Presentation of the Declaration on Unaccompanied Minors (UAMs)
The International Association of Free Thought is regularly invited as an observer to the annual work of the ILO International Labour Conference (organized by the International Labour Office in Geneva). This year, during the 114th ILC (June 1-12, 2026), two parallel meetings of delegates and observers were held at its initiative and that of African delegates, focusing on the international conventions governing the rights of minors and migrant workers. This resulted in the following declaration, whose initial signatories are listed below (1). It is addressed to all stakeholders in the countries concerned, with the aim of providing a foundation for mobilizations to improve the conventions and oppose projects that destructively infringe upon rights.
(1) The secretariat apologizes to the signatories whose handwritten names could not be deciphered. This concerns delegates from El Salvador, Honduras, and Belarus. Signatures and contributions can be sent to beclp@laposte.net
Declaration on unaccompanied minors (UAMs)
The 114th International Labour Conference (2026) reviewed the implementation of ILO standards. These standards, enshrined in Conventions 138 and 182, protect child labor.
Convention 182, by guaranteeing the right to education, remains a valuable instrument of international law. Indeed, Article 26 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, reiterated in Articles 28 and 29 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), guaranteeing access to quality education in accordance with the objectives set out in international instruments.
Unaccompanied minors, forced into exile without assistance, hardly benefit from these conventions, neither in their transit countries nor in their final destination countries.
They lack food, shelter, healthcare, and education. Their minority status is often contested, and the procedures, the execution of which is outsourced, lead them to live in a state of permanent precarity. The ILO has already intervened directly; however, the organizations that coordinate solidarity efforts with these young people are struggling to meet the task and the obstacles they face.
In March 2026, the European Parliament adopted a “regulation of procedure” whose application, legitimizing administrative detention, the outsourcing of procedures, and police measures that infringe upon freedoms, would constitute a new threat.
With this declaration, we wish to emphasize that the international solidarity of workers and human rights organizations is automatically granted to these young people and remains an international humanitarian right. We will support their rights both within our national institutions and internationally.
Done at Geneva on 04/05/2026
