A new EU law is on its way. It will make human rights due diligence mandatory for EU companies. Sounds reasonable, right? The law is however delayed as the European Commission wants to “find a balance between different stakeholders’ views“. It makes me think about Sasha Beslik’s question: How will you explain it to Ruth?
How do we explain to children who are exposed to forced labor that “it is important to ensure a comprehensive preparation, take all aspects into consideration and find a balance between the different opinions of the stakeholders. Quality over speed”, as the European Commission press department explains the delay to Aktuell Hållbarhet. Will these children, who are not allowed to go to school because they need to work from morning to night with life at stake understand this view? What balance and what aspects can be more important than these children being allowed to be children, go to school and create a future for themselves?
UNICEF reports that the number of children exposed to forced labor is increasing again after a downward trend since year 2000. Today, every tenth child in the world is estimated to be exposed to forced labor. 160 million children.
Agenda 2030 is the most important to-do list of our time, as the wise Fredrik Moberg at the Stockholm Resilience Center put it a couple of weeks ago when he visited Sandviken. No less than five of these seventeen goals concern child labor:
Goal 1: No poverty – sub-targets 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.5
Goal 4: Good education for all – sub-targets 4.1 4.2 4.4 4.5 4.6 4.7
Goal 8: Decent working conditions and economic growth – sub-target 8.7
Goal 10: Reducing inequality – sub-targets 10.2
Goal 16: Peaceful and inclusive societies – sub-targets 16.1 16.2 16.3 16.9
There are so many reasons to support Musikhjälpen this year. We would also like to take the opportunity to thank our customers for truly rewarding collaborations during the year, for taking responsibility in your supply chains and for contributing to the Christmas gift to Musikhjälpen together with us. Thank you!
