CAIRO: The chairman of the Arab Council for Childhood and Development (ACCD), Saudi Prince Abdul Aziz bin Talal, has praised the role of the council in monitoring and dealing with child labor in Arab countries, while warning plenty more still needed to be done.  

In a speech delivered at the launch of the study “Child Labor in Arab Countries” at the Arab League headquarters in Cairo, Prince Abdul Aziz said that the ACCD had implemented developmental projects to preserve the rights and dignity of Arab children, and stop their economic exploitation, since the 1990s, and was adapting ambitious targets to meet changing problems.

The ACCD first partnered with the Arab League and others to prepare a joint Arab strategy for reducing child labor in 2011, and the prince stressed that this particular study came at a crucial time, with vulnerable children, many of whom have been displaced by war, increasingly being exploited across the region. The plan, he added, was to end all forms of child labor in Arab countries by 2025.

The study was orchestrated in partnership with the Arab Labor Organization and the UN Food and Agriculture Organization. Prince Abdul Aziz thanked the partner organizations for their contributions, and also thanked the Arab League for its tribute to his father, Prince Talal bin Abdul Aziz, the former chairman of the ACCD.