International Labour Organisation
What is child labour
Considerable differences exist between the many kinds of work
children do. Some are difficult and demanding, others are more hazardous
and even morally reprehensible. Children carry out a very wide range of
tasks and activities when they work.
Defining child labour
Not all work done by children should be classified as child labour
that is to be targeted for elimination. Children’s or adolescents’
participation in work that does not affect their health and personal
development or interfere with their schooling, is generally regarded as
being something positive. This includes activities such as helping their
parents around the home, assisting in a family business or earning
pocket money outside school hours and during school holidays. These
kinds of activities contribute to children’s development and to the
welfare of their families; they provide them with skills and experience,
and help to prepare them to be productive members of society during
their adult life.
The term “child labour” is often defined as work that deprives
children of their childhood, their potential and their dignity, and that
is harmful to physical and mental development.
It refers to work that:
- is mentally, physically, socially or morally dangerous and harmful to children; and
- interferes with their schooling by:
- depriving them of the opportunity to attend school;
- obliging them to leave school prematurely; or
- requiring them to attempt to combine school attendance with excessively long and heavy work.
In its most extreme forms, child labour involves children being enslaved, separated from their families, exposed to serious hazards and illnesses and/or left to fend for themselves on the streets of large cities – often at a very early age. Whether or not particular forms of “work” can be called “child labour” depends on the child’s age, the type and hours of work performed, the conditions under which it is performed and the objectives pursued by individual countries. The answer varies from country to country, as well as among sectors within countries.
The worst forms of child labour
Whilst child labour takes many different forms, a priority is to
eliminate without delay the worst forms of child labour as defined by
Article 3 of ILO Convention No. 182:
(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 circumstances in which it is
carried out, is likely to harm the health, safety or morals of children.
Labour that jeopardises the physical, mental or moral well-being of a
child, either because of its nature or because of the conditions in
which it is carried out, is known as “hazardous work”.
children working long hours, using dangerous items such as machetes really worth the end result???? The next time you are eating chocolate think about where its manufacture started and how may children are being abused to provide us with this luxury item. We also have a part to play in ending child labour, if chocolate bars came with a warning "child labour has been used to manufacture this product" or "chocolate plays a part in child labour" with images of children would we still buy it, want it or feel we need it!!