Child labour among indigenous peoples has, until recently, received little attention from governments and other international institutions. Indigenous communities have often largely been ignored in child labour studies, while in the communities themselves, the general awareness of the extent of the problem and the issues surrounding it is typically low. The extent of indigenous child labour has remained largely invisible.
Indigenous peoples constitute approximately 370 million people worldwide. Most of these live in developing countries that already have a high incidence of child labour. Recent consultations undertaken by the International Labour Organization (ILO) in Kenya, the Philippines and Guatemala, show that indigenous children are disproportionately affected by the worst forms of child labour and that specific approaches are needed to effectively combat child labour among indigenous peoples.
The ILO Handbook on Combating Child Labour among indigenous and tribal peoples is a collaborative effort between two specialized programmes of the ILO: the International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour (IPEC) and the Programme to Promote ILO Policy on Indigenous and Tribal Peoples (PRO 169). The Handbook has been elaborated in four parts to provide practical guidance on how the specific issues might be addressed:
- Part I looks at the rights based approach to the issue
- Part II examines the issue of improving education to combat the problem
- Part III considers how to ensure indigenous participation in the process while
- Part IV provides useful references and additional information.
The Handbook provides a much needed analysis of the issues surrounding child labour among a specific target group. It is written and presented in an easy to read format with text boxes providing interesting facts and a clean and concise summing up in bullet point format of the guiding principles for each section. The captivating photographic images add significantly to the overall impact.