Children in the world of work: eradicating harmful child labour
- Author(s):
- Parliamentary Assembly
- Origin
- Text
adopted by the Standing Committee, acting on behalf of
the Assembly, on 24 May 2024 (see Doc. 15982, report of the Committee on Social Affairs, Health and
Sustainable Development, rapporteur: Ms Eka Sepashvili). See
also Recommendation 2276
(2024).
1. As the 2025 deadline for achieving
Target 8.7 on ending modern slavery, human trafficking and child labour
of the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and
the European Union’s corollary commitment to ending child labour
in all its forms approaches, the latest figures show a worsening
global situation, exacerbated by the impact of recent socio-economic
crises, the Covid-19 pandemic and armed conflicts. The elimination
of harmful child labour has become an important and urgent priority
for the international community, which must be addressed more effectively.
The Council of Europe member States must contribute to the global
action in this area.
2. The International Labour Organization (ILO) defines child
labour as “work that deprives children [any person under 18] of
their childhood, their potential and their dignity, and that is
harmful to physical and mental development”. The worst forms of
child labour include all forms of slavery, sale and trafficking
of children, the recruitment and use of child soldiers, and the
use of a child for prostitution, the production of pornography or unlawful
activities such as drug trafficking.
3. The Parliamentary Assembly deplores the fact that, according
to the ILO, worldwide 79 million children aged 5 to 17 years are
working in hazardous conditions in agriculture, manufacturing, hotels,
restaurants and domestic services. Alarmingly, this includes about
3.3 million children trapped in forced labour. In 2020, around 3.6
million children were employed in Europe, with half of them in hazardous
work. While data collection on the scale of children in work and
on their situation needs to be improved at international and national
levels, it is clear that for a large number of children working
in unsafe or insalubrious conditions, and certainly for those in forced
labour situations, there are adverse effects on their physical and
mental development.
4. The Assembly notes that children and adolescents are more
vulnerable to hazards than adults, in particular in the context
of work: they face a greater risk of exposure to certain diseases
and toxic substances, injury, permanent disability, psychological
damage and death, while being less aware of risks than adults and less
capable of making informed judgments due to their lack of knowledge
and experience.
5. The Assembly recalls that child labour has multiple root causes
(such as poverty, unemployment of parents, insufficient educational
opportunities, migration, traditional or cultural habits, employers’
demand for cheap labour and income inequalities) and consequences
(notably impacts on mental and physical health, capacity to complete
a normal educational path and develop a skills base conducive to
better paid and more secure jobs and higher social status) which
require the sustained and holistic attention of member States.
6. The Assembly refers to the existing international and European
legal instruments that set the regulatory framework for States to
follow in order to protect children’s well-being and eradicate harmful
child labour. It highlights in this context the importance, for
the global action, of two legal instruments that have been ratified by
all States: the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child
(except by the United States of America) and the ILO Convention
on the Worst Forms of Child Labour (Convention No. 182).
7. At the European level, several Council of Europe instruments
provide a protective legal framework for children. These include
the European Social Charter (ETS Nos. 35 and 163 (revised), notably
Article 7 requiring States Parties “to provide that the minimum
age of admission to employment shall be 15 years, subject to exceptions
for children employed in prescribed light work without harm to their
health, morals or education”), the European Convention on Human
Rights (ETS No. 5, Article 4 banning slavery and servitude), the
Council of Europe Convention on the Protection of Children against
Sexual Exploitation and Sexual Abuse (CETS No. 201, Lanzarote Convention),
the Convention on Cybercrime (ETS No. 185, Budapest Convention), the
Council of Europe Convention on Action against Trafficking in Human
Beings (CETS No. 197) and the Council of Europe Strategy for the
Rights of the Child (2022-2027).
8. The Assembly welcomes the European Union’s commitment to eradicate
child labour through the European Union Action Plan on Human Rights
and Democracy, the EU Strategy on the Rights of the Child (2021-2024),
the European Child Guarantee and the new legal initiatives aimed
at ensuring corporate sustainability due diligence through trade.
The European Union action plan supports free and easily accessible compulsory
education for children until they reach the minimum age for work,
while extending social welfare programmes to help lift families
out of poverty in line with the United Nations Sustainable Development
Goals. The EU Strategy on the Rights of the Child envisages a set
of key actions such as dedicating 10% of overall funding under the
Neighbourhood, Development and International Cooperation Instrument
outside the European Union to education, technical assistance to
strengthen labour inspections systems for monitoring and enforcement
of child labour laws and working towards making global supply chains
of European Union companies free of child labour.
9. The Assembly also welcomes a series of national laws in European
countries that require enterprises to conduct due diligence to ensure
compliance with international conventions regarding human rights
and child labour in global supply chains. It believes that further
improvements in legislation may be needed to further secure conditions
of decent work, support lifelong learning and cover the new forms
of work resulting from technological progress and changes in the
labour market, in order to ensure an appropriate level of child protection
in the future.
10. The Assembly is concerned about the gaps between law and practice,
as well as the lack of attention to addressing the root causes of
child labour. It strongly supports the Durban Call to Action which
was adopted on 20 May 2022 at the 5th Global Conference on the Elimination
of Child Labour, and which sets out a comprehensive framework with
six commitment areas aimed at accelerating action to eradicate child
labour. This framework lays out a multistakeholder approach to promoting
decent work for adults and young persons above the minimum age of
work, policy reforms to prevent and eliminate the worst forms of
child labour and human trafficking, efforts to end child labour
in agriculture, effective protection of the right of children to education,
universal access to social protection and stronger international
co-operation to enforce laws against child labour and forced labour.
11. The Assembly underscores the pivotal role of public authorities
in ensuring effective collective action with a view to ending child
labour in all its forms by 2025 and calls on the Council of Europe
member and observer States and States whose parliaments enjoy observer
or partner for democracy status with the Assembly to:
11.1 put in place national action
plans for the elimination of child labour in general and harmful
child labour in particular;
11.2 implement measures proposed in the Durban Call to Action
on the Elimination of Child Labour, adopted in May 2022, by involving
all relevant national stakeholders (employers, trade unions, governmental
agencies, parliaments, local authorities, community groups, schools,
media, non-governmental organisations, faith-based organisations)
and engaging in international co-operation;
11.3 clarify and strengthen the responsibilities and obligations
of enterprises for ensuring respect for human rights and effectively
eliminating child labour in global supply chains and public procurement,
in accordance with the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business
and Human Rights;
11.4 strengthen the implementation of national laws, regulations
and policies to eliminate child labour, in particular forced labour,
and to reduce the informal sector of economy by enhancing the capacity
of law-enforcement bodies, labour inspectorates and child protection
services to detect and eradicate harmful practices;
11.5 make full use of the Council of Europe legal instruments,
the European Union initiatives and the ILO conventions with a view
to eliminating forced labour and human trafficking;
11.6 address the root causes of child labour by ensuring adequate
social protection of children and their families or caregivers;
11.7 enhance aid for development aimed at capacity building
in developing countries to eliminate child labour and improve the
population’s access to social services and benefits;
11.8 improve data collection and conduct research on emerging
patterns of child labour for better informed policies and decisions.
12. The Assembly calls on national parliaments to monitor the
implementation of national measures to eradicate child labour, in
particular the worst forms of child labour, and to hold governments
to account for their commitment to achieve Target 8.7 on modern
slavery, trafficking and child labour of the United Nations 2030 Agenda
for Sustainable Development by 2025.
