Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and child labour

Companies are increasingly concerned with child labour in their supply chains. They view it as inconsistent with company values, a threat to their image and ability to recruit and retain top employees, as well as to the sustainability of their supply chain. Child labourers can be found in all stages of supply chains, including in agriculture, manufacturing and retail.

The Social Dialogue Section of ILO-IPEC supports businesses' efforts to reduce child labour and to increase compliance with the ILO’s child labour standards: Convention No. 138 on Minimum Age and Convention No. 182 on Worst Forms of Child Labour. The Section does so through support for the multi-stakeholder Child Labour Platform and other relevant groups; Public-Private Partnerships to tackle child labour in supply chains and reinforce capacity of ILO constituents; and research and specialized projects, notably the development of guidance for business that uses the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights as a tool for business to ensure that they respect children’s right to be free from child labour, as enshrined in ILO Conventions.

Child Labour Platform

Launched in 2010 at The Hague Global Child Labour Conference, the Child Labour Platform (CLP) is a membership-based forum of exchange for businesses to share and learn from others’ approaches to tackling child labour in the supply chain.

Guidance Tool on the UN "Protect, Respect and Remedy" Framework and Child Labour

Following the UN Human Rights Council’s endorsement of the “Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights” in June 2011, the ILO and the International Organisation of Employers (IOE) launched the project "Guidance Tool on How to do Business with Respect for Children's Rights to be Free from Child Labour", to provide guidance on how companies can prevent child labour and contribute to child labour remediation, whether in their own operations or in their supply chains, through appropriate policies, due diligence and remediation processes.

Highlights

  1. 2021 Annual Meeting of the Child Labour Platform

    Pledges on Child Labour in Supply Chains: what difference have they made?

    Join us for the 2021 Edition of the ILO Child Labour Platform Annual Meeting and hear from Pledgemakers focusing their efforts on supply chains discuss what progress has been made so far in the framework of the International Year for the Elimination of Child Labour.

  2. Publication

    Supplier guidance on preventing, identifying and addressing child labour

    17 May 2021

    This document provides practical guidance for factories and other production sites to prevent child labour through effective age verification and the protection of young workers, and to effectively respond to it if it does occur.

  3. Publication

    Mapping interventions addressing child labour and working conditions in artisanal mineral supply chains

    23 April 2021

    This mapping research aims to provide a high-level review of interventions (projects and initiatives) that aim to address child labour and poor working conditions (either directly or indirectly) in the Artisanal and Small-scale Mining (ASM) sector across different minerals.