‘Child labour in Jordan is worrying and cannot be neglected’

AMMAN — The concluding conference of battling child labour in Jordan project, implemented by the National Centre for Human Rights (NCHR), commenced on Thursday at the Dead Sea.

In his speech at the inauguration of the two-day event, NCHR Commissioner General Musa Breizat described the phenomenon of child labour in Jordan as “very worrying” and said it cannot be neglected, according to a NCHR statement.

Ensuring children’s rights to health, education and physical safety is essential, Breizat said, adding that working under difficult situations and in unhealthy environments makes children subject to work injuries that may cause permanent disabilities. 

Losing the right to education is among the most serious violations resulting from child labour, which also negatively affects both families and society, the general commissioner added.

He reviewed some of the project’s goals, including identifying the magnitude of the problem, raising awareness of society on child labour and boosting governmental and non-governmental efforts in dealing with the issue.

Former justice minister Bassam Talhouni cited cases where children work in industrial professions that do not fit with their physical abilities, and subject them to visual and noise pollution which negatively affect their behaviour.  

Talhouni, the patron of the inauguration ceremony, stressed the importance of having an accurate diagnosis of the problem and of the reasons for its spread in society such as poverty, orphanhood and living in a family whose head is unemployed.

He added that the diagnosis phase should be followed by a search for the best solutions through enacting laws and raising the awareness of parents and children about the dangers of child labour.