development Agenda. The campaign till date has mobilised 70 partners across 35 countries and the endeavour is to continue to increase the footprints of the campaign in more countries, through increased partnerships in the coming years. To make the campaign reach worldwide, an online petition was launched in October 2014. The petition garnered support from 550,000 people worldwide, across 133 countries with more people joining the movement every day. The petition with 550,000 was hand delivered to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon by Mr. Satyarthi on 12 January 2015 in New Delhi. The Global March has continued to advocate with the UN and relevant governments for prioritising child labour, slavery and trafficking in the Sustainable Development Goals.

Furthermore relevant to the SDG Summit, is the Parliamentarians without Borders for Children?s Rights initiative which was launched by Global March in March 2015. The 22 parliamentarians from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Brazil, India, Nepal, the Netherlands, Pakistan, Paraguay and Turkey united to create a strong group of legislators who would engage with their constituents on children rights, and work together with multiple stakeholders to eliminate pressing concerns such as child labour and child slavery nationally and globally. Parliamentarians are key players in the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals, and Global March envisages their support for the domestication of the Sustainable Development Goals in their countries once finalised and to lay down their vision for the same. The Global March started in 1998 by bringing together policy and action for a unified response to child labour (elimination of child labour), illiteracy (education for all) and poverty alleviation. We mobilised 7.2 million former child labourers, children, human rights activists, and common people in 140 countries and propelled the adoption and ratification of ILO Convention 182 on eliminating the worst forms of child labour and the ILO Convention 138 on the minimum age of employment. The strategy since then is to build local and national capacity of civil society organisations and other relevant stakeholders to enable meaningful implementation of the most important national tools, specifically the national actions plans to ratify and implement the Conventions 182 and 138, the national action plans for Education for All and National Poverty Alleviation strategies, and overall protecting children from all forms of violence.

Ratification and implementation of the ILOChild Labour Conventions is central to our activities. In recent years, we have prioritised campaign activities in India and intensively advocated for amendments in the child labour legislation in the country. We continue to work with the UN systems and national governments for the implementation and monitoring of the child labour conventions.

For our education advocacy, we have been closely working with the UN Special Envoy for Global Education, Gordon Brown and the Global Campaign for Education (Global March is a founding member of the Global Campaign for Education). Global March, through Mr. Satyarthi is represented in the 'Emergency Coalition for Global Education Action' ,launched by the UN Special Envoy for Global Education and UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

We have extended support to our partners in Bangladesh, Cote d'Ivoire, India, Indonesia, Liberia, Nepal, Pakistan, Panama, Peru, Togo and Uganda to carry out focussed activities in their countries to strengthen the advocacy on protecting children in domestic work, and child victims of slavery and trafficking. The campaign focuses on pushing ratification of Convention 189 on Decent Work for Domestic Workers, to strengthen the capacity of the trade unions and the civil society organisations for advocacy purpose and better protection of the child domestic workers and associated gender based violence.

Specifically relevant to the SDG Summit, a special session on child labour, child slavery and education was convened on 23 September 2014 by Global March and A World at School, on the side-lines of the 69 UN General Assembly, to advocate for inclusion and integration of elimination of child labour and child slavery, in the Post -2015 Development Agenda. The discussions at the event focussed on making the text of the proposed Sustainable Development Goals 4 and 8, more robust to reflect strong commitment for elimination of child labour and child slavery.

Skills training and women?s empowerment is another stream of our work relevant to the SDGs. We focus on training young women on specific skills to encourage their participation in the workforce, thereby making child labour redundant in the supply chains. This programme has been piloted in India in the garment manufacturing supply chain. yes - GlobalMarch_Annual_Report_2014_0.pdf Mr Kailash Satyarthi (President), India
Mr Elie Jouen (Chairperson), France
Ms Ana Vazquez Gardini (Vice Chairperson), Peru
Mr Frans Roselaers, The Netherlands
Ms Virginia Murillo Hererra, Spain/Costa Rica
Ms Haldis Holst, Norway
Mr Dilli Bahadur Chaudhary, Nepal
Mr Cleophas Mally, Togo
Mr Andrews A Tagoe, Ghana
Mr Timothy Ryan, USA STICHTINGGMACL_DEED_ENG.pdf