Cane Farmers Pledge Support for UN Goals of Ending Child Labor

To commemorate Child Labour Elimination Day on June twelfth, the Belize Sugar Cane Farmers Association is pledging its commitment to develop and ratify its Youth Policy for decent employment, skills development and business opportunities by the end of 2021.  A release from the association says they stand in solidarity with the global commitment to end child labour, specifically in relation to target eight point seven of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.  As a member of Fairtrade International and as a socially responsible producer organization, the Belize Sugar Cane Farmers Association, together with its three thousand three hundred and sixty members, is committed to respecting and promoting the human rights of its members and workers and their families. As part of its efforts to scale up its work in mitigating and eliminating child labour, forced labour and gender based violence, they are now focusing on youth, ages sixteen to twenty-eight, who are likely to be impacted by unacceptable practices. Since 2015, the B.S.C.F.A. has bolstered yearly investments in programs and projects that promote awareness on the rights of vulnerable groups, particularly children, youth and/or women. They also conducted a Fairtrade International funded study on youth cane cutters and held stakeholder discussions in Belize with government, industry, N.G.O.s, schools and UNICEF on children and youth in the sugar cane sector.