Jennifer Goodyear is an American expert, and I had the honor of meeting her on the 11th of January  and to accompany her to ILO 1.
The ILO 1 is a committee that  treats the topics of fundamental rights, with 2 issues : “How can measures tackle modern slavery be strengthened ?” and “How can we counter forced child labour ?”.

Jennifer Goodyear is a labor attaché at the United States mission. She works for the U.S Department of Labor, so she is a labor specialist.

She responded to the ILO 1’s resolution for one hour and made many comments and observations, she used her past experience to provide many examples. For Jennifer Goodyear, FERMUN is a very exciting project and she thinks that it is very interesting to host teenagers at the ILO in Geneva as it enables students to discover the many ways that humans work to gain experience of the world of work.

 She recommends that the delegates do their best to not be shy because every idea can be the source of a debate.

If she could give one piece advice for the resolution she would recommend to be bold and go ahead with everyone’s ideas.

Throughout our interaction she mentioned many things and answered our questions. Please find some examples below:

For her, the support for education and the realization of the problem is very important, because when there is forced child labour, the child cannot go to school, learn important aspects of life and their opportunities are limited. Even if the education of workers in development progresses, it is important to pay attention to all perspectives.
The ILO takes care of big and large projects with partners and organizations to apply them quickly. She also said that the ILO has 5 obligations which are freedom of association and effective recognition of the right to collective bargaining, the elimination of all forms of forced or compulsory labor, the effective abolition of child labor, the elimination of discrimination in employment and occupation, and maintaining a safe and healthy working environment. She also mentioned that you have to be sure that the person in front of you is a victim of modern slavery and to always be kind and compassionate. However, it is also vitally important to gain their confidence and to ask questions such as “Where is your passport ?”.
For her the most difficult challenge is that often when there is forced child labour it is because the children have to do this to support their family. At times, the parents don’t have enough money or can’t work, so the children want to help. 

It is also important to take care of the economy of the country when you are initiating projects. She said that the American Government tries to fix the problem as much as they can even if the problems aren’t necessarily in the United States of America. 

For her, one of the biggest solutions is to improve the economic situation of families so that children do not have to work. 

However, if a lot of solutions are put forward, the issue can still not be completely resolved.

Thank you to Jennifer Goodyear for answering all of my questions.

Elsa ROSNER