A/RES/53/128
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4. Further welcomes the efforts by the Committee on the Rights of the Child in the area of child
labour, takes note of its recommendations,6 and encourages the Committee as well as other relevant human
rights treaty bodies, within their respective mandates, to continue to monitor this growing problem when
examining reports of States parties;
5. Calls upon all States to translate into concrete action their commitment to the progressive and
effective elimination of all forms of exploitative child labour, and urges them, as a matter of priority, to
eliminate the worst forms of child labour, such as forced labour, bonded labour and other forms of slavery;
6. Calls upon all States that have not yet done so to consider ratifying the conventions of the
International Labour Organization concerning the abolition of forced labour and the minimum age for
employment, including for particularly hazardous work for children, and to implement those conventions;
7. Encourages the negotiations in the International Labour Organization of a new convention on the
elimination of the worst forms of child labour, and calls upon States to support actively a prompt and
successful conclusion in 1999;
8. Calls upon all States to set specific target dates for eliminating all forms of child labour that are
contrary to accepted international standards, for ensuring the full enforcement of relevant existing laws and,
where appropriate, enacting legislation necessary to implement their obligations under the Convention on the
Rights of the Child4 and International Labour Organization standards ensuring the protection of working
children;
9. Recognizes that primary education is one of the main instruments for reintegrating child workers,
and calls upon all States to recognize the right to education by making primary education compulsory and to
ensure that all children have access to free primary education as a key strategy to prevent child labour;
10. Welcomes, in this context, the appointment of a special rapporteur whose mandate will focus on the
right to education, and recognizes the role that the Special Rapporteur could play in the efforts of States, in
particular in the field of primary education;
11. Calls upon all States to assess and examine systematically, in close cooperation with international
organizations such as the International Labour Organization and the United Nations Children’s Fund, the
magnitude, nature and causes of the exploitation of child labour and to develop and implement strategies for
combating these practices, with a specific emphasis on the situation of girls, their right to education and
access to schools on an equal basis with boys, in close cooperation with the United Nations Educational,
Scientific and Cultural Organization;
12. Calls upon all States and the United Nations system to strengthen international cooperation as a
means of assisting Governments in preventing or combating violations of the rights of the child, including the
exploitation of child labour;
VII
THE PLIGHT OF CHILDREN LIVING AND/OR WORKING ON THE STREETS
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