FIM

The com­pe­ti­tion aims to har­ness the pow­er of music to help com­bat child labour, which affects 152 mil­lion chil­dren worldwide

The Music Against Child Labour Initiative, which brings togeth­er musi­cians to raise aware­ness of child labour, is launch­ing a song com­pe­ti­tion on 3 February 2021 to mark the UN International Year for the Elimination of Child Labour.

Musicians of all gen­res are invit­ed to sub­mit a song to inspire gov­ern­ments and stake­hold­ers to take action to elim­i­nate child labour, which affects near­ly 1 in 10 chil­dren worldwide.

While child labour has decreased by almost 40 per cent over the last two decades, the COVID-​19 pan­dem­ic threat­ens to reverse that progress.

The glob­al Music Against Child Labour Initiative, launched in 2013 by the ILO, JM International and the International Federation of Musicians (FIM), togeth­er with renowned musi­cians and key part­ners from the world of music has two key aims: rais­ing aware­ness of child labour through music, and empow­er­ing chil­dren, includ­ing chil­dren for­mer­ly in child labour, through music.

“The pow­er of music lies in its abil­i­ty to make peo­ple feel cer­tain emo­tions, to con­nect and bring us togeth­er,” said Rahman

Musicians can sub­mit their com­pe­ti­tion entries to one of three cat­e­gories: a glob­al cat­e­go­ry for all artists; a grass­roots cat­e­go­ry for music projects involv­ing chil­dren affect­ed by child labour; and a CLEAR Cotton project cat­e­go­ry for nation­al com­pe­ti­tions run in Burkina Faso, Mali, Pakistan and Peru, where the ILO works with part­ners to com­bat child labour and forced labour in the cot­ton, tex­tile and gar­ment val­ue chains.

Winners will be select­ed by a pan­el of tech­ni­cal and music experts, based on musi­cal qual­i­ty, the rel­e­vance of the mes­sage, song orig­i­nal­i­ty, and the inclu­sion of a call to action. Entries will be reviewed by the award-​winning com­pos­er AR Rahman and oth­er artists from the musi­cal world.

Winners will be award­ed a cash prize, a pro­fes­sion­al music-​video record­ing of their song; and the oppor­tu­ni­ty for their song to be part of the glob­al World Day Against Child Labour event in June 2021. The com­pe­ti­tion dead­line is 12 April 2021.

The com­pe­ti­tion is being run by the glob­al youth music organ­i­sa­tion Jeunesses Musicales International in col­lab­o­ra­tion with the International Labour Organization, under the umbrel­la of the Music Initiative.

For infor­ma­tion about the com­pe­ti­tion and how to enter, vis­it: https://​www​.musica​gain​stchild​labour​.com or https://​www​.face​book​.com/​m​u​s​i​c​a​g​a​i​n​s​t​c​h​i​l​d​l​a​b​our

The ILO CLEAR Cotton project, co-​funded by the European Union and imple­ment­ed in col­lab­o­ra­tion with the FAO, com­bats child labour in Burkina Faso, Mali, Pakistan and Peru by sup­port­ing the efforts of gov­ern­ments, social part­ners and the cot­ton sec­tor actors at a nation­al lev­el and by empow­er­ing com­mu­ni­ties and stakeholders.