Practical Guide to Ending Child Labour and Protecting Young Workers in Domestic Work
The present Practical Guide, which builds on the existing knowledge base developed both by the ILO as well as by other stakeholders, aims at providing practical orientations and the required guidance to prevent and eliminate child labour in domestic work as well as at protecting young domestic workers of legal working age.
This Practical Guide is intended for policy makers, decision-makers, policy advisers, policy researchers and experts, and practitioners/implementers of policies, laws and programmes on labour and employment issues, on the domestic work sector and on child labour. At the national level, target audiences include governments, social partners, civil society organizations, and academia. At the international level, target audiences include the UN System and international development and human rights organizations. It aims at enhancing understanding of child domestic work and child labour in domestic work, as well as at convincing policy actors and decision-makers and practitioners that it is imperative as well as feasible to address the issues and problems of child domestic work: elimination of child labour situations and protection of young domestic workers when and where they can legally work.
Domestic workers, in particular child domestic workers, are very vulnerable to physical, sexual, psychological or other forms of abuse, harassment and violence because their workplace is shielded from the public and they generally lack co-workers. Live-in workers and migrant domestic workers are particularly concerned. C.189, in line with C.138 and C.182, requires Members to take measures to ensure that domestic workers enjoy effective protection against all forms of abuse, harassment and violence. In addition to emphasizing the need to eliminate child labour in domestic work, particular attention should be paid to the special needs of child domestic workers, namely children above the legal minimum age for admission to employment or work and below 18 years of age.
The present Practical Guide, which builds on the existing knowledge base developed both by the ILO as well as by other stakeholders, aims at providing practical orientations and the required guidance to prevent and eliminate child labour in domestic work as well as at protecting young domestic workers of legal working age. All actions promoted by this Practical Guide are inspired and guided by the best interest of the child. It provides information on approaches and intervention models, as well as practical tools that have been developed or tested across the world to address and tackle a range of key issues concerning child domestic workers and child domestic work, offering when possible and available, examples from different regions of the world on relevant experiences, results and lessons learnt. In doing so, this Practical Guide does not pretend to provide a conclusive, prescriptive say or response to the issues of child domestic work, as information across the regions is uneven and available literature either tackles child labour or domestic work but not the intersection. Moreover, this literature tends to raise more questions than it provides responses, and rarely provides evaluation of results and impact of interventions.
Domestic workers, in particular child domestic workers, are very vulnerable to physical, sexual, psychological or other forms of abuse, harassment and violence because their workplace is shielded from the public and they generally lack co-workers. Live-in workers and migrant domestic workers are particularly concerned. C.189, in line with C.138 and C.182, requires Members to take measures to ensure that domestic workers enjoy effective protection against all forms of abuse, harassment and violence. In addition to emphasizing the need to eliminate child labour in domestic work, particular attention should be paid to the special needs of child domestic workers, namely children above the legal minimum age for admission to employment or work and below 18 years of age.
The present Practical Guide, which builds on the existing knowledge base developed both by the ILO as well as by other stakeholders, aims at providing practical orientations and the required guidance to prevent and eliminate child labour in domestic work as well as at protecting young domestic workers of legal working age. All actions promoted by this Practical Guide are inspired and guided by the best interest of the child. It provides information on approaches and intervention models, as well as practical tools that have been developed or tested across the world to address and tackle a range of key issues concerning child domestic workers and child domestic work, offering when possible and available, examples from different regions of the world on relevant experiences, results and lessons learnt. In doing so, this Practical Guide does not pretend to provide a conclusive, prescriptive say or response to the issues of child domestic work, as information across the regions is uneven and available literature either tackles child labour or domestic work but not the intersection. Moreover, this literature tends to raise more questions than it provides responses, and rarely provides evaluation of results and impact of interventions.