Investment in the physical, mental, spiritual, moral and social development of children is an ethical, social and economic imperative for all societies.
Girls are especially vulnerable.
The work of the Conference was based on the provisions against child labour in the Convention on the Rights of the Child and ILO Convention No. 138. The Conference was the latest in a series of international meetings including the World Congress against Commercial Sexual Exploitation of children in 1996 and the Amsterdam Child Labour Conference in February of 1997. It also called for ensuring equal access to education for boys and girls, providing vocational training and apprenticeship programmes, and integrating working children into the formal education system.