A woman on a construction site in Bangladesh

Its overall objective is to raise awareness and increase public understanding of the Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights At Work - adopted in 1998 by member states of the ILO in response to the challenges of globalization.

The Declaration contains four key commitments:

• Freedom of association and the right to collective bargaining;
• Elimination of all forms of forced or compulsory labour;
• Effective abolition of child labour; and
• Elimination of discrimination in respect of employment and occupation.

Scope of the project

I hope that the BBC's efforts for creating awareness will help workers know about their rights and fight for the implementation of their rights.   Tariqul Islam, Minister of Labour

‘Rights at Work’ has involved radio programmes, websites and in-country events across three BBC language services: Indonesian, Bengali and Brazil.

The Indonesian programmes, produced by Liston Siregar, were broadcast from May to July 2003. There was a significant capacity-building element as we worked with our partner radio stations to mount panel discussions in Jakarta and Makassar (Smart FM) and Jayapura (Art FM). The stations have gone on to make phone-ins and discussion programmes about the issues since.

The Brazilian programmes made by Claudia Silva and Babeth Battencourt were broadcast in April and May, 2003. A major website on Child Labour accompanied the series and was selected as one of the finalists for Unicef's Ibero-American Communication Award. In November 2003, in conjunction with broadcaster Rede Globo, a discussion on child labour took place in a favela community in Rio de Janeiro.

The Bengali programmes, made by Masud Khan, were broadcast during the summer of 2003 ending with a major drama and debate recorded in Dhaka in September 2003 before an audience of 500 people. All the newspapers in Bangladesh covered the event and discussed the issues.