Millions of children are engaged in labour that is detrimental to their education, development and future livelihoods. How should the international community work to eradicate exploitative child labour? How can this complex phenomenon be measured? With a host of state and civil society organisations now committed to its eradication, why are so many kids still engaged in hazardous work?

A book from the International Labour Organization traces the ILO’s historical concern with the abolition of child labour and assesses the prospects for its fulfilment. This first Global Report on the abolition of child labour charts the significant progress in recent years but warns that child labour remains a stubborn problem that affects all countries.

The ILO recognises that many children carry out work that is consistent with their education and full physical and mental development. Its target is labour performed by a child under a minimum age specified in national legislation, labour that jeopardises the physical, mental or moral well-being of a child (‘hazardous’ work in ILO terms) and what it calls the ‘unconditional worst forms’ of child labour – slavery, trafficking, debt bondage, forced recruitment in armed conflict, prostitution, pornography and other illicit activities

The ILO suspects that 180 million of the 246 million 5-17 year-old child labourers worldwide are toiling in the hazardous and unconditional worst forms of child labour which the global community has unanimously agreed are inexcusable under any circumstances. 67 million children in the 5-14 age group are engaged in non-hazardous child labour that they should not be undertaking by virtue of their age.

The report notes that:

• While certain groups of child labourers – street children, sex workers and those in export-oriented manufacturing – capture media attention, seven out of ten working children are working in agriculture, mostly on small-scale family holdings but also in plantations.
• Child domestic workers are effectively hidden from public view and are thus particularly vulnerable to physical, emotional and sexual abuse.
• Global economic competition may be increasing the home-based production of perilous products such as fireworks, matches or incense sticks.
• Many countries have a policy inconsistency in the existence of a gap or overlap between the school-leaving age and the minimum age for entry into employment.

As international consensus hardens, significant progress is being made. A decade ago, child labour was dismissed by many as an inevitable cultural phenomenon. Many countries were in denial. Since 1990 the International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour (IPEC), building on the momentum generated by the 1989 UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), has been the ILO’s largest single technical cooperation programme. Whole sectors and geographical areas are becoming child labour-free.

Among the many recommendations to carry this momentum forward are:

• forging of closer relations between anti-child labour actors
• greater involvement of children in actions to address their needs and rights
• including the incidence of child labour as a key indicator in national poverty reduction and development policy frameworks, including Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers
• developing a child labour risk index as an early warning and monitoring tool for child labour
• ensuring that all project interventions are locally owned
• microfinance and micro-enterprise programmes for family income replacement following withdrawal of children from labour.

Source(s):
‘A future without child labour: Global Report under the Follow-up to the ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work’, International Labour Office, Geneva, 2002
ILO’s Programme on Promoting the Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work Full document.
ILO’s International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour (IPEC) Full document.

Funded by: International Labour Office

id21 Research Highlight: 19 September 2002

Further Information:
ILO Publications
International Labour Organization
CH-1211
Geneva 22
Switzerland

Tel: +41 (0)22 799 6329
Fax: +44 (0)22 799 6561
Contact the contributor: ipu@ilo-london.org.uk

International Labour organisation

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