Today we celebrate the World Day Against Child Slavery.

Sadly, there are still large numbers of boys and girls around the world who are subjected to the worst forms of child labour, exploitation and human rights abuses imaginable.

In fact, according to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), 400 million minors live in slavery or are forced to perform degrading work, of which 85 million work in conditions that are hazardous to their health and development.

Child slavery is an “invisible” and intolerable reality that can manifest itself in various forms of subjugation, including

•  Forced labour.
• Child trafficking.
• Domestic slavery.
• Sexual exploitation.
• Recruitment to be soldiers or combatants.

In Uquifa we are well aware of this situation, which we totally reject. For this reason, we believe it is important to raise awareness of this reality and demand its eradication.

To combat it in our Group, we have our Code of Ethics and Conduct, which includes among our commitments at work the respect, protection and promotion of human rights and the rejection of any violation of these rights, including the exploitation of children, forced labour and any other form of modern slavery and human trafficking.

In addition, the Code includes a commitment to respect for people, which sets out our firm commitment to promote a safe working environment and to provide working conditions in which all people are treated with respect and dignity.

We are also working to implement existing best practice to improve the way we extend and require compliance with these commitments to third parties who act on our behalf, work with us or provide us with services.

Let’s unite and break the chains together!