RIGHTS
AT WORK 
Child Labour
Child labour
is a pressing social, economic, and human rights issue. As many as 250
million children worldwide are thought to be working, deprived of adequate
education, good health, and basic freedoms. Individual children pay
the highest price, but their countries suffer as well. Sacrificing young
people's potential forfeits a nation's capacity to grow and develop.
The principle
of the effective abolition of child labour contained in the Declaration
builds upon existing ILO standards, including the Minimum Age Convention,
1973 (No. 138). Existing standards would be strengthened by the adoption
of new instruments on the elimination of the worst forms of child labour
in June 1999. Such a progressive approach reflects the recognition that
child labour is a complex problem rooted in poverty and lack of educational
opportunities.
During
the 87th session of the International Labour Conference, a new Convention
and Recommendation banning the worst forms of Child Labour were adopted.
The new Convention No. 182 applies to all persons under the age of 18
years old. It defines worst forms of child labour as follows:
All forms of slavery
or practices similar to slavery, such as the sale and trafficking of
children, debt bondage, serfdom and forced or compulsory labour
Forced or compulsory
recruitment of children for use in armed conflict
Use of a child for
prostitution, production of pornography or pornographic performance
Use, procuring or
offering of a child for illicit activities, in particular for the production
and trafficking of drugs, and work which is likely to harm the health,
safety or morals of children
The Convention
will also provide an agreed legislative framework for future ILO operational
action through its International Programme for the Elimination of Child
Labour (IPEC). The distinguishing characteristics of IPEC are partnership
and complementarity. It involves many different groups, including governments,
employers' and workers' organizations, NGOs and multilateral agencies,
such as UNICEF - a degree of institutional diversity that has lessons
for other activities of ILO.
