Child Labour

One of the most effective methods of ensuring that children do not start working too young is to set the age at which children can legally be employed or otherwise work. The aim of ILO Convention No. 138  on the minimum age is the effective abolition of child labour by requiring countries to: (1) establish a minimum age for entry into work or employment; and (2) establish national policies for the elimination of child labour. 

• Text of the Convention
• Ratifications
• Countries that have not ratified yet
• ILO Convention No. 138 at a glance (pdf)

The Recommendation No. 146  which accompanies ILO Convention No. 138, stresses that national policies and plans should provide for: poverty alleviation and the promotion of decent jobs for adults, so that parents do not need to resort to child labour; free and compulsory education and provision of vocational training; extension of social security and systems for birth registration; and appropriate facilities for the protection of children, and adolescents who work. To achieve the elimination of child labour, laws setting minimum ages for work should be embedded in such comprehensive policy responses. 

It is a non-binding document that does not require ratification.

• Text of the Recommendation

ILO Convention No. 182  helped to focus the international spotlight on the urgency of action to eliminate as a priority, the worst forms of child labour without losing the long term goal of the effective elimination of all child labour. The Convention requires countries to take immediate, effective and time-bound measures to eliminate the worst forms of child labour as a matter of urgency. 

ILO Convention No. 182 is the first ILO Convention to achieve universal ratification. It was also the most rapidly ratified Convention in the history of the ILO, with the majority of ratifications occurring within the first 3 years after it was adopted in 1999.

• Text of the Convention
• Ratification dates of the Convention No. 182
• ILO Convention No. 182 at a glance (pdf)

ILO Recommendation No. 190, which accompanies Convention No. 182, recommends that any definition of “hazardous work” should include: work which exposes children to physical, psychological or sexual abuse; work underground, underwater, at dangerous heights or in confined spaces; work with dangerous machinery, equipment and tools or carrying heavy loads; exposure to hazardous substances, agents or processes, or to temperatures, noise levels or vibrations damaging to health; work for long hours, night work, and unreasonable confinement to the premises of the employer.

It is a non-binding document that does not require ratification. 

• Text of the Recommendation