The World Day Against Child Labour is observed on June 12th. It is intended to highlight the plight of working children and to support the worldwide movement against child labour.

From 2000 to 2020, child labour decreased significantly, but over the past few years, conflicts, crises and the COVID-19 pandemic, have plunged more families into poverty – and forced millions more children into child labour.

Today, almost one in ten children worldwide – 160 million children – are still engaged in child labour.

Since 2013, The Congregation of the Sisters of Mercy through its project MECPATHS has responded to the emergence of Child Trafficking as a growing human rights and social justice issue in Ireland.

Read about the work of MECPATHS here