Brazil is the first country outside of Europe to receive the Global Conference on Child Labour. The first meeting, acknowledge by ILO as global, took place in 1997, in Amsterdam, and the second edition of the Conference occurred in 2010, in The Hague.

The Hague Global Child Labour Conference – , organized by the Dutch Government in partnership with the ILO in 2010, had the participation of 450 representatives from 80 countries. Its main goals were to accelerate the universal ratification of ILO conventions No. 138 and No. 182; to commit urgent, immediate and efficient measures to eliminate the worst forms of child labour; and to intensify actions to meet the goal of eradicating the worst forms of child labour by 2016 as stated in the Global Action Plan.

The main result of the conference was the adoption of the “Roadmap for Achieving the Elimination of The Worst Forms of Child Labour”, to guide nations, worker’s and employer’s organizations and civil society in the implementation of actions in order that, by 2016, children and adolescents no longer exert activities related to the worst forms of child labour: slavery, child trafficking, forced labour, forced recruitment for armed conflict, sexual exploitation, illicit activities such as production and trafficking of drugs and other activities that are harmful to the morals, health or safety of children and adolescents.

Brazil has been chosen to host the III Conference for being recognized as an international reference in the fight against child labour. By adding public policies to civil society support, the number of children and adolescents between 5 and 17 years old in child labour situation was reduced in 57% between 1992 and 2011.

The objective of the III Conference, that takes place from October 8 to 10, in Brasilia, is to evaluate the actions taken on the fight against child labour, to deepen the exchange of experiences among countries and regions and to reach, through government and social partners’ commitment, the acceleration of the eradication of the worst forms of child labour. The starting point to evaluate progress are the measures stated in the “Roadmap”.