Kailash Satyarthi lecture: "Working to End Child Slavery"
The Public Policy Center co-sponsored a lecture, "Working to End Child Slavery," by Kailash Satyarthi, winner of the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize. The lecture took place at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 20 in the 2nd Floor Ballroom of the Iowa Memorial Union.
Satyarthi's lecture was part of the Public Policy Center's Forkenbrock Series of events, "Run Up to the 2016 Election." The event was in partnership with the University of Iowa Lecture Committee, College of Law Levitt Lecture Series, Center for Human Rights and Labor Center.
Kailash Satyarthi (born on Jan. 11, 1954) is a human rights activist from India who has been at the forefront of the global movement to end child slavery and exploitative child labor since 1980 when he gave up a lucrative career as an electrical engineer for initiating crusade against child servitude. As a grassroots activist, he has led the rescue of more than 80,000 child slaves and developed a successful model for their education and rehabilitation. As a worldwide campaigner, he has been the architect of the single largest civil society network for the most exploited children, the Global March Against Child Labor, which is a worldwide coalition of NGOs, teachers' unions and trade unions.
As an analytical thinker, he made the issue of child labor a human rights issue, not a welfare matter or a charitable cause. He has established that child labor is responsible for the perpetuation of poverty, unemployment, illiteracy, population explosion and many other social evils. He has also played an important role in linking the fight against child labor with the efforts for achieving "Education for All."
Satyarthi is a member of a High Level Group formed by UNESCO on Education for All comprising of select Presidents, Prime Ministers and UN Agency Heads. As one of the rare civil society leaders he has addressed the United Nations General Assembly, International Labour Conference, UN Human Rights Commission, UNESCO, etc and has been invited to several Parliamentary Hearings and Committees in USA, Germany and UK in the recent past.
As an advocate for quality and meaningful education, Satyarthi has addressed some of the biggest worldwide congregations of Workers and Teachers Congresses, Christian Assembly, Students Conferences, etc. as a keynote speaker on the issue of child labour and education.
He is on the Board and Committee of several International Organizations. Amongst all the prominent ones being in the Center for Victims of Torture (USA), International Labor Rights Fund (USA), etc. Satyarthi is an executive Board Member of International Cocoa Foundation with the Headquarters in Geneva representing the global civil society.
More of his biography is available at https://lectures.uiowa.edu/lectures/kailash-sharma/.