Child Labour - The new ILO Convention    

The International Labour Organisation (ILO) is presently discussing a new convention on child labour to address the most intolerable forms of child labour in an ILO Conference which is currently under way at   Geneva (June 2-18, 1998). The members of the ILO will examine the Recommendations of the Sub-Committee on child labour and the Agenda for Action document which is an end product of two International Meetings (Amsterdam, February 1997 and Oslo, September 1997) and three Regional Conferences (Brasilia, Lahore and Pretoria) and many national consultations. 

Here, we present the views of The Concerned for Working Children on the proposed Convention.

Can the drafters of the new Convention guarantee that this Convention will not 

• Harm the children they set out to help and reduce their quality of life

• Ignore the views and concerns of working children

• Solve only the symptoms

• Allow strategies that are single pointed or simplistic

• Exclude working children from participating in decision making processes and structures

• Ignore the right of working children to organise themselves

• set up monitoring mechanisms that only monitor the extent to which sectors or industries are free of child workers

We would welcome a Convention that will:  

• Improve the quality of life of working children

• Take working children's views and concerns into consideration

• Solve the basic causes of child labour

• Ensure that strategies are comprehensive, sustainable, viable and appropriate

• Set up mandatory monitoring mechanisms that will ensure that strategies will address all the above

Implications of the New ILO Convention on Child Labour    

There is no need for a new instrument. The ILO Convention 138 (Minimum Wage Convention adopted by the ILO in 1973) aspires to address a fairly wide group of working children and includes working children who will be excluded by the proposed new instrument. The Convention 138 has been ratified by the least number of countries. This is because it aspires to do too much all at once. This can be easily rectified by developing a practical and focused action plan for phased implementation giving countries the option to choose their scope and areas of intervention. All Conventions so far have paid very little heed to the strategies and this is the gap that needs to be urgently filled. Any new Convention, no matter how narrow or focused the area of intervention may be, will fail if sufficient attention is not paid to the operational aspects.    

What is really needed is to make the ILO convention 138 effective with a focussed strategy coupled with an viable and holistic action plan. Added to this, If mechanisms to implement and monitor the action plan are developed and set in motion, the Convention 138 has the potential to be an effective tool to address the problems of child workers.    

The discussions around the new instrument has provided the ILO and other social actors with an opportunity to reopen the debate on child labour and to re-examine the issue of child labour from a child centered perspective. This perspective can be understood and appreciated only if representatives of working children's organisations, working children, their communities and NGOs play an active role in the formulation and monitoring of the strategy and its action plans.    

While everyone is in agreement with the view that working children in the most exploitative situations need urgent attention, it is important to point out that the ILO 138 can accommodate this emphasis.    

Further, a strategy which aims only to 'suppress immediate forms of child labour' or address only 'the manifestation of a complex social injustice' cannot be effective.    

A comprehensive strategy has to be designed to address basic causes which create and perpetuate child labour. It has to, simultaneously, emphasise the need for creating viable and sustainable alternatives for children and their families. An action plan that identifies a set of specific interventions that will have an impact on the basic causes of child labour and create alternatives which improve the quality of life of child workers, their families and their communities, will have a spin-off effect on working children outside the target group as well.    

All processes to address the concerns of child workers involving interacting agency should encourage cooperation and coordination, and must recognise organisations of working children, working children and NGOs as important actors. This point received special mention in the Amsterdam Child Labour Conference.    

National Programmes of Action   

The ILO should, vis-a-vis its Convention 138 enable member states to immediately address basic causes leading to all forms of child work, with a special and immediate emphasis on those sectors listed in this section. This emphasis is crucial as the text of the Convention 138 does not make it mandatory for its parties to address the causes which create and perpetuate child labour.   

The ILO should have consultations with working children, both organised and unorganised working children (where organisations do not exist) as they are the `workers concerned' in the truest sense. The process and methodology by which such consultations with child workers have to be carried out should be included in the action plan of the Convention 138.    

The ILO should have more broad based and long term concerns than 'immediate direct assistance' to working children. It should go beyond the child, to cover the concerns of the family and the community. It should deal with the basic causes which effect not only the working children but also their families and communities. Only if these are effectively addressed, can it prevent children from entering and returning to any form of harmful work.   

Supervision and enforcement 

The authority to ensure implementation and monitoring of relevant instruments should be decentralised and vested with local authorities/governments. Local Task Forces should be formed to monitor the implementation of the intervention and these should mandatorily include working children and NGOs. Such a body should be primarily concerned with monitoring and evaluating the short and long term impact on the working children themselves.    

The framework of any national policy should be prepared in consultation with all concerned actors - including working children themselves. It should be flexible, diverse and be local specific. It should aim at not just 'eliminating' extreme forms of child labour but also to create viable alternatives.    

Working children are an integral part of the society and there is no need to 'socially integrate them'. Such assumptions are detrimental to any work with and for working children.    

All strategies should place special emphasis, not only on the problems of girls but also of all marginalised groups including backwards castes and tribes.   

International Cooperation and Assistance

Parties who have ratified the Conventions 138 and the Convention on the Rights of the Child should not limit their commitment to offering cooperation and assistance to  the concerned countries. Child labour is not just a national problem, but a global one - also caused by global pressures and trends. Countries should ensure that their actions and decisions regarding their national and international policies have a direct positive consequence on child workers around the world. Consequently they should be made to take responsibility and be accountable for actions which may directly or indirectly impact on child workers nationally and internationally.   

Special problems 

International instruments should remain sensitive to the diversities at national and local levels and should be flexible in nature.   

The following concerns should be central to any action which aspires to improve the quality of life of working children and these concerns cannot be compromised: 

1. All actions should be child centered and in the best interest of working children. Interventions should have a positive short term and long term effect on the children themselves first and foremost.

2. All interventions should improve the quality of life of the children, their families and their communities.

3. Organised representation of working children and their protagonism has to be recognised and respected. No decisions or actions which have an impact on working children should be taken without consulting them.

4. The immediate and long term impact of all actions on 'working children' have to be monitored and assessed. It should be mandatory that such mechanisms are set up before any intervention is implemented and these should mandatorily include working children and NGOs. 

With a focussed approach and comprehensive strategic planning, the Convention 138 canwould be an effective tool. However, the Convention 138 does not include the strategy to accomplish what the instrument sets out to do. It does not, at the moment place adequate emphasis on 'meeting the needs of the child' and on identifying the 'best interests of the child from a child centered perspective'.    

Conventions should take great care not to use language that is against children. Working children have strongly criticised the use of terms like abolish, suppress, denounce (child labour) which seem to attack working children instead of the reasons they are forced to work.    

Convention 138 should include a detailed strategy which will go beyond the child to encompass the child's family and community and create viable and sustainable alternatives.    

The tripartite structure of the ILO is inadequate to address the issue of child labour. Organisations of working children and NGOs have to be identified as partners in this process. The strategy should include the mechanisms by which such a partnership can function most effectively. It should also emphasize monitoring the immediate and long term impact of all instruments and interventions on working children themselves. 

Suggestions given by CWC to the Organisers of  the Global March: 

Working children know their situation best, they understand the nature of their humiliation and oppression, they recognise what enables their growth, development and empowerment. They know what needs to be changed and very often, what needs to be done to change them. The fact that some children other than working children are and can be concerned about child workers is appreciated and their solidarity is welcomed. However, the emphasis of the Global March should be on the participation of working children in its planning and in its collective voice.    

For working children, the right to be heard is even more immediate. Though protagonism - the right to mobilise and organise in order to improve or better one's situation - is a universally recognised fundamental right, when it comes to working children, this right is questioned. We need to to give recognition and legitimacy to Movements and Organisations of working children as it is given to adult workers' Movements which mandates representatives to speak on their behalf.   

Past experience has shown that working children and their views have been misrepresented and tokenism is often practiced instead of true participation.    

Shifting the emphasis of our collective concerns from the child labour issue to the best interest of child workers will make a very significant difference to the content and nature of actions which follow.   

Issues that are pertinent 

1. Working children's participation/protagonism

2. Convention in the absence of strategy:     The extent of ratification of a Convention is no guarantee of its successful implementation or of  its positive impact on the group it addresses.   If we are serious about solving the problems of children who work,  the formulation of strategies that are appropriate, viable, comprehensive and sustainable is crucial. The 'at least we are doing something' argument does not hold good any more. We have to be more accountable and professional in our approach. There are successful interventions that have proved that it is possible to solve the causes of child labour and create conditions where children do not have to and do not work. We should learn from these examples and find ways of up-scaling them effectively.

3. Monitoring mechanism to measure impact on children: We seem to be more concerned of the consumer and insist on strict monitoring to ensure that the product is child labour free, we are concerned if the industry is child labour free and wish to monitor that. However we seem to be least concerned about the child and the impact our interventions may have on her/him.

4. NGOs need to redefine their role within the present scenario of development. The problem of child labour cannot be solved by the NGO sector. The responsibility has to be shared by all the major actors. The NGO community therefore needs to redefine its role as one who participates in the development of policy and strategy, imparts skills and information to those who are implementing strategy and action plans, empowers working children and their communities to effectively participate in the planning, implementation and monitoring process and documents the impact of strategies on children and their communities.

5. The impact of the new ILO Convention:

ILO Questionnaire - CWC's response

The International Save the Children Alliance Position on the Proposed ILO Convention on the most intolerable forms of child labour 

The International Save the Children Alliance consists of 25 organizations working for children's rights in over 100 countries and engages systematically with child labour issues through project work, research and advocacy. Save the Children's position on child labour is based on the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC). In particular, It draws on Article 32, which recognises children's right to protection from economic exploitation and from hazardous and harmful work, and on Article 3 which mandates that all action affecting children must promote their best interests. 

The causes of child labour are many and complex and eliminating all forms of harmful child labour will no doubtedly be a long-term endeavor. Save the children therefore wholeheartedly endorses ILO's renewed focus on the most hazardous and exploitative forms of work. Save the children believes it is essential that the new Convention on Extreme forms of Child labour complements and does not undermine the existing Minimum Age Convention (138) or the forced Labour. 

Hazardous and exploitative child labour is primarily a social development issue, and one which requires the mobliisation of political will at all levels of society. Save the Children recognises that the primary role of the new Convention would be to create a legal frame work to address the worst abuses. For maximum impact, this must be balanced with a developmental approach which commits resources and action to addressing root causes such as poverty and the provision of alternatives for working children. 

1. Save the children believes that the following should be part of the binding provisions of the Convention: 

Promoting the best interests of working children in the short and long term should be the guiding principle for this Convention. This could be explicitly stated in the Convention text, for example in 11(2).   

Viable alternatives for working children. To prevent children merely switching between sectors of work, programs which provide sustainable economic alternatives for children and families, as well as ensuring their access to education and training (14c) are essential. 

Taking account of the views of working children and NGOs. In order to identify accurately hazardous and exploitative child labour (10) and to draw up effective national programs of action ((14)(2)) views of working children, and of NGOs, concerned with child labour issues should be considered with those of other stakeholders. This is particularly critical for the informal sector, where organisations of adult workers may not exist. 

National programmes of action (14). Developing national programs of action to prevent the involvement of children in hazardous and exploitative work, and to assist those how have been removed from such work should be an obligation of member states upon ratification. Good quality, relevant education for all children which equips them with skills for the future should be an essential component of such programs. 

Monitoring and Reporting (16 ,17). The issues to be reported to the International Labour Office should include an assessment of the effectiveness of measures taken in creating genuine improvements in working children lives. All relevant and competent actors in formal and informal sectors at both national and local level should be part of this monitoring mechanism. 

2) Save the children also believes that: 

Criminal penalties s (11 and 22) should be applied to employers of children in intolerable conditions, rather than to working children or their families penalising children or families may simply serve to push children into more invisible and potentially more harmful areas of work. Short and long term measures. Effective programs to remove children from harmful work and to provide viable alternatives require considerable resources. Financial and technical assistance to develop such programs in the short term, and sustainable solutions which address root causes in the longer term should therefore be an important part of international development cooperation on child labour. 

Speech by Deepak Shukla on behalf of NGO forum of Working children to Ministerial Meeting at International Conference on Child Labour, Oslo, 30 October 1997 

Respected Ministers from all over the world and other distinguished delegates,

My name is Deepak from Bal Mazdoor Sangh, Delhi, India. I am here representing the NGO forum for Working children. The forum consists of 21 working children from movements and organisations in Latin America, Africa and Asia. We have been discussing together for the last eight days and I am presenting the results of our discussions.  

We have shared our realities as working children. We have discussed issues such as social mobilisation, education, most intolerable forms of child labour and child participation. Our realities are very different  and therefore we have different points of view. But, as my friend Kumar from Nepal says. 

"If you think of a grapevine, the objective is to get the fruit. But there are different ways to get the fruit. some of us will climb up a ladder and grab it. Some make it fall down with a stick and some of us wait until the fruit falls down. Still the objective is the same - that is to get the fruit. Just as our common goal is that working children have a better life "

And what, for all of us, is very important, is that our right to participate is respected. 

Why? 
Because everyone can learn from each other. Children learn from children, children learn from adults and adults can also learn from children. 

Where ? 
We want to be consulted: 
- in all meetings and conferences concerning working children and indeed in all meetings and conferences concerning all children. In the process of making legislation we think that children should be involved at all levels - local, national, regional, international. In the CRC committee, when there are violations of children's rights, the government and national organisations can report these violations. But what we want is that organisations of working children should also be able to directly report to this committee and demand that action be taken. 

How? 
Participation should not be limited in number. It should be on an equal level with that of adults. 

We therefore ask this conference: please do not only listen to us and then forget about us, but take action based on what we say. We should also like to request governments to give financial and moral support to meetings of children, for official recognition of child participation at all levels and also for recognition of our organisations and movements.  

Thank you very much listening for us. We hope that you will really think and act upon what we have said.

Excerpts from: Workers' Representative Statement by Mr. Noonan at the International Child Labour Conference at Oslo, Norway 

The trade union movement is committed to work together with others to stop the vast and growing flow of children into work, and to removal and rehabilitation of today's child labourers. We owe this to them and to the children of the future. For if we pass into the next millennium without taking action, all of us, giving the highest priority to the most intolerable forms, the intellectual community will be guilty of betrayal-betrayal of the most vulnerable in our societies. 

Trade unions focus on this problem in a developmental context, a social and political context, and in the context of industry and the workplace. 

Eliminating child labour, getting all children into school, is an essential step in economic and social development and the eradication of poverty. All of us, especially governments and the international institutions, must support and invest in education and social programmes for a better world. 

Child labour has its roots in political apathy, greed, and tolerance of the exploitation of children. It happens because it is allowed to happen, because political and economic elites don't care, or worse because they profit from it. Political action and broad social mobilisation are prerequisites for ending child labour, and we will continue to play our part in this, and to intensify our efforts despite the efforts of some who seek to limit our involvement. 

Perhaps our greatest concern is that the advent of the much vaunted global economy and the economic orthodoxy of the day are fuelling child labour, not stopping it. Together we have to turn this around. 

Today, enormously powerful interests are profiting from child labour, locally and globally. And they are getting away with it. This is intolerable. Millions more children are working in the fields and the streets, struggling to survive, denied the access to education. This is intolerable. The challenge is to immediately tackle the most intolerable forms of child labour while extending the provision of education, labour inspection and social services to all. 

In this respect, we welcome the major new commitments announced by some donor governments here, notably that of the host country, Norway. We also welcome the initiatives taken at local and National levels in certain developing countries to ensure free and universal education, which is bringing valuable results. The Trade Union Movement looks forward to actively participating in the setting of the new ILO standards in the ILO's tripartite fora and continuing involvement in the ILO's IPEC. We have already commenced our discussions with the other social partners and also with NGO's in further developing our position for standard setting process. 

Our key objectives are to ensure that the new Convention and Recommendation supplement and build upon existing ILO instruments — the new standards must do something positive and new, giving immediate priority to the most intolerable forms and reinforcing the importance of education. They should also express the intolerable nature of economic exploitations of children exploitation for profit,   and place all this in the context of overall efforts to end all child labour. 

But Conventions and laws are not in themselves enough. They must be supplemented by broad movements, involving employers organisations, workers' organisations, governments and NGOs, and further by social and economic programmes and by fair, multilateral global rules and initiatives in the private sector. 

Excerpts from: The NGO statement made by Mr. Rakesh Rajani, Kuleana Centre for Children's Rights, Tanzania, at the International Conference on Child Labour Oslo, 1997 

We congratulate the Norwegian Government, UNICEF and ILO in their efforts to put an end to all economic exploitation of children. We support this important process, and wish to make the following statement that has been elaborated through a process of consultation with a number of NGOs represented at this conference. 

1. This conference has demonstrated the importance of broad partnerships to end economic exploitation of children. We can only makes progress if we join forces, build alliances and move together in a concerted fashion. We are pleased to see that governments and intergovernmental organisations have stated their clear commitment as expressed in the Agenda for Action. We express an equally clear commitment of NGOs to join the efforts to implement a broad based multiple strategic approach, and carry forward the momentum created at this conferences. 

2. All action on child labour should aim at genuine improvements in the lives of working children and their families, as well as eliminating the need for current and future generations of children to work. 

We are committed to placing the best interests of children at the centre of our child labour policies and programmes, as required by the Convention on the Rights of the child. Our actions should be guided by Article 32 which articulates the need to effectively protect children from economic exploitation and from performing any work that is likely to be hazardous or to interfere with the child's education, or to be harmful to the child's health or physical, mental, spiritual, moral or social development (Article 32.1). We need to work tirelessly to create a world in which children are not exposed to this sort of exploitation. 

3. All action to address child labour must be carefully planned, implemented and monitored in order to obtain the intended impact for the children concerned. 

We must work together to conduct research and collect information to gain a better understanding of economic exploitation of children. We must also monitor and carefully evaluate the impact of measures taken, particularly on the quality of life of children and their families. For this we need to develop specific monitoring mechanism. In this context it is vital to ensure our actions are child focused, accountable and guided by the principle of the best interest of child. 

4. For policies and programmes on child labour to be effective, working children and their families should be actively involved. Many well-intended measures have backfired because working children and their families were not consulted and plans did not take into account the reality of their lives Thus, it is essential to consult with working children and their families, who know their situations best. Article 12 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, calls for the active participation of children in all matters concerning them. Thus does not mean that we must necessarily agree with children's views. Rather, it requires children's voices, including those of working children, be seriously considered in all decisions and actions regarding child labour. 

5. Good quality relevant universal primary education is the right of every child. We wholeheartedly support the Agenda for Action's goal of ensuring access to quality, relevant and free primary education for all children, irrespective of whether they are working or not. Education can play an important role in improving children's present and future livelihoods. However, education should not be seen as the only means of eliminating child labour. Rather the establishment of free and compulsory education should take place within a broader framework that addresses the root causes of child labour, such as poverty, inequality and the low status of children. Children will continue to work unless their and their families basic survival needs are effectively assured. 

6.The implementation of the Agenda for Action can only be obtained if the necessary resources are made available at national and international levels. Failing to do so can reduce the Agenda to a level of meaningless, empty rhetoric, and condemn millions of children to a life of unnecessary exploitation. Therefore, it is imperative that governments live up to their commitment to provide 0.7& of GNP for overall official development assistance, and for both donor and developing countries to follow the 20/20 principle. The commitment of the Norwegian government to provide 200 million kroners for child labour programs in the next 3 years, and to increase international development assistance to 1% of GNP, is an outstanding development, that needs to be emulated by others. Civil society also has a role in ensuring resources, not least by its enormous potential of mobilising committed citizens. 

We have achieved a lot at this conference, and in the processes leading up to this meeting. Now the challenge is to move forward with action, to make sure our commitments translate into practice that will make a real difference in the lives of children and families. This is why we need specific and clear strategies, including clear specification of responsibilities at all levels, to implement the Agenda for Action.

Excerpts from the STATEMENT by Mr. Ashraf Tabani, Employers' delegate to the Political Session of the International Conference on Child Labour Oslo, 1997 

At the very outset, it needs to be stressed that the phenomenon of child labour is, as a participant put it, "the outcome of the desperate economic situation of families". Hence, it needs to be recognised, as the Prime Minister of Norway reminded us yesterday, that no policies or programmes to eliminate child labour can succeed unless they address the fundamental cause of the situation, which is rooted in poverty. It goes without saying, therefore, that the basic prerequisite in formulating effective strategy to abolish child labour must have as its foundation policies that promote sustained economic growth and social development. 

You have also pointed out Madam Minister that "no single actor will be able to solve the complex child labour problem alone, nor is there a single clearly defined means of achieving lasting results". As one of the actors, the employer community stands firmly committed to playing a proactive role, along with with its social partners, to work towards the long-term goal of the total abolition of child labour. In this context, I would like to mentioned that, at its General Council in June 1996, the International Organisation of Employers (IOE), which represents 122 national employers' organisations from 120 countries, adopted a Resolution on child Labour, which called for the progressive elimination of child labour, beginning with its most intolerable forms. As a follow up to this Resolution, we are currently in the process of developing an Employer Handbook on Child Labour that will outline example of best practice and serve as a guide for employer action on the issue. In addition, employers' organisations in a number of countries are already working closely with IPEC to implemented action programmes with a view to improving to welfare of working children. Furthermore, apart from these initiatives, the employers will be playing an active part in the preparation of the new ILO Convention on combating the most intolerable forms of child labour in the coming year. 

In looking at various measurers to tackle the problem, there have been proposals to develop so-called codes of conduct or social labelling schemes. The employers believe that such ideas are misguided, particularly considering the controversy that surrounds them, and will only hurt the target group they are intended to assist, namely, the working children concerned. The well-known case of Bangladesh, where thousands of children in the garment industry were thrown out of work overnight in the face of a threatened boycott and ended up in a more miserable condition as a consequence, should serve as an example of the possible negative impact of measures such as boycotts, codes of conduct or labelling schemes. There is also the danger of them ending up in becoming non-tariff barriers to free trade. In any case, we believe that such measures are like "hacking at the leaves instead of striking at the root". 

As I have mentioned earlier, the effective solution to the problem will lie in sustained economic growth and social development. In this context, while the various actors of civil society will have to work in concert to achieve this objective, the primary responsibility lies, and will continue to lie, with governments. It would be pertinent, at this point, to take a look at the different areas and regions of the world where there is a prevalence of child labour. the picture, as you will agree, is rather distressing. In the countries concerned, there is either a complete breakdown of government in the wake of civil conflict, with the poor bearing the brunt of the consequences, or where there is a functioning government, poor governance has resulted in programmes and resources not reaching the poor. With economic and social development almost completely by passing them, the poor have no choice but to rely on their own resources, which, in many cases, means putting their children to work. 

It is, therefore, of paramount importance that governments acknowledge that they have a primary responsibility in the efforts to eliminate child labour. Governments must display the political will to address the fundamental causes of the problem, and allocate the necessary resources to create the socio-economic conditions that will make it unnecessary for poor families to put their children in employment. This implies the formulation of policies and programmes that will lead to productive investment in the areas where child labour exists, leading to the creation of job opportunities for adult family members, and the development of the necessary social infrastructure such as schools, skills development and vocational training institutions, apprenticeship schemes and health care that will facilitate the intellectual, moral, and physical development of the children. Here, I must compliment the ILO on the excellent work being done by IPEC, which, as confirmed by the Director-General of the ILO, is working actively in over 50 countries today, including my own. 

The elimination of child labour is a far from easy task and can be a daunting prospect for even the most tough-minded optimist. However, this should not deter us from our common goal of working with determination to take out children from the world of work and into the world of schools and the playing fields where they belong.