Hundreds of millions of girls and boys throughout the world are engaged in work that deprives them of adequate education, health, leisure and basic freedoms, violating their rights. Of these children, more than half are exposed to the worst forms of child labour such as work in hazardous environments, slavery, or other forms of forced labour, illicit activities such as drug trafficking and prostitution, as well as involvement in armed conflict.
The International Labour Organization (ILO) launched the first World Day Against Child Labour in 2002 as a way to highlight the plight of these children. The day, which is observed on June 12th, is intended to serve as a catalyst for the growing worldwide movement against child labour, reflected in the huge number of ratifications of ILO Convention No. 182 on the worst forms of child labour and ILOConvention No. 138 on the minimum age for employment.
The World Day Against Child Labour provides and opportunity to gain further support of individual governments and that of the ILO social partners, civil society and others, including schools, youth and women's groups as well as the media, in the campaign against child labour.
The Programme
The ILO’s International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour (IPEC) was created in 1992 with the overall goal of the progressive elimination of child labour, which was to be achieved through strengthening the capacity of countries to deal with the problem and promoting a worldwide movement to combat child labour. IPEC currently has operations in 88 countries, with an annual expenditure on technical cooperation projects that reached over US$61 million in 2008. It is the largest programme of its kind globally and the biggest single operational programme of the ILO.
The number and range of IPEC’s partners have expanded over the years and now include employers’ and workers’ organizations, other international and government agencies, private businesses, community-based organizations, NGOs, the media, parliamentarians, the judiciary, universities, religious groups and, of course, children and their families.
IPEC's work to eliminate child labour is an important facet of the ILO's Decent Work Agenda. Child labour not only prevents children from acquiring the skills and education they need for a better future, it also perpetuates poverty and affects national economies through losses in competitiveness, productivity and potential income. Withdrawing children from child labour, providing them with education and assisting their families with training and employment opportunities contribute directly to creating decent work for adults.
Setting target group priorities
While the goal of IPEC remains the prevention and elimination of all forms of child labour, the priority targets for immediate action are the worst forms of child labour, which are defined in the ILO Convention on the worst forms of child labour, 1999 (No. 182) as:
* all forms of slavery or practices similar to slavery,
* such as the sale and trafficking of children,
* debt bondage and serfdom and forced or compulsory labour,
* including forced or compulsory recruitment of children for use in armed conflict;
* the use, procuring or offering of a child for prostitution, for the production of pornography or for pornographic performances;
* the use, procuring or offering of a child for illicit activities, in particular for the production and trafficking of drugs as defined in the relevant international treaties;
* 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.
About Child labour
Considerable differences exist between the many kinds of work children do. Some are difficult and demanding, others are more hazardous and even morally reprehensible. Children carry out a very wide range of tasks and activities when they work.
Defining child labour
Not all work done by children should be classified as child labour that is to be targeted for elimination. Children’s or adolescents’ participation in work that does not affect their health and personal development or interfere with their schooling, is generally regarded as being something positive. This includes activities such as helping their parents around the home, assisting in a family business or earning pocket money outside school hours and during school holidays. These kinds of activities contribute to children’s development and to the welfare of their families; they provide them with skills and experience, and help to prepare them to be productive members of society during their adult life.
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
* interferes with their schooling by:
* de
priving 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.
In its most extreme forms, child labour involves 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. 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, the conditions under which it is performed and the objectives pursued by individual countries. The answer varies from country to country, as well as among sectors within countries.
Worst forms of child labour
Whilst child labour takes many different forms, a priority is to eliminate without delay the worst forms of child labour as defined by Article 3 of ILO Convention 182:
(a) all forms of slavery or practices similar to slavery, such as the sale and trafficking of children, debt bondage and serfdom and forced or compulsory labour, including forced or compulsory recruitment of children for use in armed conflict;
(b) the use, procuring or offering of a child for prostitution, for the production of pornography or for pornographic performances;
(c) the use, procuring or offering of a child for illicit activities, in particular for the production and trafficking of drugs as defined in the relevant international treaties;
(d) 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.
Labour that jeopardises 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” See note 1
Guidance for governments on some hazardous child labour activities which should be prohibited is given in the accompanying Recommendation 190 Concerning the Prohibition and Immediate Action for the Elimination Worst Forms of Child Labour 1999:
3. In determining the types of work referred to under Article
3(d) of the Convention, and in identifying where they exist, consideration should be given, inter alia, to:
(a) work which exposes children to physical, psychological or sexual abuse;
(b) work underground, under water, at dangerous heights or in confined spaces;
(c) work with dangerous machinery, equipment and tools, or which involves the manual handling or transport of heavy loads;
(d) 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;
(e) work under particularly difficult conditions such as work for long hours or during the night or work where the child is unreasonably confined to the premises of the employer.
Note 1 – A future without child labour Global Report under the follow-up to the ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights and Work, 2002
Hazardous child labour
Hazardous child labour is defined by Article 3 (d) of ILO Convention concerning the Prohibition and Immediate Action for the Elimination of the Worst Forms of Child Labour, 1999 (No. 182) as:
(d) 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.
More specifically, hazardous child labour is work in dangerous or unhealthy conditions that could result in a child being killed, or injured and/or made ill as a consequence of poor safety and health standards and working arrangements. Some injuries or ill health may result in permanent disability. Often health problems caused by working as a child labour may not develop or show up until the child is an adult.
Hazardous child labour is the largest category of the worst forms of child labour with an estimated 126 million children, aged 5-17, working in dangerous conditions in sectors as diverse as agriculture, mining, construction, manufacturing, service industries, hotels, bars, restaurants, fast food establishments, and domestic service. It is found in both industrialised and developing countries. Girls and boys often start carrying out hazardous work at very early ages. Worldwide, the ILO estimates that some 22,000 children are killed at work every year. The numbers of those injured or made ill because of their work are not known.
Child labourers are susceptible to all the dangers faced by adult workers when placed in the same situation. However, the work hazards and risks that affect adult workers can affect child labourers even more strongly. The results of lack of safety and health protection can often be more devastating and lasting for them. It can result in more fatal and non-fatal accidents, permanent disabilities/ill health, and psychological/behavioural/emotional damage.
When speaking of child labourers it is important to go beyond the concepts of work hazard and risk Note 1 as applied to adult workers and to expand them to include the developmental aspects of childhood. Because children are still growing they have special characteristics and needs that must be taken into consideration when determining workplace hazards and the risks associated with them, in terms of physical, cognitive (thought/learning) and behavioural development and emotional growth.
Note 1: “Hazard” and “risk” are two terms that are used frequently in association with this type of child labour. A “hazard” is anything with the potential to do harm. A “risk” is the likelihood of potential harm from that hazard being realized. For example, the hazard associated with power-driven machinery might be getting trapped or entangled by moving parts. The risk will be high if guards are not fitted and workers are in close proximity to the machine. If however, the machine is properly guarded, regularly maintained and repaired by competent staff, then the risk will be lower.
Related issues: AIDS, gender...
Child labour is a complex problem with many causes. While family poverty is often cited as the single most important factor pushing children into the workforce, numerous others come into play as well. In Sub-Saharan Africa, for example, the AIDS pandemic has been particularly hard on children. Millions have been orphaned and forced to work to survive, while others have had to give up education to work in order to support sick parents. In addition, the loss of teachers to the disease has put pressure on already fragile school systems.
Whether a child is a boy or a girl can also determine at what age they are sent to work and in which particular occupation. The children who work or are at greatest risk for becoming child labourers vary from culture to culture and region to region. Gender differences also may affect a child’s access to education and assistance. IPEC consider s these and many other issues that influence child labour in developing and carrying out action to eliminate it.
Action against child labour
IPEC’s aim is the progressive elimination of child labour worldwide, with the eradication of the worst forms an urgent priority. Since it began operations in 1992, IPEC has worked to achieve this in several ways: through country-based programmes which promote policy reform, build institutional capacity and put in place concrete measures to end child labour; and through awareness raising and mobilization intended to change social attitudes and promote ratification and effective implementation of ILO child labour Conventions. These efforts have resulted in hundreds of thousands of children being withdrawn from work and rehabilitated or prevented from entering the workforce. Complementary to this direct action throughout has been substantial in-depth statistical and qualitative research, policy and legal analysis, programme evaluation and child labour monitoring, which have permitted the accumulation of vast knowledge base of statistical data and methodologies, thematic studies, good practices, guidelines and training materials.
Education
Education: the key to the future…
Education is a crucial component of any effective effort to eliminate child labour. There are many interlinked explanations for child labour. No single factor can fully explain its persistence and, in some cases, growth. The way in which different causes, at different levels, interact with each other ultimately determines whether or not an individual child becomes a child labourer.
Children's participation in the labour force is endlessly varied and infinitely volatile, responding to changing market and social conditions. This context is matched by the flexibility of the large, unprotected, potential child labour force. Poverty and social exclusion, labour mobility, discrimination and lack of adequate social protection and educational opportunity all come into play in influencing child labour outcomes.
Experience shows that a combination of economic growth, respect for labour standards, universal education and social protection, together with a better understanding of the needs and rights of children, can bring about a significant reduction in child labour. Child labour is a stubborn problem that, even if overcome in certain places or sectors, will seek out opportunities to reappear in new and often unanticipated ways. The response to the problem must be as versatile and adaptable as child labour itself. There is no simple, quick fix for child labour, nor a universal blueprint for action.
IPEC's approach to the elimination of child labour has evolved over the past decade as a result of the experience it has gained and the changing needs of its partners for assistance. The programme incorporates a wide range of categories of work against child labour, including research and statistics, technical co-operation, a monitoring and evaluation unit, advisory services and advocacy, and an education unit.
IPEC has demonstrated leadership and experience in using education to combat child labour in both formal and non-formal settings which has proved significant in the prevention of child labour and the rehabilitation of former child workers. Non-formal or transitional education has played an instrumental role in the rehabilitation of former child labourers. Vocational education and training have provided the skills needed for gainful employment, which in turn contributes to local and national development. In addition, IPEC has been providing policy advice and technical assistance to governments to ensure that educational policies pay special attention to children at risk of child labour.
Highlights
> Vocational training and apprenticeship: An alternative to underage work and the worst forms of child labour in French-speaking Africa This brochure is the product of IPEC’s project in Francophone Africa supported by the Government of France. It presents the approach, interventions and results obtained in promoting vocational training and apprenticeship for children in the 13-17 year range as an alternative to child labour. The three-year project, which runs to the end of 2009 has been carrying out programmes in eight countries: Benin, Burkina Faso, Madagascar, Mali, Morocco, Niger, Senegal and Togo. (Only in French.)
> Child labour, education and health: A review of the literature This paper reviews the rapidly-expanding literature on the relationships between child labour, education and health. With the renewed interest in child labour as an economic and social problem, researchers have attempted to assess its linkages to the core elements of human capital, hoping to solve continuing riddles in development policy and improve the quality of life for the world¿s poorest and most disadvantaged inhabitants.
> Child labour and education: Evidence from SIMPOC surveys A new working paper analyzing a diverse sample of SIMPOC national survey data from all world regions. The authors review evidence of the impact of child labour on education, emphasizing the effects of child labour on school attendance, grade repetition, dropout, literacy achievements and overall human capital accumulation.
> Education as an intervention strategy to eliminate and prevent child labour: Consolidated good practices
> Combating child labour through education
Child labour monitoring (CLM)
One of the most potent means of addressing child labour is to regularly check the places where girls and boys may be working. Child labour monitoring (CLM) is the active process that ensures that such observation is put in place and is coordinated in an appropriate manner. Its overall objective is to ensure that as a consequence of monitoring children and young legally employed workers are safe from exploitation and hazards at work. The active scrutiny of child labour at the local level is supported by a referral system which establishes a link between appropriate services and ex-child labourers.
In practice CLM involves the identification, referral, protection and prevention of child labourers through the development of a coordinated multi-sector monitoring and referral process that aims to cover all children living in a given geographical area. Its principal activities include regularly repeated direct observations to identify child labourers and to determine risks to which they are exposed, referral of these children to services, verification that they have been removed and tracking them afterwards to ensure that they have satisfactory alternatives.
Labour inspection
IPEC works to build the capacities of labour inspectorates Note 1 and other enforcement agencies to take action against child labour, especially in respect of hazardous child labour and child labour monitoring. Labour inspectors have traditionally been key partners in eliminating child labour. Today, their role takes on added dimensions and importance with the introduction of new legal instruments such as ILO Convention 182 on Worst forms of child labour.
To tackle hazardous child labour inspectors can give information on hazardous child labour to employers and workers including advice on how to eliminate it. They can also use their legal enforcement powers in the workplace to ensure that:
(i) children are withdrawn from workplaces where hazardous work is taking place, and referred to appropriate authorities who can then get them into school or skills training
(ii) the health and safety of children who have reached the minimum legal age to work (14-17 years of age depending on the country) is fully protected in the workplace. Protection can be ensured through a combination of general improvements in workplace health and safety conditions and avoidance of children carrying out hazardous tasks.
Labour inspection and child labour monitoring
Child labour monitoring (CLM) is an evolving area of child labour work closely linked to the enforcement of national child labour legislation. The task of CLM is to mobilize and train community members to monitor child labour and link the monitoring activity to local government and official enforcement systems, especially labour inspection, so that the information on child labour can be used effectively. The monitors must be given a clear mandate and the authority necessary to fulfil their duties although most of their role involves changing attitudes rather than enforcing laws.
CLM involves the development of a coordinated multi-sector monitoring and referral process that aims to cover all children living in a given geographical area. Its principal activities include regularly repeated direct observations to identify child labourers and to determine risks to which they are exposed, referral of these children to services, verification that they have been removed and tracking them afterwards to ensure that they have satisfactory
Community-based child labour monitoring committees are typically composed of community leaders, teachers, health promoters, representatives from the families concerned and sometimes with children or adolescents withdrawn from work. They carry out monitoring visits to workplaces. These visits are conducted on a regular basis and often in conjunction with official visits by labour inspectors.
Note 1: To provide advice to both employers and workers, to administer social and labour policy, and to supervise and enforce labour legislation and standards, effective national systems of labour inspection are required. Labour inspection is a public function, a responsibility of government, best organised as a system, within the context of a larger state system, and in line with the ILO Conventions on Labour Inspection, 1947 (No. 81), and Labour Inspection (Agriculture), 1969 (No. 129).
Time-bound programmes for the elimination of the worst Forms of child labour
ILO Convention No. 182 calls for time-bound measures to eliminate the worst forms of child labour. Countries ratifying this Convention must take immediate and effective measures to secure the prohibition and elimination of the worst forms of child labour as a matter of urgency, including time-bound measures to:
* prevent the engagement of children in the worst forms of child labour;
* provide direct assistance for the removal of children from the worst forms of child labour and for their rehabilitation and social integration;
* ensure access to free basic education and appropriate vocational training for all children removed from the worst forms of child labour;
* identify and reach out to children at special risk; and
* take account of the special situation of girls.
(Source - ILO Convention No. 182, Articles 1 and 7).
The time-bound programme (TBP) approach constitutes one of the means put in place by IPEC to assist countries in fulfilling their obligations under the Convention.
Time-bound programmes are designed as a comprehensive framework that governments can use to chart a course of action with well-defined targets. They comprise a set of integrated and coordinated policies and interventions with clear goals, specific targets and a defined time frame, aimed at preventing and eliminating a country’s worst forms of child labour. They emphasize the need to address the root causes of child labour, linking action for its elimination to national development policies, macro-economic trends and strategies, and demographic and labour market processes and outcomes, with particular emphasis on economic and social policies to combat poverty and to promote universal basic education and social mobilization. The TBPs’ time horizon is set in accordance with the prevalence of the worst forms of child labour, the availability of resources, the level of local expertise and other conditions prevailing in the country.
Focusing heavily on the rapid elimination of the worst forms of child labour, the TBP approach represents a logical progression of IPEC’s work to date while drawing on the experience that has been accumulating since the programme’s inception. TBPs pull together many of the successful approaches piloted by IPEC and others in the past into a comprehensive and scaled-up programme combining upstream policy-oriented interventions covering awareness raising, legislation and enforcement, education, employment and social protection with withdrawal and rehabilitation interventions. IPEC sees the TBP as a key strategic approach for attaining large-scale impact on the worst forms of child labour.
Why focus on the worst forms?
There is not only a consensus that targeting the worst forms is morally justified, but experience has shown that it is also an effective way to mobilize society to address the problem of child labour in general. Successful measures against the worst forms often have a multiplier effect that benefits other working children. Once governments and civil society begin focusing on the worst forms of child labour, broad discussions about the acceptability of other forms of child labour and the feasibility of eliminating them tend to follow as well.
Indeed, this thinking was a major motivation behind the adoption of ILO Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention No.182. Member States that ratify this Convention commit themselves to prohibit and eliminate the worst forms of child labour as a matter of urgency through time-bound measures. The exceptionally rapid rate of ratification of Convention No. 182 – 163 of the ILO’s 180 member States as of June 2007 – means that an ever-growing number of governments are committed to eradicating the WFCL as quickly as possible and preventing them in the future. The TBP approach is intended to assist them in this task within a specific timeframe.
Sources:
http://www.ilo.org/ipec/Campaignandadvocacy/WDACL/lang--en/index.htm
http://www.ilo.org/ipec/programme/lang--en/index.htm
http://www.ilo.org/ipec/facts/lang--en/index.htm
http://www.ilo.org/ipec/facts/WorstFormsofChildLabour/lang--en/index.htm
http://www.ilo.org/ipec/facts/Hazardouschildlabour/lang--en/index.htm
http://www.ilo.org/ipec/facts/related/lang--en/index.htm
http://www.ilo.org/ipec/Action/lang--en/index.htm
http://www.ilo.org/ipec/Action/Education/lang--en/index.htm
http://www.ilo.org/ipec/Action/Childlabourmonitoring/lang--en/index.htm
http://www.ilo.org/ipec/Action/Labourinspection/lang--en/index.htm
http://www.ilo.org/ipec/Action/Time-BoundProgrammes/lang--en/index.htm