ILO approves new convention on child labour

Member states of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) on Thursday adopted a landmark treaty, the “Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention 1999”, aimed at saving children worldwide from the worst types of hazardous and exploitative work. ILO Director-General Juan Somavia said the ILO would immediately launch a campaign for the ratification of the treaty, which was adopted in Geneva at the ILO’s annual session. UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan described the convention as “a victory for children everywhere and especially for the tens of millions who are working, often in hazardous conditions, at an age when they should be at school”. “I trust that all States will ratify the Convention swiftly and act on it, so that children are truly protected from slavery, conscription, prostitution and other gross violations of their human rights,” he said in a statement. The new treaty, which will apply to all children under the age of 18, calls on countries to prohibit and eliminate “as a matter of urgency” the worst forms of child labour and exploitative practices - such as slavery, debt bondage and child prostitution - and bans the forced recruitment of child soldiers. The treaty also requires ratifying countries to provide support for removing children from dangerous labour and ensure access to education or vocational training and says the “special situation of girls” should be taken into account. According to ILO estimates, some 250 million children between 5 and 14 years of age work in developing countries, with about half working full time. Other ILO surveys show that 50 million to 60 million children between the ages of 5 and 11 worldwide work in hazardous circumstances. According to ILO’s most recent statistics, about 80 million of the roughly 250 million children who work in developing countries worldwide are in Africa. According to the ILO, the main suppliers of child labour in West Africa are Burkina Faso, Ghana, Mali and Togo and the principal recipients Congo, Cote d’Ivoire, Equatorial Guinea and Gabon. Benin and Nigeria fall into both categories. Africa has the highest proportion of working children aged 5 to 14: an estimated 41 percent, but percentages vary from country to country. In Ghana, for example, 13.3 percent of children aged are workers, as against 54.2 percent in Mali. [See IRIN background report on ‘Child Labour in West Africa’]