OSH Information Resources on Child Labour

CIS News, June 2005

Occupational safety and health in mining and quarrying and the elimination of child labour

Display this document in: French / Spanish

The Programme on Safety and Health at Work and the Environment (SafeWork) is joining the International Programme for the Elimination of Child Labour (IPEC) in calling for the elimination of children working in mines and quarries, the focus of the fourth World Day Against Child Labour scheduled for 12 June 2005.

Over the years, the ILO has demonstrated in many countries that it is possible to eliminate child labour in the most hazardous sectors such as mining and quarrying by improving social and labour conditions, including occupational safety and health. By minimizing the risks of occupational accidents and diseases and maximizing safety and health conditions, the ILO aims at providing adult workers longer and healthier working lives, eliminating the need for child labour.

Some children start working in mines and quarries at an early age, often alongside their older family members. Like adults, they can face many kinds of dangers to their own safety and health from working in such environments, but the effects of injuries and ill-health on children can be even greater than those on adults. [Click here for more]

The following are ILO instruments providing guidance on occupational safety and health in mining and quarrying. They include material on artisanal and small-scale mining activity where child labour is most prevalent.

Convention (C176) and Recommendation (R183) on Safety and Health in Mines Convention, 1995
Code of Practice on Safety and Health in Opencast Mines , 1991
Handbook on Safety and Health in Small-scale Surface Mines, 2001
Chapter on Mining and Quarrying, extracted from the ILO Encyclopaedia of Occupational Health and Safety, 1998

The ILO Sectoral Activities Programme (SECTOR) also covers safety and health issues in mines and quarries, and provides other useful references and website links.

Updated by CD. Approved by EC/MG. Last update: 11.05.2005.