Child & Adolescent Labour

The term “child labour” is often defined as work that deprives children of their childhood, their potential and their dignity, and that is harmful to physical and mental development.

It refers to work that:
• is mentally, physically, socially or morally dangerous and harmful to children;
and/or
• interferes with their schooling by:
◦ depriving them of the opportunity to attend school;
◦ obliging them to leave school prematurely; or
◦ requiring them to attempt to combine school attendance with excessively long and heavy work.
Whether or not particular forms of “work” can be called “child labour” depends on the child’s age, the type and hours of work performed, and the conditions under which it is performed.
It varies from country to country, as well as among regions within countries.

Child labour, under international law, falls into three categories:
1. The unconditional worst forms of child labour, are internationally defined as slavery, trafficking, debt bondage and other forms of forced labour, forced recruitment of children for use in armed conflict, prostitution and pornography, and illicit activities.
2. Labour performed by a child who is under the minimum age specified for that kind of work (as defined by national legislation, in accordance with accepted international standards), and that is thus likely to impede the child’s education and full development.
3. Labour that jeopardizes the physical, mental or moral well-being of a child, either because of its nature or because of the conditions in which it is carried out, is known as “hazardous work”.

The Worst Forms of Child Labour

The worst forms of child labour involve children being enslaved, separated from their families, exposed to serious hazards and illnesses and/or left to fend for themselves on the streets of large cities – often at a very early age.

Hazardous child labour, one of the worst forms of child labour, is the work which, by its nature or the circumstances in which it is carried out, is likely to harm the health, safety or morals of children.

Guidance for governments on some hazardous work activities which should be prohibited is given by Article 3 of ILO Recommendation No. 190: (1)
• work which exposes children to physical, psychological or sexual abuse;
• work underground, under water, at dangerous heights or in confined spaces;
• work with dangerous machinery, equipment and tools, or which involve the manual handling or transport of heavy loads;
• work in an unhealthy environment which may, for example, expose children to hazardous substances, agents or processes, or to temperatures, noise levels, or vibrations damaging to their health;
• work under particularly difficult conditions such as working for long hours or during the night or work where the child is unreasonably confined to the premises of the employer.

World Day Against Child Labour - 12 June

The International Labour Organization (ILO) launched the World Day Against Child Labour in 2002 to focus attention on the global extent of child labour and the action and efforts needed to eliminate it. Each year on 12 June, this day brings together governments, employers and workers' organizations, civil society, as well as millions of people from around the world to highlight the plight of child labourers and what can be done to help them.

Child Labour Laws

Almost every country in the world has laws relating to and aimed at preventing child labour. International Labour Organization (ILO) has helped set international law, which most countries have signed on and ratified.

ILO Minimum Age Convention (C138), 1973 (2)

According to the ILO minimum age convention (C138) of 1973, child labour refers to:
◦ any work performed by children under the age of 12,
◦ non-light work done by children aged 12–14, and
◦ hazardous work done by children aged 15–17.

Light work was defined, under this convention, as any work that does not harm a child's health and development, and that does not interfere with his or her attendance at school.

This convention has been ratified by 175 countries.

UN Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1990 (3)

The United Nations adopted the Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1990.
According to Article 32 of the convention:
“...Parties recognise the right of the child to be protected from economic exploitation and from performing any work that is likely to be hazardous or to interfere with the child's education, or to be harmful to the child's health or physical, mental, spiritual, moral or social development.”

Under Article 1, a child is defined as:
"every human being below the age of eighteen years unless, under the law applicable to the child, a majority is attained earlier."
Article 28 also states to:
"make primary education compulsory and available free to all."

196 countries are party to the convention; the only nation that has not ratified the treaty is the United States of America.

ILO International Program on the Elimination of Child Labour (IPEC), 1992 (4)

This initiative aims to progressively eliminate child labour through strengthening national capacities to address some of the causes of child labour. The IPEC currently has operations in 88 countries including Bangladesh, Brazil, China, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan, Democratic Republic of Congo, El Salvador, Nepal, Tanzania, Dominican Republic, Costa Rica, Philippines, Senegal, South Africa and Turkey.
Targeted child labour campaigns were initiated to advocate for the prevention and elimination of all forms of child labour. It is the largest program of its kind globally and the biggest single operational program of the ILO.

ILO Worst Forms Convention 182 (C182), 1999 (5)

In 1999, ILO helped lead the Worst Forms Convention 182 (C182), ratified by 187 countries. This international law prohibits the worst forms of child labour, defined as all forms of slavery and slavery-like practices, such as child trafficking, debt bondage, and forced labour, including forced recruitment of children into armed conflict. The law also prohibits the use of a child for prostitution or the production of pornography, child labour in illicit activities such as drug production and trafficking; and in hazardous work.

Music Against Child Labour Initiative, 2013 (6)

The Global Music Against Child Labour Initiative (MACLI) was launched in 2013 by the ILO and some of the world's greatest musicians, to involve socially excluded children in structured musical activity and education to help protect them from child labour. Music education can empower children, build their skills and, crucially, encourage them to go to school and stay in school.

Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) (7)

The UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), adopted in 2015, include a renewed global commitment to ending child labour.
Specifically, target 8.7 of the SDGs calls on the global community to:
"Take immediate and effective measures to eradicate forced labour, end modern slavery and human trafficking and secure the prohibition and elimination of the worst forms of child labour, including recruitment and use of child soldiers, and by 2025 end child labour in all its forms."