The government of Kiribati ratified ILO conventions 138 (Minimum Age) and 182 (Worst Forms of Child Labour) in 2008 and is also a signatory to the United Nations Conventions on the Rights of the Child (CRC). However, in 2008, Kiribati was reported to be in Tier 2 of the US State Department watch list relating to child trafficking.

The Rapid Assessment on Child Labour identified 61 children in South Tarawa engaged in some form of Child Labour. Out of this, 33 children were identified to be in the worst forms of child labour, that is, in commercial sexual exploitation. The other 28, were in other forms of labour such as street vendors selling food and other items, mixing cements, boat building and construction.

In opening the training, the Officer-in-Charge of the Ministry of Labour & Human Resource Development, Ms. Taree Aukitino, highlighted the critical importance of agreeing on and establishing actions that will address the issue of child labour in Kiribati. She also stated that an amended labour legislation will be submitted to parliament soon, which regulates work by children.

“There are also provisions in the Children, Young People and Family Welfare Act (2013) which prohibits child labour and this was also made reference to in the recent Universal Periodic Review (UPR) for Kiribati,” said Mr. Teuraki Ukenio, the Child Protection Officer in Kiribati.

The ILO Child Labour Regional Coordinator, Ms. Marie Fatiaki said while the Rapid Assessment on child labour was only conducted in South Tarawa, the participants at the training highlighted the need to focus on outer islands, as the situation could be worse then what has been documented. “The stakeholders also identified the need for a consistent definition of child across the various pieces of legislations and policies”, said Ms. Fatiaki.


Mr. Atish Kumar from the Fiji Ministry of Employment, Productivity and Industrial Relations assisted in the training by providing practical experiences from Fiji especially in conducting child labour inspections, challenges faced and steps to take to address cases of child labour. As a result of this training and sharing of experiences the participants was able to participate meaningfully and formulate their action plan.

While the training also identified programmes delivered by government and NGO’s that potentially benefited children and young people, it was noted that targeted programs aimed at prevention and withdrawal of children in child labour was a major gap.

In 2014 the Kiribati Chamber of Commerce & Industry (KCCI) delivered business training to unemployed young couples who had young children, with the hope that they will secure self- employment and reduce the risk of the child entering child labour. Training has also been provided to representatives of the Kiribati Trade Union Congress (KTUC) in the past and most recently a Ministry of Labour Official attended a training on child labour in agriculture at the ILO Training Centre in Turin, Italy.

This technical support by the ILO is part of it’s the ILO’s Pacific sub-regional project on child labour and trafficking that is built on experiences of the TACKLE (Tackling child labour through education) project funded by the European Union.

For more information, please contact Ms Marie Fatiaki, ILO Child Labour Regional Coordinator on fatiaki@ilo.org or (679) 3313866