In his statement signed on his behalf by the Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolín, Pope Francis stated that protecting children means respecting the different phases of their development and growth and allowing them to benefit from appropriate conditions in which to blossom.
He said that in order to protect children decisive action must be taken to help the families of small farmers so they are not forced to send their children to work to increase incomes that are otherwise so low they are unable to support their families.
Finally, the Pope said, “protecting children means acting in such a way as to open up horizons for them as free, honest and caring citizens.”
He expressed his wish for an appropriate and effective juridical system in order to defend and protect children from what he called “this harmful technocratic mentality that has taken over the present.”
Thus he called for an increase in the number of individuals and associations at every level working to ensure that the desire for “excessive profit that condemns children and young people to the brutal yoke of labour exploitation, may give way to a logic of care.” Global Solutions Forum entitled ¨Acting Together to End Child Labor in Agriculture¨ is the two-day virtual event promoted by FAO to mobilize global action and seek solutions to eliminate child labor.
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