50th Agenda 

50th Session Issues

Draft Guiding Principles for Policing and Enforcement of Child Labor Laws

by
Janet Slanczka

Child labor is a widespread phenomenon throughout the world in the developing countries. 120 million children between the ages of 5 and 14 are involved in full-time work. This figure is more than twice as high if account is taken of those for whom work is a secondary activity. Of these, 61% are in Asia, 32% in Africa and 7% in Latin America. While Asia has the largest number in absolute terms, Africa has the largest incidence involving children between 5 and 14 years old compelled to work.

Although child labor varies from country to country, the phenomenon has a number of common characteristics:

In all these regions, the proportion of working children is higher in rural areas than in urban areas. According to ILO studies, children as young as 5, 6, or 7 years of age work in the country.

Boys tend to outnumber girls. However, statistics often underestimate the number of girls at work because surveys do not usually include household chores which many children do all the time at home. The vast majority of these children are girls so that their parents can go out to work.

Although , at the international level, attention is focused on child labor in activity geared to export, the problem is more acute in activity primarily geared to domestic consumption.

In all regions of the work, children are trapped in extremes forms of labor which are not only dangerous in themselves but cause lasting damage: these include forced labor, debt bondage, prostitution and pornography. These types of activities constitute a real denial of human rights and are an intolerable infringement of dignity of the individual.

Most of the international work concerning Child Labor has been legislated in the various conventions of the International Labor Organization (ILO). The ILO was created in 1919 and brought together representatives from governments, employers and workers. In its first six conventions, it dealt with hours of work in industry, unemployment, maternity protection, night work for women, minimum age and night work for young persons.

The 1919 Convention on Child Labor set the minimum age at 14 for industrial establishments. Nine subsequent conventions adopted minimum ages for employment in specific industries.

The Minimum Age Convention of 1973 (No. 138) obliged ratifying states to fix a minimum age for admission to employment or work and to pursue a national policy designed to ensure the effective abolishment of child labor. Recommendation No. 146 set out the broad policy framework and essential policy measures for preventing and eliminating child labor.

Convention No. 138 lays down the basic principle that the minimum age for admission to employment or work should not be less than the age for completing compulsory schooling and in no event less than age 15. It provides that the minimum age should be progressively raised to a level consistent with the fullest physical and mental development of young persons. It does permit the employment of young persons between ages of 13 and 15 in light work--work that is not harmful to the health or development of young persons and does not prejudice their attendance at school or vocational training programs. The Convention also allows countries to specify the activities to which the convention will apply, but it lists seven sectors that must be covered. This convention requires that all necessary measure be taken to ensure the effective enforcement of its provisions, including the provision of appropriate penalties.

Recently, there has been growing international consensus that more specific attention needs to be given to intolerable forms of child labor. On 17 June 1999, the ILO unanimously adopted the Convention Concerning the Prohibition and Immediate Action for the Elimination of the Worst Forms of Child Labour (Convention 182) and Recommendation Concerning the Prohibition and Immediate Action for the Elimination of the Worst forms of Child Labour (Recommendation 190).

In Article 3 of the convention identifies the "worst forms of child labour" as

a. all forms of slavery or practices similar to slavery, such as the sale and trafficking of children, debt bondage and serfdom and forced or compulsory labour, including forced or compulsory recruitment of children for use in armed conflict.
b. the use, procuring or offering of a child for prostitution, for the production of pornography or for pornographic performances,
c. the use, procuring or offering of a child for illicit activities, in particular for the production and trafficking of drugs as defined in the relevant international treaties,
d. work which, by its nature or the circumstance in which it is carried out, is likely to harm the health, safety or morals of children.

The convention applies the above to all persons under the age of 18. However, it does not provide an across-the-board ban on all child labor nor does it prohibit people under 18 from voluntarily enlisting in the military. The treaty does bar forced or compulsory recruitment of children for use in armed conflict.

The reasons child labor exists are multiple; however some contributing factors have been identified.

POVERTY - Poor households need what their children earn to cover their basic needs. If all forms of child labor where to be abolished immediately, the pressure on a country and its resources would be unbearable. The high cost of schooling is another factor; children may need to work to pay for school. The teaching of poor children is often of poor quality that offers such a limited hope for social promotion that parents feel it does not justify the sacrifice.

CULTURAL - In many cultures, the child is seen as being a member of the community and not as an individual. If it is in the interest of the community for the child to work, it is expected that the child will work. School may be considered an infringement on the traditional apprenticeship cultural practice of the group which helps a child make the transition to adulthood and maintains the cohesion of the group. The social organization of the group - inferior classes, social clans, persons born to work and other to lead - is a tradition that may be difficult to change. National legislation often has no influence on these traditions.

GROWING INDUSTRALIZATION - As a country becomes more industrialized, the demand for workers increase.

OTHER REASONS - Children are usually less aware of their rights, less troublesome and more willing to work under conditions which adults would consider unacceptable. They are more trustworthy and less likely to be absent from work.

Conventions by the ILO set international standards or goals, but leaves it up to national governments to enact law and enforcement procedures to support the conventions. Members are also asked to establish or designate "appropriate mechanisms to monitor" the provisions of the convention. Each Member is to design and implement programs of action to eliminate child labor. Each member is to "take all necessary measures to ensure the effective implementation and enforcement of the provisionsą including the provision and application of penal sanctions or, as appropriate, other sanctions."

Recommendations to combat the use of child labor have been developed. They include:

GATHERING STATISTICAL DATA. Detailed information and statistical data on the nature and extent of child labor should be compiled and kept up to date to be a basis for determining priorities for national action. Relevant data concerning violations of national provisions concerning child labor should be completed and kept up-to-date. All data should be sent to the ILO on a regular basis.

MONITORING COMPLIANCE WITH CONVENTION PROVISIONS. Each Member should establish or designate appropriate mechanisms to monitor compliance with national laws concerning child labor. Monitors should be trained and be in sufficient quantity to adequately monitor and report on child labor compliance/violations.

NATIONAL LAWS AND REGULATIONS. National laws or regulations or the competent authority should determine the persons to be held responsible in the event of non-compliance with the national provisions concerning child labor. National laws and regulations should be adopted to ensure international standards concerning child labor, penalties and actions to be taken for con-compliance with the national laws and regulations. Members should consider the worst forms of child labor as criminal acts.

OTHER PROVISIONS

  • Inform, sensitize, mobilize the general public, including national and local political leaders and the judiciary regarding child labor;
  • Involve and train employers' and workers' organizations and civic organizations
  • Provide appropriate training for the government officials concerned, especially inspectors and law enforcement officials, and for relevant professionals;
  • Provide for the prosecuting in their own country of the member's nationals who commit offenses under the national provisions concerning child labor even when these offenses are committed in another country;
  • Simplify legal and administrative procedures and ensure that they are appropriate and prompt;
  • Encourage the development of policies by undertaking to promote the aims of the elimination of child labor, especially in the worst forms;
  • Monitor and publicize the best practices on the elimination of child labor;
  • Publicize the legal or other provisions on child labor in the different languages and dialects.
  • Establish special complaints procedures and make provisions to protect from discrimination and reprisals those who legitimately expose violations of the conventions, as well as establishing help lines or points of contact and ombudspersons;
  • Adopt appropriate measures to improve the educational infrastructure and the training of teachers to meet the needs of boys and girls;

In the national programs of action include the need for job creation and vocational training for the parents and adults in the families of working children and the need to sensitize the parents to the problems of child labor.

NEED FOR COOPERATIVE EFFORT

It is recognized that a successful program to eliminate child labor requires the cooperation of the national government, legislation and judiciary; public institutions; schools; local government institutions, local, national, regional and international social, labor, business and economic organizations. One cannot do it alone nor can one provide all the services needed by the children and their families.

In developing guiding principles, look for commonalities that would address basic needs of children and families such as poverty, health and education in efforts to eliminate child labor. Consider elements of successful or model programs in various countries (mentioned or outlined in various documents, reports and speeches regarding child labor) when developing guiding principles. Perhaps a sequence of activities could be offered. A listing of sources of assistance and funding could be developed.

Sources

  1. www.un.org/ILO
  2. Report of the Committee on Child Labour (Coor.), ILO 87th Session, June 1999 (90 pages)
  3. Report of the Committee on Child Labour, Submission, discussion and adoption, ILO 87th Session, June 1999 (31 pages)
  4. Convention 182: Convention Concerning the Prohibition and Immediate Action for the Elimination of the Worst Forms of Child Labour, ILO 87th Session, 17 June 1999.
  5. Recommendation 190, Recommendation Concerning the Prohibition and Immediate Action for the Elimination of the Worst Firms of Child Labour.
  6. ILO Technical Paper: Legislation and Enforcement, October 1997.
  7. ILO: ILOLEX: the ILO's database on International Labor Standards: Convention 138, Minimum Age Convention, 1973
  8. ILO History
  9. ILO Country and Area Designations and rules for their use.
  10. Child Labour: What's To Be done?, Sections 1, 2, 3, 4,June 1996
  11. ILO: International Initiatives.
  12. International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour (IPEC)
  13. Statement by Michel Hansanne, Director-General, International Labour Office, "Child Labour: Refusing the Intolerable" and Combating the Most Intolerable Forms of Child Labour: A Global Challenge."