International Child Day - 20 November

Child Labour
Child labour and the worst forms of child labour, as defined by International Labour Organization (ILO) Conventions, damage children’s health, threaten their education and lead to further exploitation and abuse. UNICEF does not oppose work that children may perform at home, on the family farm or for a family business – as long as that work is not a danger to their health and well-being, and if it doesn’t prevent them from going to school and enjoying childhood activities.

Facts and figures
• In 2004, there were 218 million children engaged in child labour, excluding child domestic labour.

• Some 126 million children aged 5–17 are believed to be engaged in hazardous work.

• It is estimated that children represent 40–50 per cent of all victims of forced labour, or 5.7 million children are trapped in forced and bonded labour.

• Children working in the home of a third party or ‘employer’ are extremely vulnerable to exploitation and abuse. ILO estimates that more girls under age 16 are in domestic service than in any other category of work or child labour.

HUMAN RIGHTS
International Labour Organization (ILO ) Conventions 138 (1973) and 182 (1999) define child labourers as all children younger than 12 working in any economic activities, children 12–14 years old engaged in more than light work, and all children engaged in the worst forms of child labour – in which they are enslaved, forcibly recruited, prostituted, trafficked, forced into illegal activities or exposed to hazards.

Article 32(1) of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989) calls for the recognition of the right of children to be protected from economic exploitation and from performing any work that is likely to be hazardous or to interfere with their education, or to be harmful to their health or physical, mental, spiritual, moral or social development.

By March 2006, 143 countries had ratified Convention No. 138, setting minimum ages for general, light or hazardous work and 158 countries had ratified ILO Convention No. 182 on the worst forms of child labour.

Arabic Forum