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Topic portal
Child Labour
There are 160 million of children in child labour
Not all work performed by children is child labour. International standards define child labour as work that is hazardous to a child’s health and development, demands too many hours and/or is performed by children who are too young. Usually, child labour interferes with a child’s right to education and to play. This issue is at the core of the ILO mission.
News and stories
![Trade unions call to uphold labour rights and human rights in the Philippines.](/https/www.ilo.org/sites/default/files/styles/cards_2_desktop/public/2024-08/workers-rights-philippines-photo-2023.jpg.webp?itok=PgKWgwNn)
Rights at work
ILO and Canada join forces to address child labour and workers’ rights in the Philippines
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World Day against Trafficking in Persons
Leave No Child Behind in the Fight Against Human Trafficking
![Workshop participants practice methods to mobilize communities against child labour.](/https/www.ilo.org/sites/default/files/styles/cards_2_desktop/public/2024-07/scream-tot-july-2024.jpg.webp?itok=NElIF0JW)
SCREAM Training of Trainers (ToT) workshop
Safeguarding children's futures: A SCREAM teacher training to tackle child labour in Sabah, Malaysia
![Elizino de Deus and her mother, Tereza Silva Santos, sell vegetables in Dili, Timor-Leste.](/https/www.ilo.org/sites/default/files/styles/cards_2_desktop/public/2024-07/Elizino%20de%20Deus%20and%20her%20mother%2C%20Tereza%20Silva%20Santos%2C%20sell%20vegetables%20in%20Dili%2C%20Timor-Leste.jpg.webp?itok=ZFgOO1fr)
In their own words
“I help my mother selling vegetables before and after school to support our family”
Publications
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Framework for action on child labour 2023-2025
![Child labour Ethical Guidelines](/https/www.ilo.org/sites/default/files/styles/cards_3_desktop/public/2024-04/Child_Labour_Ethical_Guidelines_Cover_.jpg.webp?itok=R9lO_1sQ)
Ethical guidelines for research on child labour
![Meta-analysis of child labour](/https/www.ilo.org/sites/default/files/styles/cards_3_desktop/public/2024-04/Meta-analysis%20of%20child%20labour%20Card.png.webp?itok=m1EIzGex)
Meta-analysis of the effects of interventions on child labour
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Child Labour: Global estimates 2020
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ILO IPEC+ Global Flagship Programme Implementation
eLearning tools on child labour
![Reporting on child labour for media Card](/https/www.ilo.org/sites/default/files/styles/cards_3_desktop/public/2024-04/Reporting%20on%20child%20labour%20for%20media_Card_0.jpg.webp?itok=n4sgWnrA)
For journalists
Reporting effectively on child labour
![eLearning Tool Labour Inspection Card](/https/www.ilo.org/sites/default/files/styles/cards_3_desktop/public/2024-04/eLearning%20Tool%20Labour%20Inspection%20Card.jpg.webp?itok=04c7lbGj)
For Labour Inspectors and Child Labour Monitors
Understanding child labour and contributing to its elimination
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ILO-FAO courses
Child labour and agriculture
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Video playlist
Our impact, their voices
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For companies
Checkpoints for eliminating and preventing child labour: A mobile application against child labour
Get involved!
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Alliance 8.7 Global Partnership
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8.7 Accelerator Lab Initiative
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Child Labour Platform (CLP)
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Regional Initiative Latin America and the Caribbean Free of Child Labour
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World Day Against Child Labour - 12 June
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Music against Child Labour Initiative
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Red Card to Child Labour!
Projects
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Child labour and supply chains
CLEAR Supply Chains
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FPRW in Supply Chains
RISE for Impact in the cotton supply chains
![GALAB project card](/https/www.ilo.org/sites/default/files/styles/cards_3_desktop/public/2024-04/GALAB%20project%20card.png.webp?itok=1qZZOO4P)
Child labour and forced labour
Global Accelerator Lab (GALAB)
International Labour Standards on 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.
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.
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.
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.