Today is the 24th International Day Against Child Labour. This day was a hard-won victory in the movement against child labour. But today, my heart aches. I can hear the desperate cries of millions of children who are still trapped in forced labour, toiling in fields, factories, and homes.

At this time in 1998, I was surrounded by hundreds of children who had been rescued from similar conditions. I remember their fearless chants as they walked with me across 103 countries in the Global March Against Child Labour. At the end, we were invited to speak at the International Labour Organization (ILO) headquarters in Geneva, where we placed a simple but urgent demand: “No more tools in tiny hands. We want books, we want toys!” It was not just my voice; it was the voice of millions of children who wanted freedom and education.

The march made history. In 1999, the ILO adopted Convention 182, the first international law against the worst forms of child labour, including slavery, trafficking, and bonded labour.

The first 16 years of the convention ignited a wave of hope as we witnessed remarkable progress. Between 2000 and 2016, the number of child labourers dropped drastically from 250 million to 152 million. It showed that change was possible. But this was not enough, because in the case of children, every moment matters. One day without school is an opportunity lost, one minute in slavery is a childhood stolen.

An opportunity to revive the movement came in 2016, when the UN adopted the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). We spearheaded a campaign to make sure eliminating child labour was included as an SDG. We believed that........

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