Contents
Summary
Introduction
1. The Challenge

1.1 Extent
1.2 Consequences
1.3 Causes

2.1 Understanding the issues
2.2 Setting priorities for national action
2.3 Information and awareness-raising
2.4 Tackling child labour
2.5 Creating a broad social alliance against child labour
2.6 Building institutional capacity

SUMMARY
This paper, prepared as a background document for the Amsterdam Child Labour Conference, provides a review of the nature and extent of child labour in the world, the consequences for the child and society at large, and the measures required at national and international levels to deal with it.

It points out that child labour is a worldwide problem occurring in both developing and industrialized countries. The number of working children between the ages of 5 and 14 in developing countries is estimated at 250 million. Of these at least 120 million are in full-time employment. But pockets of child labour also exist in industrialized countries. Many millions work in occupations and industries which are plainly dangerous, hazardous, and exploitative. They are found in mines, in factories, in commercial agriculture, in home work and so on. The list is endless, as are the hazards, the dangers and the consequences.

The report highlights the growing resolve and commitment around the world to put an end to child labour and proposes specific measures for action. These include:

adopting a time-bound programme of action encompassing removal, rehabilitation and prevention;

the immediate suppression of all extreme forms of child labour, in particular slavery or practices similar to slavery, the sale and trafficking of children, forced or compulsory labour including debt bondage, the use of children for prostitution, pornography or in the production or trafficking of drugs or other illegal activities, and the engagement of children in any type of work which is manifestly dangerous to their safety, health or morals;

prohibition of work for the very young and special protection for girls;

reinforcing the campaign against the most intolerable forms of child labour at the community, national and international levels;

provision of universal, free and compulsory education, and promotion of employment opportunities for the poor;

promoting the international exchange of experiences and information and the collection and dissemination of statistics, and establishing mechanisms for monitoring progress in the elimination of child labour;

enhancing international cooperation in promoting international legal norms on child rights and ensuring enforcement so that a crime against a child anywhere is a crime everywhere;

adoption of new international labour standards banning the most intolerable forms of child labour; and

increased financial and technical assistance to fight world poverty and child labour.

2. But it is a challenge also for a different reason. More than ever before, the international community now has the resources and the means to bring about a rapid end to child labour. And there are grounds for optimism that societies are indeed at last mobilizing for that purpose:

Child labour has emerged as one of the most important issues on the global agenda. Admittedly, the subject has been contentious and a source of heated debate, but there are signs that confrontation is leading to consensus and cooperation.

Countries which in the past turned a blind eye are now increasingly giving their attention to the problem and seeking international help, as can be seen from the increased requests for assistance through the ILO's International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour (IPEC).

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child has now been almost universally ratified.

The decision of the ILO member States to strengthen the armoury of preventive and protective laws through a new Convention targeting the most intolerable and exploitative forms of child labour shows renewed determination and realism in the fight against this evil.

3. The Netherlands Government's initiative to hold the Amsterdam Child Labour Conference - one of two major events in 1997, the other being the Oslo Conference organized by the Norwegian Government - is a contribution to the worldwide movement against the most intolerable forms of child labour. It is also a manifestation of the growing conviction that a global problem calls for a global solution anchored in cooperation and solidarity.

4. The present report, prepared as a background document to this Conference, consists of two chapters. Chapter I defines the challenge that the child labour issue poses for countries and for the international community. Chapter II examines the type of action needed to meet this challenge, as well as the responsibilities involved. It also considers how international action could usefully strengthen national action in finding and implementing appropriate solutions.

1. THE CHALLENGE
5. Work is an integral aspect of life. It is an end and important in and of itself, and a means of participation in the economy and society at large. The same is also true of the work of children. Most children in almost all societies work in one way or another, though the types of work they do and the forms and conditions of their involvement vary among societies and over time. Work by children can be an essential part of the socialization process and a means of transmitting acquired skills from parent to child. Children are also often involved in craft workshops and small-scale services, assisting their parents in ancillary tasks, acquiring skills and gradually becoming fully fledged workers in family establishments or trades. Work of this kind is not without its problems, especially as regards the children's health and safety and their schooling. But this is not what is meant by child labour.

6. Nor are we talking about teenagers, in both developing and industrialized countries, who work for a few hours to earn pocket money to buy the latest sports shoes or electronic gadgets. What we are concerned with are children who are denied their childhood and a future, who work long hours for low wages, often under conditions harmful to their health and to their physical and mental development, who are sometimes separated from their families and who are frequently deprived of education. That is child labour - work carried out to the detriment of the child and in violation of international law and national legislation.

1.1 Extent
7. According to a recent ILO estimate, the number of working children between the ages of 5 and 14 in developing countries is 250 million, of whom some 120 million work full time. Africa, the poorest region, has the highest incidence of child workers - some 40 per cent. The figure for Asia and Latin America is about 20 per cent. In absolute figures, Asia has the largest number of child workers. Approximately 61 per cent of child workers are in Asia, 32 per cent in Africa and 7 per cent in Latin America.

8. Child labour still exists in industrialized countries. In South European countries, a large number of children are found in paid employment, especially in activities of a seasonal nature, street trades, small workshops or in the context of home work. Child labour has not completely disappeared either in other parts of Europe. It has increased in Central and Eastern European countries as a result of the difficulties faced by large sectors of the population due to the transition from a centrally planned to a market economy. Elsewhere, in the United States, the number of young people between the ages of 12 and 17 who work is put at 5.5 million, or 27 per cent of the total of children in this age group. To this figure must be added the many children under the age of 12 illegally employed in various activities -for example, in urban garment-manufacturing workshops, as street traders and especially as seasonal and migrant workers on large farms.

9. Because of the lack of reliable and comparable statistical data at national level, it is not possible to assess the trend of child labour over time. There are, however, indications that the number of working children may have increased since 1980 in some developing countries, particularly in Africa and Latin America, for various reasons, including rapid population growth, deterioration in living standards and insufficient public investment in education. Moreover, the globalization of the economy and the liberalization of international trade may have already resulted in an increase in child labour in some countries.

10. Many children are put to work at a very early age. This is particularly so in rural areas, where it is not unusual for children to start working at the age of 5 or 6. Although most economically active children are in the 10 to 14 age group, the proportion of those under 10 is far from negligible. It has been estimated that one in every five working children in Brazil, Ghana and Senegal, for example, is under 10. The employment of very young children is a particularly serious problem. Indeed, the younger they are, the more vulnerable they are to physical, chemical and other workplace hazards and to ill-treatment and violence.

11. International attention has focused chiefly on child workers in developing countries who are employed in the export sector, especially plantations and the textile, garment, carpet, footwear and sporting goods industries. Their number is not insignificant; they are not only directly employed by enterprises producing for export but also, and often in greater numbers, indirectly employed as home workers or under other systems of sub-contracting. However, far fewer children are employed in production for export than in sectors producing for domestic consumption.

12. In developing countries, the fight against child labour is made difficult by various factors, but two stand out as being especially important. First, two-thirds of working children live in rural areas, where it is difficult to reach them. An average of 90 per cent of rural working children are engaged in agricultural or related activities. This is a sector which occupational health and safety experts consider to be one of the most dangerous and most difficult to protect. Secondly, the modern sector plays a relatively minor role in absorbing child labour. Most child workers are found in the countless tiny businesses, many of them family-run, in the traditional rural and the informal urban sectors, in private households as domestic workers and, though to a far lesser extent, in the streets as self-employed traders. With very few exceptions, therefore, child labour exists not in the form of large concentrations of children in one clearly defined and easily accessible place, but scattered around in many different workplaces, which are particularly difficult to identify and reach.

1.2 Consequences
13. As was noted earlier, light work for children over 12 within the household and as part of informal education and training can be beneficial since it is part of the normal process of growing up. Child labour, however, involves harmful work with one or more hazards - physical, chemical, biological or psychological. These are often not only cumulative but also magnified through their synergic interaction.

Abuse of dignity
14. Slavery and similar practices. The most vulnerable child workers are those exploited by slavery and forced labour systems. The most common of these systems is debt bondage: children work to pay off a debt or other obligation incurred by the family. In South Asia, the number of children employed in this way is estimated at several tens of millions. The lenders, most of whom are landlords whose lands are cultivated by impoverished peasants, manipulate the situation in such a way that it is difficult or impossible for a family to repay its debt. As a result, they have essentially free labour indefinitely. A family may thus remain bonded for generations, with children replacing their aged or disabled parents.

15. There are also less formal and more subtle forms of child slavery and forced labour in all developing regions. For example, rural parents hand over their children to urban families seeking domestic staff, with the idea that the children will live better as unpaid domestic workers in an affluent household than in their own family. This is seldom the case, however. It also happens that rural families - lured by the modest sum paid to them in advance by a labour "contractor" in the pay of employers in the manufacturing sector or the sex industry - allow their children to be taken to the city to a job described as honest and well paid. In actual fact, most end up as forced workers.

16. Child prostitution, pornography and trafficking Adults' abuse of children as sexual partners and for the production of pornographic material is one of the most odious forms of violence against children in the world today.

17. The commercial sexual exploitation of children has in recent years become a matter of worldwide concern. Children, especially girls, are being bought and sold by organized networks for both domestic and international markets. According to the 1996 report of the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Sale of Children, Child Prostitution and Child Pornography, about one million children in Asia are victims of the sex trade, and the number is on the increase in Africa and Latin America. Child prostitution is also spreading in the industrialized countries, and Eastern Europe is an expanding market for child sexual exploitation. The situation is becoming even more serious, because children are being sold and taken secretly across national borders for the sex market all over the world.

18. The increased commercial sexual exploitation of children has various causes. The main cause is probably the laxness of governments, which are careful not to do anything that might dry up the rich source of revenue represented by both national and international tourism. AIDS is also a factor. This is because adults consider - wrongly as it happens - the use of children as sexual partners to be the best means of protecting themselves against this disease. And, of course, the sexual exploitation of children is a particularly lucrative business for those who organize it.

19. The consequences for children forced to work as prostitutes or to take part in the production of pornographic material are far-reaching and can even be fatal. Girls risk early pregnancy, maternal mortality and sexually transmitted diseases. They are also subject to serious psychological problems caused by the prison-like conditions in which they are forced to live and by the fact that many of them from remote rural areas or neighbouring countries have severed all ties with their families. Case-studies and testimonies reveal a trauma so deep that many such children are unable to return to a normal life. Many others die before adulthood.

20. Use of children in drug production and trafficking and other illegal activities. Many children help with the cultivation of plants used as raw materials for producing drugs. Children are also used in the marketing of drugs, although this is less well documented. In the major cities of Asia and Latin America, some street children, often drug addicts themselves, are involved in the drug trade. This trade is organized by adults, who may also use children for pickpocketing and car theft, for example. Recently, gangs of children, covertly organized by adults in several Central and Eastern European cities have become involved in such activities. Violence is a part of life for these children, not only from the adults who manipulate them, but also from the police.

Safety and health hazards
21. Tens of millions of child workers are exposed to serious health and safety hazards. These may stem from the nature of the work involved or from poor working conditions. Numerous surveys have shown, for instance, that exposure to pesticides is a major cause of infant mortality in many developing countries. An ILO-supported survey in the Philippines revealed that over 60 per cent of child workers were exposed to chemical and biological hazards, and that 40 per cent had suffered serious injuries or illnesses resulting in amputation or mutilation. Children and young workers also tend to have more serious occupational accidents than adults.

22. Work hazards affecting adults affect children even more. This is because children's anatomical and physiological characteristics are different from those of adults. The spinal column and sometimes the pelvis of children doing heavy work, carrying heavy loads or maintaining awkward body positions for long hours can become deformed as a result of excessive stress placed on the bones before the epiphysis has fused. This may lead to skeletal damage or impaired growth. Children suffer more than adults from exposure to dangerous chemical substances and to radiation. In addition, their level of concentration is lower than that of adults. They are not physically suited to long hours of strenuous and monotonous work, and they suffer the effects of fatigue faster than adults. This is particularly so if they suffer from malnutrition, which is very often the case. They are not aware of dangers, nor do they have any knowledge of the precautions to be taken.

Effects on psychological, emotional and intellectual development
23. Surveys have shown that child workers are more vulnerable than adult workers to physical and psychological abuse. There have been frequent examples of such abuse, especially of child prostitutes, children working on the streets and child domestic workers.

24. Child domestic workers give cause for particular concern. Child domestic service is common in many developing countries, where tens of millions of children are so employed. Girls predominate in this category of child workers.

25. Hours of work tend to be long. The children are deprived of affection. Many are physically and psychologically ill-treated; beatings, insults, punishment by being deprived of food, and sexual abuse are known to be common. Consequently, it is not unusual for girls to run away from their employer's house, and often they end up working as prostitutes.

26. The impact of child labour on intellectual development can also be serious. Although many children who work continue to study, many others do not go to school at all. Of the approximately 250 million working children between the ages of 5 and 14 in developing countries, some 120 million have dropped out of school. A number of national child labour surveys (in Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Ghana, India, Indonesia, Senegal and Turkey) indicated that the drop-out rates could be between 30 and 50 per cent. These surveys also revealed that dropping out of school was less common among children of primary than of secondary school age. In rural areas, however, children of all ages tend to cease attending school early - even at primary school age.

27. There is a strong analogy between ILO child labour statistics and UNESCO school attendance statistics. According to UNESCO, up to 20 per cent of children of primary school age - 128 million - were excluded from education in 1990. The proportion of secondary school age children excluded was in the region of 50 per cent. It may reasonably be supposed that many of these children are engaged in economic activity, especially those excluded from secondary education. The ILO figure of some 120 million children working on a full-time basis would seem to indicate that this is indeed the case. It is unclear, however, whether children give up school because they have to work or whether they work because they have given up school for other reasons.

28. It has been observed that above a certain threshold in respect of hours of work, which varies according to age and type of activity, a child's learning capacity can be impaired. According to American researchers, the academic performance of young persons aged between 12 and 17 is generally adversely affected if they have worked 15 hours a week. This threshold is considerably exceeded in developing countries, even among children under 12. In those countries, the data on the relationship between work at an early age and children's academic achievement, although meagre, indicate that the effects of the former on the latter are extremely negative.

29. The lack of elementary schooling is particularly serious, as it is now more important than ever to be able to read, write and count, and to have acquired a certain critical sense in order to be reasonably well integrated into society.

1.3 Causes
Demand factors
30. It is generally believed that employers use children because they cost less than adult workers. But is this really so?

31. In many cases, child labour costs little or nothing. This is true of family businesses, which are the largest employers of such labour. ILO-supported experimental statistical surveys in 1992 and 1993 in Ghana, India, Indonesia and Senegal revealed that over 75 per cent of working children were employed in family businesses. The economic viability of such businesses is often dependent on children's unpaid labour. It is often imagined that the children involved work in an idyllic situation under the benevolent and watchful eyes of parents, who are careful to employ them only outside school hours and only on tasks that present no dangers. Experience indicates, however, that this is not always so.

32. The cost factor also comes into play in the case of small, undeclared, financially precarious businesses. These depend on fluctuating or seasonal markets and are subject to competition from larger, more mechanized enterprises. Alternatively, they are tied to the latter by sub-contracting agreements, which are very prevalent in the informal sector in developing countries. These businesses often pay children little more than occasional pocket money, on the pretext that they are being offered the opportunity to learn the rudiments of a trade. In domestic service, children often receive no more than board and lodging, like those forced to live and work on large landed properties in order to pay off a debt incurred by their families. Little is known about the earnings of children used for prostitution or the production of pornography. It is obvious, however, that the bulk of the income from these activities goes straight into the pockets of those running the sex industry.

33. Children, if they are paid at all, are paid less than adults in most cases, as revealed in the ILO experimental statistical surveys mentioned above. In Ghana, for example, three-quarters of the children interviewed in 1993 were paid less than one-sixth of the legal minimum wage. In Indonesia, children were earning about three-quarters of the wage paid to unskilled adult workers. Household surveys in Colombia and Ecuador between 1992 and 1994 revealed that children's earnings were low. In Colombia, children of 12 and 13 earned less than a quarter of the legal minimum wage. In Ecuador, two-thirds of child workers aged 10 and 11 and over a quarter of those aged 12 and 13 earned less than the equivalent of 15 US dollars a month.

34. It is often claimed that children are irreplaceable in certain export industries, which would not be competitive if they were unable to use child labour. An ILO-supported study of the handwoven carpet industry in India concluded, however, that children were not economically necessary for the industry to survive in the market. In fact, any labour-cost savings achieved through employing children rather than adults are surprisingly modest in proportion to the final price paid for carpets in the importing countries - between 5 and 10 per cent. Sellers and buyers could therefore between them absorb the added cost of hiring adults only. Why then does the industry hire children, especially in the face of growing international resistance to products that have involved the use of child labour? The answer lies in where the gains from using this labour occur. In the carpet industry, it is the numerous loom owners who supervise the weaving that benefit directly. They are usually poor, small contractors, who work to a very slim profit margin and can as much as double their meagre income by using child workers. Their income is so modest, however, that a very small increase in the consumer price would be sufficient to subsidize the cost to the loom owner of using only adult labour, provided that it was properly targeted. Relatively minor changes in the financial arrangements between loom owners, exporters and importers would reduce the incentive to employ child labour.

35. These findings in an extremely competitive and labour-intensive industry, thought by some to be among those industries most dependent on child workers, raise serious doubts about whether any industry has to depend on child workers in order to be competitive. Certainly, the burden of proof rests with those making such a claim. However, in a free global market, abolishing child labour in one country could result in business simply being transferred to countries that still use it. Again, the example of handwoven carpets is instructive. A survey of carpet importers in a United States city found that if the price of carpets in India rose by more than 15 per cent, importers would stop buying them from that country. Thus the demand for child labour is effectively international, and action to discourage it needs to encompass all major producers so as to avoid "beggar-thy-neighbour" competition.

36. A number of other factors also influence the demand for child labour. The most important of these is the fact that children are less aware of their rights, less troublesome and more willing to take orders and to do monotonous work without complaining. They are also more trustworthy and less prone to absenteeism. Since their work is generally illegal, they are unlikely to complain to the authorities or join a trade union. Child labour is particularly useful for employers in the informal sector, who are often faced with extreme fluctuations in the demand for their products. In peak periods, children are a valuable reserve of casual labour, while in slack periods they can be laid off more easily than adults.

37. Additional factors influencing the demand for child labour are sociological or cultural. For example, some employers may consider that they are doing poor families a favour by giving their children work. In certain families and regions children traditionally follow in their parents' footsteps. If a family has a tradition of working in a hazardous occupation such as tanning, there is every likelihood that the children will be caught up in the same process. In occupations where payment is on a piece-rate basis, it is quite common for children to "help their parents", for example on construction sites, on plantations or in home work.

Supply factors
38. Clearly, poverty is a main reason for the supply of child labour. It is obvious, for example, that the children of landless peasants are more likely to end up in the labour market than those of landowning farmers. Similarly, the rate of participation in economic activity is probably higher among children whose parents have a temporary or precarious job than among those who are lucky enough to have parents in steady employment.

39. Households in which adult members are unemployed or under-employed often need the money their children can earn. Indeed, children commonly contribute up to 20-25 per cent of family income. Since poor households spend the bulk of their income on food, the money provided by working children is obviously crucial to their survival.

40. Poverty, however, does not necessarily cause children to work. In many developing countries, poor families who make some of their children work - mainly the girls - send others to school. On the other hand, some families compel all their children to engage in economic activity, while others, equally poor, are willing to go without certain things in order to keep their children at school. At the national level, the proportion of working children may vary within regions within the same country, even where poverty levels are the same. At the international level, countries may be equally poor and yet have varying incidences of child labour.

41. Children subjected to the most intolerable forms of labour generally come from population groups which are not only economically vulnerable, but also culturally and socially disadvantaged. Poor single-parent families, often headed by women, especially tend to rely on child labour for family survival. Cultural traditions in many parts of the world are such that parents systematically favour the education and development of sons over daughters, thereby perpetuating the vicious circle of poverty from one generation of women to another. Indigenous and tribal populations and other groups discriminated against on grounds of caste or race, as well as migrant families, are also often forced to resort to child labour.

42. Poverty and child labour reinforce each other, poverty giving rise to child labour and child labour perpetuating poverty. It may be reasonably argued that because child labour excludes or restricts access to education and jeopardizes the chances of upward social mobility, it perpetuates poverty, since lack of education impacts on earnings throughout life. By jeopardizing the child's development, work perpetuates poverty because it depreciates the human capital needed for economic and social development.

43. It can, moreover, be assumed that children's involvement in economic activity exacerbates poverty because it increases unemployment and under-employment among adults. In paid employment, in a factory for example, the use of children instead of adults can indeed have a negative impact on adult employment, wages and other conditions of work. At the other extreme, however, child labour can facilitate adult employment, although this often involves turning a blind eye to the exploitation of the children. For example, many adults, particularly women, are able to enter the job market because their children are taking care of the basic household chores. Similarly, many farmers and small entrepreneurs maintain the viability of their businesses, and the employment of adult workers, by making their children do unpaid work.

44. It is generally the poorest families that have the most children. Statistics have shown that the bigger the family the greater the likelihood that the children will work and that school attendance and scholastic achievement will therefore decline. For this reason, some believe that a policy of limiting or progressively reducing the average family size would greatly help to reduce the incidence of child labour.

45. The demand for child labour is also generated by the quantitative and qualitative deficiencies of education systems. In many developing countries, large numbers of poor families cannot afford to send their children to school. School can be expensive. "Free" public education generally represents a considerable investment for a poor family, which has to pay for books, uniforms and other school requisites, transport costs, and even payments to the teachers. Sometimes, a child in primary school costs the equivalent of one-third of the family's cash income, and many families have more than one child of school age. Moreover, this figure does not take into account a family's loss of earnings if the child goes to school instead of working. This is why, very often, children work above all in order to pay for their own schooling.

46. Many children live in communities where there are no schools, and consequently they work. Where there are schools, the cost of schooling for a poor family is such that there must be a return on the investment. But this is very rarely the case. The quality of the teaching provided for poor children is often abysmal. It holds out so little prospect of social advancement that it simply does not justify such heavy sacrifices. There is abundant evidence of families that would like their children to receive an education, but which either lack the necessary means or feel that school costs too much for what it actually is. Although many children leave school because they have to work, many are so discouraged by school that they would rather work. Because of these difficulties, only 68 per cent of children worldwide complete their primary education (up to the age of 11). The percentage of those who stay at school until the final year of primary education varies enormously from one region to another, ranging from 96 per cent in the industrialized countries to a mere 48 per cent in sub-Saharan Africa. Children who do not complete their primary education are likely to remain illiterate and never acquire the skills needed to get a job and contribute to the development of a modern economy in their country.

2. MEETING THE CHALLENGE: NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL ACTION
47. Child labour is primarily a national responsibility and therefore first and foremost the responsibility of national governments. But it is also a global problem requiring global action in various ways. The purpose of the Amsterdam Child Labour Conference is to achieve further progress in the discussion of appropriate actions. The sections that follow set out a number of ideas and suggestions.

2.1 Understanding the issues
48. The lack of detailed reliable information is a major obstacle to the setting of priorities for national action and to the development of effective measures. It is therefore extremely important that countries set up efficient systems for the collection of data on child labour. As a first step, each country should conduct a statistical survey, based on a representative sample of households and enterprises, in order to draw up a general but sufficiently accurate picture of child labour at the national level. At the same time, a closer study should be made of specific groups of children forced into work situations that are considered dangerous or exploitative, so that the hazards to which they are exposed can be properly identified.

49. International cooperation can usefully contribute to improving national capacities for the production of detailed and reliable information on child labour and for monitoring progress at both national and international levels, building on work already carried out by the ILO in this field in recent years. The ILO has developed a new statistical survey methodology, which has been tested in several countries. Furthermore, it has provided about a dozen countries with technical and financial assistance to enable them to apply this methodology. But the need remains enormous, and international assistance is very much needed to help the ILO extend its services to the increasingly large number of countries requesting it.

50. The ILO is planning to expand its services and establish a major programme of research, statistics and mechanisms for monitoring child labour. It will include a synthesis of and an update on national and international research, and experience in technical cooperation programmes, as well as a database which could become a valuable tool for the international exchange of experience, information and policy analysis relating to child labour. Such a programme could do valuable work by financing and supervising research projects on little-known but important aspects of child labour, such as the impact of policies and programmes of action to combat child labour; the economics of child labour and the effects of incentives (education grants, free school meals, etc.) and disincentives (import restrictions on goods produced by children, codes of conduct, social labelling, etc.) on the incidence of child labour; child labour and economic and social policy; and the links between child labour and social exclusion.

2.2 Setting priorities for national action
51. To have any significant impact, action to combat child labour should be within the framework of a national policy which articulates the goals and priorities, and instruments and measures required to achieve them. Its very existence would indicate that political leaders and civil society as a whole are committed to tackling the child labour issue with determination.

52. Although the policy should aim at the eventual abolition of child labour, national efforts should initially focus on the immediate elimination of child labour situations that are degrading or particularly hazardous, such as slavery, forced labour and bonded labour; the sale or trafficking of children for the purpose of exploiting their labour; child prostitution and child pornography; and the use of child labour in drug production and trafficking or in other illegal activities. Similarly, national policy should aim at the prohibition of child employment in occupations or industries that are hazardous.

53. While it is fairly easy to agree on child labour which constitutes a serious violation of human rights, it may be more difficult to define the particularly dangerous occupations and industries. There are, in fact, countless work situations that are liable to harm the physical integrity of children to a great extent. The hazards for children may be due to the fact that the work assigned to them is in itself dangerous. Examples of this are handling pesticides and cutting sugar cane by hand; muro-ami fishing; underground work in the mining industry; work in the construction industry carried out at high altitudes or involving the use of asbestos and other toxic or carcinogenic substances; and the salvaging and recycling of household waste. In other instances, the work is not intrinsically hazardous but becomes so as a result of the poor conditions under which it is carried out. This is the case, for example, when children have to work in difficult atmospheric conditions (extreme humidity, intense heat or cold, high noise and vibration levels, dust and fumes, etc.), and for excessively long periods. And it is also the case when children are exposed to humiliations, beatings and other forms of physical cruelty or ill-treatment.

54. The elimination of labour performed by children under degrading or particularly hazardous conditions does not only involve removing them from work situations in which such conditions obtain. It also involves offering them - or their families - viable alternatives, such as non-formal education and training enabling them to reintegrate into the education system, or remunerated activity more in keeping with their age. Without those alternatives, these children are most likely to end up in other equally degrading or hazardous economic activities. Measures must be taken so that children removed from such work situations are not replaced by other children previously engaged in economic activity.

55. The international community can contribute to the formulation of realistic national objectives by reinforcing the arsenal of international legal instruments such as the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and the ILO Conventions, Convention No. 138 in particular. Convention No. 138 concerning minimum age, 1973, stipulates that each Member that ratifies it shall undertake to pursue a national policy designed to ensure the effective abolition of child labour, and to raise progressively the minimum age for admission to employment or work to a level consistent with the fullest physical and mental development of young persons. It specifies 15 years as the basic minimum age, 13 as the minimum age for admission to light work, and 18 as the minimum age for admission to hazardous work. Convention No. 138, which has been ratified by 52 countries, 24 of which are developing countries, has lost none of its relevance. Indeed, the establishment by law of a minimum age below which children should not be permitted to work is and will remain one of the basic instruments of a strategy of coherent action to combat child labour. However, Convention No. 138 is viewed by some as too complex and too difficult to apply in its entirety, at least in the short term.

56. For this reason, the ILO Governing Body decided in March 1996 to include child labour on the agenda for the 1998 Session of the International Labour Conference, with a view to the adoption, in accordance with the double-discussion procedure, of new international standards for child labour. The basic objective is to induce the international community to adopt an international Convention on the extreme forms of child labour. Such a Convention would supplement international instruments dealing with children and their rights. It would apply to all children under the age of 18 and would oblige member States to put an immediate end to all intolerable forms of child labour. The Convention would require them to determine and apply appropriate penalties for breaches of its provisions. Another important aspect is that it would encourage member States to help one another through international legal and technical assistance or other types of cooperation aimed at combating the most intolerable forms of child labour.

2.3 Information and awareness-raising
57. Public awareness-raising is a vital tool to create an appropriate political and social climate against child labour and a demand for policy reforms. Exploitative child labour tends to be hidden from view. Children, their parents, employers, adult workers and the public at large are often not aware of the dangers of premature work for children. For too long, child labour, even its degrading and particularly hideous forms, has been tolerated as an inevitable part of the life of the poor.

58. The international community has a role to play as regards information and awareness-raising in influencing and sensitizing public opinion in industrialized and developing countries with regard to child labour. The international community is in a position to convince national authorities of the urgent need to assume their responsibilities concerning child labour. It has several fora for this purpose. For example, there is the Working Group on Contemporary Forms of Slavery, set up by the UN Commission on Human Rights in 1975, whose function is to monitor compliance with the provisions of the two United Nations Conventions on Slavery (1926) and on the Abolition of Slavery (1956). The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, for its part, oversees the application of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, particularly the provisions of Article 32 which affirms the right of children to be protected from economic exploitation and from performing work that is likely to be harmful to them. The ILO itself has a Committee responsible for supervising the application of ratified Conventions and for recommending remedial measures to recalcitrant governments. In recent years, this Committee, which meets every year during the International Labour Conference, has strongly encouraged governments of countries beset by serious problems of bonded labour and child prostitution to make a greater effort to discharge the responsibilities ensuing from their ratification of Convention No. 29 concerning forced labour (1930).

59. International organizations can also play a part in changing mentalities and social attitudes to child labour through their technical assistance activities. The IPEC, for example, gives priority to information and awareness-raising activities in the participating countries. In addition, it finances a number of small-scale interventions, at local community level and with different groups of children, aimed not only at rescuing them from their work situations, but also and above all at demonstrating that it is possible to change attitudes and values.

60. International employers' and workers' organizations are playing a useful role by sensitizing their affiliates. Through the resolutions on child labour adopted at its World Congresses in Caracas and Melbourne, and especially through the world campaign against child labour which it launched in 1994, the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU), for example, has sought among other things to promote trade union awareness of the issue at national level. Also, the International Organization of Employers (IOE) has decided to take action aimed at sensitizing its national affiliates to the child labour issue. The resolution on child labour adopted on 3 June 1996 by its General Council contains a number of recommendations to employers and their organizations, and calls on the organization's Executive Committee to follow it up with a proactive programme. For their part, the Universal Federation of Travel Agents' Associations (UFTAA) and the World Tourism Organization are conducting information campaigns to combat child sex tourism. In 1994, the UFTAA adopted a Charter under which travel agents who sign it commit themselves to the struggle against this evil by increasing awareness of it in the travel and tourism trade. So far, the Charter has been signed by 60 travel agencies.

61. Non-governmental organizations are also making a useful contribution to awareness-raising among the public in developing and industrialized countries. Many have been active in combating slavery, forced labour and bonded labour at international and regional levels, and have successfully drawn attention to these problems and stimulated action against them.

62. These efforts by international organizations such as the ILO and UNICEF, employers' and workers' organizations and non-governmental organizations have been instrumental in creating a worldwide movement against child labour. And thanks to them, much has been achieved. But there is still a long way to go, and hence the need for the international community to pursue its work so that more and more communities and actors join the campaign against child labour.

2.4 Tackling child labour
The need for a multidimensional approach
63. If the problem of child labour is to be resolved, governments must not limit their interventions - as most of them have done so far - to the enactment of protective legislation and a timid monitoring of its enforcement. They must also act on the economic, social, educational and cultural fronts. What is required is a well-planned and well-integrated series of complementary measures comprising two major types. The first type consists of removal and rehabilitation measures aimed at withdrawing the greatest possible number of children from extreme and particularly hazardous work situations, and rehabilitating them. The second type consists of preventive measures to influence the economic and sociocultural factors that cause child labour and the employment of children in exploitative or hazardous conditions.

64. There is sometimes a tendency to give preference to removal and rehabilitation measures rather than to prevention. Experience, however, has shown that it is easier and cheaper to prevent child labour than to remove and rehabilitate those forced into it. In developing regions, children exploited at work or employed under hazardous conditions are particularly numerous and difficult to reach. Removing them from work and providing them with viable alternatives requires a major infrastructure in countries where this does not yet exist. For this reason, removal and rehabilitation measures have benefited only a tiny minority: they have been unable to stem the flow of children into extreme forms of labour. It is therefore important that they are conceived as part of a comprehensive policy covering prevention, removal and rehabilitation.

Prevention
65. There are various types of preventive measures. First, there are those that are designed to regulate the behaviour of employers by seeking to improve protective child labour legislation and the monitoring of its application. Second, there are those that endeavour to alleviate the poverty afflicting many families, and therefore their need to set their children to work. They do so by facilitating the access of adult family members to productive and remunerative employment and by providing them, free of charge or at very low cost, with essential welfare services. Third, there are measures designed to enable all school age children to attend school, through the provision of a sufficient number of educational establishments at a reasonable cost, or even free of charge for the children of the poorest families. These establishments are intended to provide not only high-quality education, but also education that is attractive as regards the prospects it offers in terms of job opportunities and social advancement. Finally, there are measures designed to change social attitudes to child labour by sensitizing society to the dangers and abuses involved.

66. Preventive measures should be a priority for international cooperation. The far-reaching reforms entailed require considerable investments by poor countries and increased assistance from individual rich countries and the international financial institutions. Through their technical assistance activities, several UN specialized agencies could contribute to the inclusion of child labour issues in economic and social development programmes.

67.Child labour legislation and its application. Legislation is one of the most powerful instruments available to governments in combating child labour. In most countries, labour legislation prohibits the employment of children under a certain age, which is generally higher for hazardous work - usually 18. It also regulates working conditions for children above that age. An ILO analysis of legislation in force in 155 member States reveals the existence of legal provisions strictly limiting the possibilities of employing children in hazardous conditions or types of work. In almost all countries, for both adults and children, forced labour and servitude are also prohibited either by the Constitution or by labour legislation. In India and Pakistan, specific legislation has even been enacted to prohibit bonded labour and rehabilitate workers subjected to it. Moreover, the employment of children in prostitution or the production of pornographic material is generally banned by penal law provisions.

68. Legislation has had a significant impact on the formal sector, especially on enterprises in the urban sector. Frequently, however, labour laws do not cover certain sectors of economic activity where child labour is prevalent, exploitative and dangerous. The ILO analysis mentioned above reveals that domestic service, agriculture and the wholesale and retail trade are, for example, exempt from the provisions of labour law in many countries. Elsewhere, other types of enterprises are exempt: these are generally family businesses and, less frequently, businesses employing a small number of workers (usually fewer than ten). Elsewhere again, exemption depends on the types of employment. This applies, for example, to children working for themselves, apprentices, children in temporary or casual employment, or those engaged in home work.

69. There are moreover at least two other fairly common deficiencies of labour legislation. First, the penalties for offenders are generally too light to have a deterrent effect. Second, a legal ban on the employment of children in work that might be detrimental to their health or safety is not always accompanied by statutory provisions clearly defining the nature of such work.

70. Improvements in protective legislation are therefore essential in a number of countries. The most important would be to ensure that at the very least, this legislation formally prohibits the employment of children under 12 in all sectors of activity and in all types of enterprise or employment. Equally, it must be ensured that legislation prohibits the employment of children in types of work or in working conditions likely to impair their health, safety, education, morals or dignity. A detailed list of prohibited types of work and working conditions should be annexed to the legislation.

71. In the developing countries, the inadequacies of enforcement machinery are primarily due to the characteristics of child labour and to the economic and sociocultural context in which it is performed. Establishments that habitually employ child labour are extremely numerous and scattered (small farms, small shops and workshops in the urban informal sector; private properties in the case of family enterprises; child domestic servants and children engaged in home work). The work is often clandestine. Many children work in establishments that do not officially exist. The children, their parents and the small entrepreneurs do not know the relevant laws and regulations; and the parents in particular are generally unaware of the illegal nature of their children's work. This ignorance, and their desire to retain the income generated, explain why there are virtually no complaints about the employment of children in exploitative or hazardous conditions.

72. The procedures for filing complaints and prosecuting offenders are another obstacle. They are so lengthy and complicated that they deter poor, and often illiterate, families from using them. Also, the authorities responsible for registering complaints generally lack the necessary resources to investigate the cases of abuse of child labour that have been reported to them or to take legal action against the offenders. Moreover, the inspection authorities operate in a particularly unfavourable environment. Some of the problems involved are public indifference, the apathy of the legal machinery, pressure from powerful economic interests and the complicity of children and their parents. Last but not least, a genuine political will to enforce the law is often lacking.

73. The shortcomings of the inspection services with regard to enforcing the law can also be explained by the shortage of human and material resources at their disposal. The number of labour inspectors is exceedingly low compared with the number of workplaces to be inspected. Moreover, since the duties of labour inspectors are many and varied, child labour, which is often considered to be of minor importance, occupies only a very small proportion of their time. The transport available is derisory and barely sufficient for them to inspect the large and medium-sized enterprises in the major cities. The inspection methods used in the modern sector of the economy are virtually ineffective when it comes to inspecting establishments in the urban informal sector and the small farms, where the majority of child workers are to be found.

74. Serious limitations are imposed on the inspectors' action. For example, they may not inspect certain workplaces (e.g. private residences in the case of child domestic workers), or they may conduct their inspection only during certain hours of the day. Labour inspection personnel are poorly paid, and this sometimes makes them susceptible to attempts to bribe them. They have a very low position in the hierarchy, and their work is not particularly appreciated. All of this explains their frequently observed lack of motivation and sense of frustration. Political pressure is sometimes brought to bear to prevent them from intervening in a particular establishment or to persuade them to turn a blind eye to what is going on there. In addition to these difficulties, labour inspectors are often in the awkward position of having to enforce regulations prohibiting the employment of children, when there are no means of compensating for the loss of earnings to the family, and no schools to take the children. Where there are schools, they are already overcrowded or cost more than the family can afford. This situation poses a dilemma for many inspectors, and they often prefer not to intervene at all.

75. Much, however, can be done to improve the efficiency of law enforcement machinery, despite present limitations in terms of financial resources, personnel and transport. Thus, once combating child labour has been recognized as one of the priorities of government policy, the following measures could be taken:

(i) obliging labour inspectors and other concerned parties such as the police to devote more time to monitoring the application of laws prohibiting the employment of children in exploitative or hazardous conditions; and providing them with training to enable them to identify and deal with the most serious and most urgent cases of child labour;

(ii) encouraging local communities to participate in monitoring the conditions in which their own children are working and in systematically reporting abuses. It is increasingly believed that this kind of participation is the only way to ensure a certain respect for the law on farms, in establishments in the urban informal sector and in the case of children working in domestic service in private households. Moreover, it has been suggested that the inspection authorities should encourage it, for example, by training auxiliaries for the inspection of child labour in local communities and by developing for them a simplified system of registering and reporting breaches of the law;

(iii) publicizing the legislation protecting children against exploitative or hazardous working conditions, particularly by translating it into local dialects and disseminating it widely;

(iv) providing legal aid to the families of children who have been ill-treated in their work; and simplifying procedures for filing complaints and prosecuting offenders.

77. Education and training. One of the best means of strengthening the effectiveness of the legal approach to child labour referred to above is to provide children from the poorest families with an appropriate educational infrastructure. This means that it should be accessible to them as regards distance to be travelled, and should be free of charge or at least involve no direct costs. Moreover, it should provide a relevant education, i.e. one that is suited to the children's economic and social environment, and offers good chances of subsequent integration into the labour market. The provision of such an infrastructure is one of the State's basic responsibilities.

78. To discourage child labour, school should be made compulsory up to a certain age. Most countries, in fact, make legal provision for a period of compulsory school attendance. According to UNESCO, this existed in 152 of the 173 countries for which information was available in 1995, the minimum school-leaving age being between 13 and 16. Minimum ages of 10 to 12 are much rarer, as are cases where the period of compulsory schooling does not end until the age of 17 or 18. In compulsory school attendance legislations, the onus is on parents to send their children to school up to a specified age. This makes sense, obviously, in places where the State has put schooling at the disposal of all children of an age to attend school. However, this is seldom the case in developing countries. In fact, the main obstacle to universal access to education up to a certain age lies not so much in the alleged resistance of families or children as in the inability of the public authorities to meet demand. This is especially true of the demand of the poorest families in rural areas or overcrowded slums, even at primary school level. In the 1980s and early 1990s, the resources allocated to education consistently decreased in many countries. This was widely attributed to the unfavourable economic situation and the structural adjustment policies introduced to remedy it. This argument is not very convincing, however. In fact, in one-third of the 116 countries for which information was available in 1989-90, military spending far exceeded spending on education.

79. The discrepancies in many countries between the minimum school-leaving age and the minimum age for admission to employment give rise to a further problem. In a number of cases, the former is higher than the latter. This allows children access to employment or work before they have completed the required minimum number of years of schooling. In countries where the law permits them to work, a great many children from deprived families therefore stop going to school. The converse also creates problems. In countries where the minimum age for admission to employment or work is higher than the minimum school-leaving age, children who leave school at the statutory age have to wait one, two or even three years before they are allowed to engage in economic activity. Many of these children, however, will start work - illegally - before then. This is why ILO Convention No. 138 establishes a link between the minimum age for admission to employment and the minimum school-leaving age.

80. National education and child labour policies should work in tandem. It is essential that prevention of child labour be one of the major objectives of state education programmes. It is also essential that these programmes operate actively and concretely in those areas or districts to which the government has decided to direct its national action against degrading and particularly hazardous forms of child labour. Furthermore, the education authorities should devote greater attention to reintegrating into the school system those children who have been freed from these forms of work.

81. Making a reality of the school system described above may entail considerable costs for the State. These must be accepted, because quality education is both a basic right of all children and an essential duty of the State. International cooperation should be particularly generous. It should provide for financial and technical support to poorer countries endeavouring to establish such a system.

82. More and better jobs for adults, and social protection. Rescuing families from absolute poverty requires active economic growth and social protection policies which result in benefits for the most deprived sections of the population and relieves them of the economic pressures that oblige them to put their children to work.

83. These pressures are themselves linked to the fact that adult members of families living in a state of absolute poverty are unemployed or under-employed. National authorities should therefore ensure that economic growth results in creation of productive and adequately paid jobs for these families. The expansion of infrastructures in rural areas through labour-intensive work methods is one important way of achieving this. Another is providing the poorest men and women with access to ownership of productive resources, and to credit, improved production techniques and commercial networks. Old-age parents, the disabled and others not able to engage in productive employment should be provided with adequate social protection programmes. Job creation and social safety net programmes should be linked to programmes of action to combat dangerous or exploitative child labour. In other words, they should be designed to benefit those local communities with a high concentration of child labour or even explicitly target families prone to engage their children in bondage or prostitution.

84. Here again there is a major role for international cooperation. It is not possible to improve children's lot without combating poverty. Legislation and education have an important and necessary role to play, but they will fail unless the international community is committed to combating poverty through supportive action.

Removal and rehabilitation
85. Removal and rehabilitation measures are intended for children already in the labour market. Their aim is to free them from work. Care needs to be taken, however, that such measures do not drive them underground or result in their taking another job which is just as demeaning or dangerous.

86. Children successfully removed from work often need assistance in various areas. This is particularly so if they have been stunted in their development because they were bonded, exploited practically since they were toddlers, are being prostituted or are living and working on the streets without their families or any stable social environment. They might, for example, be suffering from an occupational or sexually transmitted disease, or from malnutrition, or be completely illiterate or considerably behind in their schooling. They therefore require special assistance, intensive follow-up, counselling and often legal aid.

87. Evidence from IPEC-supported programmes has shown that these children require assistance from a team of specialists, such as social workers, paediatricians and psychologists. Volunteers and community workers can also contribute to their rehabilitation, but they must receive proper training. Cooperation with the police is also needed, so that "rehabilitated" children are not stigmatized or persecuted. Some action programmes try in addition to reunite children with their families from whom they have been separated on account of their work. These programmes have met with success if they provided additional support to the family. Although the cost of rehabilitation programmes is very high, they are vital if former child workers are to be satisfactorily reintegrated into society and the school system.

88. Incentives for families. The removal and rehabilitation of child workers should be complemented with measures or incentives which provide support to poor families. IPEC-supported programmes and other initiatives have shown that families are willing to make financial sacrifices if viable alternatives to child labour are provided to them. In several programmes, the family is provided with benefits, in cash and/or in kind, which partially compensate for its loss of income if a child stops working. Economic incentives may include monthly allowances paid to parents for a specific period, study grants, free books, uniforms, school meals and other school requisites. They may also include exemption from registration fees and, last but not least, practical skills training or other schemes for children which combine studies and training for work under supervised conditions.

89. An ILO survey on the impact of these economic incentives in 18 developing countries concluded that poverty makes such incentives necessary, but that in order to be effective they must be combined with other activities - for example, the setting up of schools, improvements in teaching, awareness-raising and community development. The organizations involved pointed to a number of problems, such as risks of corruption and cheating; creation of family dependency on the programme concerned; and a danger that parents might make their children work in order to benefit from the programme or put them back to work when the benefits ceased. Care must be taken because these incentives can absorb a never-ending stream of funds. They may, however, sometimes be the only way to break the vicious circle, especially in extreme cases of child labour such as bonded labour and prostitution.

90. The experience acquired with this type of programme seems to indicate that the type of economic incentive in each particular situation needs to be carefully selected, and families must be asked to help in the rehabilitation of their children, so as to prevent them from becoming dependent. Even more significant is the fact that these experiments have shown that economic incentives are vital for child workers whose survival is threatened once they have been removed from work. This is an area of work of potential significance, which calls for international cooperation and assistance.

91. Incentives for employers. The liberalization of international trade has prompted various religious, trade union, consumer and human rights organizations in the industrialized countries to put pressure on consumers, importers and multinational enterprises to give attention to the conditions under which the products they buy or import are manufactured, and especially to the question of whether they use child labour.

92. Four types of trade incentives have come to the fore in recent years.

(i) Labelling. This consists in putting a label on an item - or in the shop where it is sold - which guarantees to consumers in industrialized countries that the product has been manufactured without child labour. Labelling has been used particularly for carpets and, to a lesser extent, garments. The main idea is to encourage consumers to opt for labelled products rather than others. Its promoters hope that consumer pressures will influence exporters and producers in developing countries to change their methods of production and to stop using child labour, both now and in the future. The best known labelling campaigns are those conducted in the carpet industry by the Rugmark foundations in Germany, India, Nepal and the United States.

(ii) Codes of conduct. Such codes, increasingly adopted by multinational enterprises or importers in industrialized countries in Western Europe and the United States, require that branches and suppliers of these multinationals and importers in developing countries respect a number of basic workers' rights, including the right of children not to be forced to work before a certain age.

(iii) Generalized system of preferences. In the United States, this system provides exporting countries with privileged access to American markets or other trade advantages if they can prove that they respect certain basic workers' rights, including a minimum age for admission to employment. The revised generalized system of preferences in the European Union has the same aim. It contains provisions on the ban on child labour which will enter into force in 1998.

(iv) Trade restrictions. The link between trade and the use of child labour has been the subject of increasing debate in national and international fora. In the United States, a bill has been introduced by Senator Harkin (US Child Labor Deterrence Act, 1993) which would ban the entry into the United States of any goods manufactured with child labour. At the multilateral level, provision to restrict the international trade in goods produced under conditions infringing workers' basic rights is contained in the North American Agreement on Labor Cooperation annexed to the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).

94. Labelling campaigns and codes of conduct are extremely recent, and the lack of reliable evaluations makes it difficult to measure their impact. However, it may reasonably be believed that they have increased the interest of the general public, particularly consumers and importers, and have influenced them to take a stand on the problem of child labour in developing countries. Moreover, it may be assumed that they have encouraged governments and international business groups to take a more active stand against child labour than they would normally have done.

2.5 Creating a broad social alliance against child labour
95. The importance of raising the level of social concern cannot be overstated, for experience over many years and from around the world clearly demonstrates that significant public pressure is often required to make progress on the child labour issue politically possible. Both the public and private sectors can play an important role in public awareness-raising. Historically, this has been an activity in which the independence and single-minded commitment of non-governmental organizations have made them the crucial element. But there is ample room for both the public and private sector to act in complementary and cooperative ways. In fact, it is difficult to envisage a successful campaign against child labour in general, and against hazardous work in particular, without ample participation by both governmental and non-governmental organizations. These should act in collaboration even though their particular roles may be different. Each has its strengths and weaknesses. What is required is to arrive at a formula - clearly suited to national conditions - which can reinforce and build on their respective strengths. Non-governmental organizations can, for example, be effective in advocacy, organizing communities and implementing local projects. Governments can focus on the establishment of an appropriate legislative and policy climate, the provision of universal compulsory education, increasing the access of poor households to employment and income, and ensuring strict adherence to certain minimum labour standards such as the prohibition of work in exploitative and hazardous occupations or activities, and of work before the completion of primary school.

Governments
96. This said, the attitude of governments towards the needs and rights of children is decisive for their protection and the promotion of their welfare. This is especially so in developing countries where the presence of the State is strongly felt in practically all aspects of national life. Thus, government policy is crucial for eliminating child labour, particularly its most intolerable forms. It represents the official commitment of government to the protection of children from economic exploitation and, when vigorously pursued, places the authority of the State behind this objective. Furthermore, it can exert a powerful influence on national values and public opinion, mobilizing financial and institutional resources on a scale unattainable by the private sector and community organizations. The role of government is so central that the mere absence of a national policy, or even a sign of ambivalence towards the protection of working children tends to be interpreted as tacit consent to their exploitation.

Employers and their organizations
97. Progressive and far-sighted employers have often perceived the evils of child labour, and have lent their support to its control and abolition. It could not have been so dramatically reduced in the formal sector without their concurrence. As key contributors to the economic development of their countries and communities, employers need to be aware of their effect on human resource development. According to the labour practices they follow, they can either delay or advance the development of human capacities for the future. By abandoning dependence on child labour, and by carefully protecting the development of children who do work, employers can benefit their society and the long-term health of business and industry.

98. Employers' organizations can encourage progressive child labour practices by making employers in the formal and informal sectors sensitive to the special needs of children, informing them about child labour laws, educating them about the greater long-term benefits of non-exploitative personnel management approaches, and assuming leadership in working with governmental and non-governmental organizations to reduce violations of child labour law.

Workers and their organizations
99. Workers' organizations are increasingly involved in child labour issues, and that participation should be increased. Some have issued public statements against child labour. Others are directly defending children's rights through action programmes of protection and prevention. Rising to the defence of working children would be consistent with the social ideals underlying the origins of most labour movements, lifting their vision beyond the pocketbook interests of their membership. Workers' organizations could be especially useful in documenting child labour abuses, monitoring the effectiveness of enforcement mechanisms, educating working children about their rights and how to exercise them, and receiving and referring complaints about violations of child labour law. They could also successfully undertake to organize children, homeworkers, domestic servants and other exploited workers much in need of protection.

Non-governmental organizations and voluntary groups
100. NGOs and voluntary groups have always played an essential role in the protection of child workers by advocating effective laws and enforcement mechanisms, and by pressing government to implement those laws effectively. Determined "watchdog" groups can aggressively investigate both abuses of children in the workplace and official dereliction of duty in containing those abuses. They can also take critical issues to the courts, and have an important role to play in organizing children, their parents and communities in taking a stand against child labour.

101. Unfortunately, many countries with significant child labour problems do not have the benefit of strong, organized advocacy groups. There is thus an urgent need for the establishment of such groups where they do not exist, and for technical and financial support to them where they do. The international NGOs, drawing on experience and human resources the world over, could be especially useful in promoting, training and supporting national groups of young and adult citizens dedicated to the protection of working children and the abolition of child labour.

Other segments of society
102. Other members of civil society have an extremely important contribution to make in the fight against child labour. Professional media organizations have a special responsibility in informing the public about child labour issues. Universities are also valuable allies, particularly for researching specific aspects of the child labour problem, training the staff involved in field activities and assessing the impact of pilot action programmes undertaken on behalf of working children. Because political resolve is essential in order to tackle child labour problems, parliamentarians are also important partners. Last, but not least, are the millions of teachers and educators, and health, population and other extension workers, who can be motivated to participate in the prevention of child labour at the local and national levels. Their role in efforts to combat child labour has been little explored, and their potential for being mobilized in the campaign against this scourge is only beginning to be tapped. The integration of child labour issues into the school curriculum, for instance, concerning the dangers of specific types of work, the alternatives to work, the rights afforded to working children under national law, and the means of defending them can prevent many children from entering work. Teachers can influence the community by informing families about the costs and dangers of child labour; acting as child labour monitors to help survey the extent of school non-attendance and its relationship to child labour in the community; and supporting community participation in planning formal and non-formal education programmes to ensure that all child workers and potential child workers are reached. Last but not least, former working children are a powerful tool in convincing other children and society at large of the need to fight child labour. Their experience should be used and their potential harnessed in designing and implementing strategies against it.

2.6 Building institutional capacity
103. Anyone examining what has been done so far in the various countries in attempts to combat child labour would be struck by the lack of organization and coordination of policies and programmes. Indeed, child labour seems to be a matter for everyone and no one. In the public sector, the measures taken by a small number of ministries or other institutions seem few and far between and rarely connected. In the private sector, organizations frequently work in a dispersed way and sometimes in competition with each other. Exceptions exist, most notably at the municipal level, but cooperation between the public and private sectors is a difficult process. The central bodies know little of what organizations are doing at grass-roots level or mistrust their involvement in this area, and vice versa. Much needs to be done to improve both horizontal and vertical cooperation between public and private sector organizations.

104. Organizing action against child labour and coordinating measures between the various bodies requires setting up, within the government apparatus, institutional mechanisms provided with the necessary financial powers and means to carry out such tasks as setting priorities for action; promoting and increasing public initiatives, including those by municipal authorities; and coordinating action in both the public and the private sector.

105. Creating institutional capacity to cope with child labour problems is a long-term task which opens up a particularly wide scope for international cooperation. IPEC experience in this regard is worth noting. In most of its participating countries, it has encouraged the setting up of National Steering Committees on Child Labour to identify appropriate measures and the organizations responsible for implementing them. These committees, which are normally chaired by the minister responsible for labour affairs, include representatives from other ministries directly concerned, national employers' and workers' organizations, and NGOs with expertise in defending children's rights . They often constitute the first stepping-stone towards an institutional mechanism allowing high-level authorities from various backgrounds to examine the issue of child labour, which was not previously on the agenda of matters for discussion. These committees and regular partner meetings of IPEC implementing agencies have done much to promote the exchange of experience, eliminate bottlenecks, share successes and forge bonds between them. Another strategy concerns the setting up of focal points or coordinating units in key partner organizations to ensure the smooth implementation of work. Cooperation between the actors in combating child labour is necessary and useful not only at the national level but also at grass-roots level. There is ample evidence that if action is to be efficient, lasting and transferable, it must mobilize and secure the support of all those concerned, i.e. children and their parents, employers, employees and their respective organizations, as well as local, official or semi-official institutions.

106. Cooperation between the various actors to combat child labour, as well as the coordination of their respective interventions, is necessary both nationally and internationally, and should extend beyond the ILO and UNICEF. Some of the actions required in order to come to grips with the deep-seated causes of child labour require the participation of other international organizations (the Bretton Woods institutions and UNESCO in particular) and bilateral assistance from the rich countries. The United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child and its national committees set up in many countries should be major participants, since it is responsible for supervising the application of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, including the right of the child to be protected against dangerous work and economic exploitation. The need to harness various spheres of competence in the fight against child labour must therefore be reflected in active cooperation between the various international organizations.

CONCLUSIONS
107. The plight of many millions of children working under conditions harmful to their development cries out for action. This appeal is starting to resonate around the world. In recent years child labour has been placed firmly on the global agenda. Conflicting views exist but are slowly giving way to a growing consensus that the exploitation of child labour can and must end. In accordance with Article 3 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, it is the child's best interest, and not other interests, that should guide the setting of national priorities.

108. An essential start towards this end is the development of a time-bound programme of action. Such a programme should make the immediate elimination as well as the prevention of the most intolerable forms of child labour its highest priority. Special attention must be given to children who are grossly exploited because of their specific vulnerability. These include the very young and girls, whose work is not recognized and often invisible. Girls in particular are denied access to education and suffer from detrimental cultural practices. The complete prohibition of child labour under 12 years of age and the protection of girls are therefore priority areas of action.

109. Removal and rehabilitation measures are vital for those groups of children currently engaged in harmful and dangerous work. But investment in the prevention of child labour is by far the most effective and economical method in the long run and should be an explicit aim in all initiatives.

110. Action is needed on various fronts. Care needs to be taken to ensure that all measures act in synergy and lead to the desired aim. Much work is still needed in the field of data collection and the identification of "best practices". Children suffering under the most intolerable conditions are difficult to reach. In industries and many occupations the work hazards are known, but have only recently been addressed. In other areas, little is still known about the work hazards and effective strategies to counteract them. There is therefore a need for a comprehensive mechanism which provides for statistics, and exchange of experience, to promote and monitor progress in the elimination of the most intolerable forms of child labour.

111. A shift in attitudes is needed within countries, both among those directly concerned with the problem - children, parents and employers - and in society at large. Experience has shown that such a shift does not come about easily or quickly, but remarkable changes can be achieved through extensive awareness-raising and social mobilization. The resulting change in social attitudes then creates a public demand for urgently needed policy reforms.

112. These must be translated into programmes, institutional structures and budgets in a number of key fields. The improvement in education and training systems is, of course, essential for any long-lasting, sustainable solution. More resources need to be made available to increase affordable, relevant and quality education and training opportunities for children, first of all by providing compulsory education. But this is not enough. The worst child labour problems are found among the children of the poorest adults, many of them female-headed households, the lower classes and castes, migrants and indigenous people - in other words, among the most disadvantaged socio-economic groups in society. These groups rely on child labour for their survival. Interventions in the field of education therefore need to be matched by interventions in the labour market and in the field of social protection, if programmes to eliminate child labour are to be effective and successful.

113. Many actors need to start taking concerted action. No one party can solve the child labour problem on its own. Governments have the prime responsibility for setting national standards, mobilizing financial resources and improving the institutional mechanisms in the above-mentioned technical fields. But many others - employers, workers, NGOs and voluntary groups - play a key role in promoting socially responsible entrepreneurship, in defending children's rights, in enabling children and their parents to organize against child labour, and in playing a watchdog role in communities, workplaces and society.

114. While child labour is essentially a national problem which calls for national solutions, there is an important role for the international community and indeed international solidarity and cooperation. First and foremost, there should be a worldwide commitment to the immediate elimination of the extreme forms of child labour. Without joint action and international cooperation it would be virtually impossible to stop the trafficking and economic exploitation of children in forced and hazardous work, in prostitution and in pornography. Indeed, the world community should manifest its commitment to act in solidarity by working towards the adoption of a new international Convention prohibiting all extreme forms of child labour. Such international standards would reinforce current international legal instruments dealing with children and their rights, and set clear priorities for national and international action. In addition, just as governments of developing countries must address the needs of the poorest of their poor, governments of rich countries should pledge themselves to providing assistance to governments committed to attacking poverty and the scourge of child labour.