By VICTOR AHIUMA-YOUNG

INTERNATIONAL Labour Organisation, ILO, has said that no fewer than 870 million workers and their families in Nigeria and the rest of the world live in poverty, on US$2 per person per day

Director General of ILO, Guy Ryder, in a statement to mark World International Human Rights Day, noted that 400 million of that number live in extreme poverty.

According to him, about 20.9 million of such workers and their families are under forced labour at any given point in time over the period between 2002 and 2011. He said today, there were still 168 million children in child labour, half of them in its worst forms.

He said: “At the same time, over the years, there has been growing awareness of these issues. Many countries that 20 years ago denied the existence of grave violations such as forced and child labour, are now taking concrete steps for their elimination. There is also a widespread recognition that decent work, with the rights and principles it embraces, is the sustainable route out of poverty.

“The conventions associated with fundamental principles and rights at work that guarantee the right to be free from child labour, forced labour and discrimination, and the right to freedom of association, have been designated by the international community as having particular significance as human rights.”