World Day against Child Labor 2024: 5 complaints from Pope Francis

Every June 12, the World Day against Child Labor is commemorated, a scourge that affects some 160 million children in the world -preeminently in Africa- about which Pope Francis has reflected on several occasions throughout his pontificate.

1. A scourge that hurts dignity

The Pontiff assured in November 2021 that “child labor, especially when it manifests itself as exploitation, is a scourge that cruelly hurts the dignified existence and harmonious development of the little ones.”

He did so in a message addressed to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), in which he noted that this exploitation “considerably limits your future opportunitiessince it reduces and harms their life to satisfy the productive and lucrative needs of adults.”

“For many of these little brothers of ours, missing school means not only losing opportunities that equip them to face the challenges of adulthood, but also getting sick, that is, being deprived of the right to health, due to the deplorable conditions. in which they have to carry out the tasks that are vilely demanded of them,” he lamented.

2. “A plague that must be eradicated”

“Child labor exploitation is a plague that must be eradicated”; This was expressed by Pope Francis on November 19, 2021 in the audience he granted to the members of the International Conference “Eradicate child labor, build a better future.”

In his speech, the Holy Father indicated that “The plague of labor exploitation of children is particularly importance for the present and for the future of our humanity.”

“The way we relate to children, the extent to which we respect their innate human dignity and fundamental rights, expresses what kind of adults we are and want to be, and what kind of society we want to build.”

3. Children under inhumane conditions

In the general audience on June 10, 2020, the Pontiff highlighted that “in the current health emergency situation, in several countries many children and young people are forced to do work inappropriate for their age, in order to help their families in conditions of extreme poverty”.

4. Enslaved and fugitives

Furthermore, in April 2021, the Pope deplored that even though the world “has developed the most sophisticated technologies, there are unfortunately still so many children in inhuman conditions, exploited, mistreated, enslaved, fugitives. Of this we are ashamed today before God.”

5. Children are the future

On the Day against Child Labor in 2021, the Pope assured that “children are the future of the human family: it is up to all of us to promote their growth, health and serenity.”

According to the report Child Labor: 2020 global estimates, trends and the way forwardpublished on June 9, 2021 by the United Nations on the occasion of the International Year for the Elimination of Child Labor, “160 million children” are victims of child labor, and of them, “79 million perform hazardous work.”

Originally published June 12, 2023. It has been updated for republication.