As a part of its double-discussion procedure, the ILO has prepared and distributed a questionnaire in September 1996 to all its state parties. In its document, the ILO specifically states that the Government will prepare its response `after consultations with most representative employer's and workers' organisations'. 

CWC examined the questionnaire sent by the ILO.  Here we present CWC's response to it. 

I. Form of the international instrument or instruments  
1. Should the International Labour Conference adopt a new instrument or instruments concerning the elimination of child labour?  
2. If so, should the instrument or instruments take the form of: 

• a Convention only? 
• a Recommendation only? 
• a Convention supplemented by a Recommendation? 

Response: 

We feel that there is really no need for a new instrument. The ILO Convention 138 aspires to address a fairly wide group of working children and includes working children who will be excluded by the proposed new instrument.  

We understand that the Convention 138 has been ratified by the least number of countries and this is because it aspires to do too much all at once. This can be easily ratified 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 about the new instrument has provided the ILO and other social actors with an opportunity to reopen the debate on child labour and to relook at the issue of child labour from a child centered perspective. This perspective can be understood and appreciated only if representatives of working children's organisation, working children, their communities and NGOs play an active role in the formulation and monitoring of the strategy and its action plans. 

II. Preamble to the instrument or instruments 

3. Should the Preamble consider that the effective abolition of child labour, which is the subject of the Minimum Age Convention, 1973, and the Minimum Age Convention, 1973, and the Minimum Age Recommendation, 1973, would be facilitated by the adoption of a new international instrument(s) aimed specifically at the immediate suppression of extreme forms of child labour? 

Response: 

As mentioned above, our opinion is that there is no need for a new ILO instrument to address the concerns of child workers. While we are in agreement with the view that working children in the most exploitative situations need urgent attention, and we wish 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 which create child labour and the 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. 

4. Should the Preamble note that provisions of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child and other relevant United Nations instruments?  

5. Should the Preamble refer to the activities carried out by the organs and specialised agencies of the United Nations and other intergovernmental organisations, such as those concerned with offenses against children, and to the need for interagency cooperation and coordination? 

Response: 

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

III. Content of a Convention 

6. Should the Convention apply to all children under the age of 18, consistent with other relevant international instruments? 

7. Should the Convention provide that each ratifying Member should suppress immediately all extreme forms of child labour including: 

• all forms of slavery or practices similar to slavery, sale and trafficking of children, forced or compulsory labour including debt bondage and serfdom? 
• the use, engagement or offering of a child for prostitution, production or pornography or pornographic performances, production of or trafficking in drugs or other illegal activities? 
• the use or engagement of children in any type of work which, by its nature or the circumstances in which it is carried out, is likely to jeopardies their health, safety, or morals?  

Response: 

We wish to state again that there is no requirement for a new ILO instrument. 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.  

8. Should the Convention provide that national laws or regulations or the competent authority should determine, after consultation with the organisations or employers and workers concerned, where such exist: (a) the types of work to be prohibited under question 7(c) above and (b) the conditions under which any such type of work may be performed by children as from the age of 16 years consistent with the provisions of Article 3, paragraph 3, of Convention No. 138? 

Response: 

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 has to be carried out should be included in the action plan of the Convention 138. 

9. 

• Should the Convention provide that all necessary measures should be taken to ensure the effective enforcement of the provisions of the Convention, including, as appropriate, the provision and strict enforcement of adequate criminal penalties? 
• Should the Convention provide that Members should take effective measures to prevent children from entering or returning to any form of child labour referred to in question 7 above and to provide them with necessary and appropriate direct assistance? 
• Should the Convention provide that Members should designate the competent authority or authorities responsible for the implementation of the provisions giving effect to the Convention? 
• Should the Convention provide that nationals laws or regulations or the competent authority should define the persons who should be responsible for compliance with the provisions giving effect to the Convention?

Response: 

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. 

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. 

10. Should the Convention encourage Members to assist each other in giving effect to the provisions of the Convention by means of international judicial and technical assistance or other types of cooperation? If so, which types? 

IV. Content of a Recommendation 

NATIONAL PROGRAMMES OF ACTION 

11. 

• Should the Recommendation provide that Members should, as appropriate, within the framework of a national policy for the elimination of child labour, design and implement national programmes of action to eliminate all extreme forms of child labour? 
• Should the Recommendation provide that such national programmes of action should be designed and implemented in consultation with relevant government institutions, employers and workers organisations, and other concerned groups? 

Response:    

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.   

12.  

Should the Recommendation provide that, as part of national programmes of action referred to in question 11 above, Members should promote and support programmes which:   

• identify and denounce all extreme forms of child labour?   
• prevent children from entering or returning to, and remove them from, all such forms of child labour; protect them from reprisals; provide them with direct assistance and services including education; provide, as appropriate, for their rehabilitation through measures which address their physical, emotional and pyschological needs; and provide for their social integration?
• inform, sensitise and mobilise public opinion and interested groups through targeted campaigns?
• identify and reach out to communities where children are at
•  
• 
  special risk in order to take preventive and remedial measures? 
• give special attention to children under age 12?
• take account of the special problems of girls?
• other? Please specify.

Response: 

Very little thought seems to have been given to this, the most crucial section. The interventions or groups mentioned under this question as (a) (b) (c) etc cannot operate in isolation. They should all be viewed as components of the same action plan which complement each other. 

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.

HAZARDOUS WORK

13.

Should the Recommendation provide that the determination of types of work to which question 7(c) above applies, should:

•  
• be made in consultation with the organisations of employers and workers concerned, where such exist, and, to the extent possible, with experts such as medical, child development, and occupational safety and health professionals?
• take full account of relevant international labour standards?
• take full account of the physical and psychosocial development of the child?
• be examined periodically and revised as necessary?

14. Should the Recommendation provide that the types of work to which question 7(c) above applies should include, among others, work:

•  
• which exposes children to physical, emotional or sexual abuse?
• which is done underground, under water, and at dangerous heights?
• with dangerous machinery, equipment and tools?
• in an unhealthy environment which may, for example, involve exposure to hazardous substances, agents and processes, or to extreme temperatures, noise levels, and vibrations?
• which is done under particularly difficult conditions such as for long hours, during the night, or without the possibility of returning home each day?
• other? Please specify.

INFORMATION

15. Should the Recommendation provide that detailed information and statistical data on the nature and extent of child labour, including data classified according to sex, age group, occupation, branch of economic activity and status in employment, should be compiled and kept up to date to serve as a basis for determining priorities for national action and designing national policies and programmes for the elimination of child labour?

16. Should the Recommendation provide that Member should compile and update relevant data concerning violations of the provisions of the Convention, including criminal offenses and their victims?

SUPERVISION AND ENFORCEMENT

17. Should the Recommendation provide that appropriate national machinery should be established to monitor provisions giving effect to the Convention?

18. Should the Recommendation provide that there be cooperation and coordination among competent authorities which have responsibilities for implementing provisions of the Convention and for enforcing applicable national laws and regulations?

19. Should the Recommendation provide that Member should, in giving effect to the provisions of the Convention, cooperate with international efforts to:

•  
• gather and exchange information concerning criminal offenses, including those involving international networks?
• detect and prosecute those involved in the sale and trafficking of children, child prostitution, child pornography and the use of children in illegal activities?
• register perpetrators of such offenses?

20. Should the Recommendation provide that national laws and regulations should consider the following as criminal offenses:

•  
• all forms of slavery or practices similar to bondage and serfdom; and (b) the use, engagement or offering of a child for prostitution, production of pornography or pornographic performances, production of or trafficking in drugs or other illegal activities? 

21. Should the Recommendation provide that national laws and regulations should also provide criminal penalties for serious and repeated violations of the prohibitions referred to in question 7(c) above?  

22. Should the Recommendation also provide for other measures to ensure the effective enforcement of the provisions of the Convention such as:

•  
• Providing compensation to the children affected to be paid by persons found guilty of violations?
• closing down establishments or suspending or revoking authorisations to operate?
• other? Please specify.

23. Should the Recommendation provide that other measures to eliminate all extreme forms of child labour should include the following:

•  
• informing and sensitising national and local political leaders, parliamentarians and the judiciary?
• involving employers' and workers' organisations as well as community and civic organisations?
• targeting inspection and enforcement measures on extreme forms of child labour?
• appropriate training for inspectors, law enforcement officials, public prosecutors, members of the judiciary, national and local government officials, health professionals, educators and other concerned individuals and organisations?
• adoption of laws allowing for the prosecution of those who commit offenses in a country other than their own in violation of the provisions giving effect to the Convention?
• simplication of legal and administrative procedures?
• arrangements for giving publicity to child labour provisions in relevant languages or dialects?
• as appropriate, establishment of special complaints procedures, help lines, and ombudspersons?
• other? Please specify.

INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION AND ASSISTANCE

24. Should the Recommendation provide that Members should cooperate and assist each other in eliminating child labour?

25. Should the Recommendation provide that cooperation andassistance could include:

•  
• mobilizing resources for national and international programmes for the elimination of child labour?
• exchanging information?
• other? Please specify.

Response:

Parties who have ratified the Conventions 138 and the Convention on the Rights of the Child should not limit their commitment to cooperate and assist 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 internationally.

SPECIAL PROBLEMS

26.

•  
• Are there any particularities of national law and practice, which, in your view, are liable to create difficulties in the practical application of an international instrument or instruments as conceived in this report?
• If so, how would you suggest that those difficulties be met?.

Response:

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

27. (Federal States only.) Do you consider that, in the event of a Convention being adopted, the subject-matter would be appropriate for federal action or, wholly or in part, for action by the constituent units of the federation

28. Are there, in your view, any other pertinent problems not covered by the present questionnaire which ought to be taken into consideration when the instrument or instruments are being drafted? If so, please specify.

Response:

As an organisation, we uphold the following concerns as central to any action which aspires to improve the quality of life of working children

•  
• 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.
• All interventions should improve the quality of life for the children their families and their communities.
• 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
• 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 and set up before any intervention is implemented

We wish to state again that there is no requirement for a new ILO instrument. We feel that with a focussed approach and comprehensive strategic planning the Convention 138 would 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 criticized 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 instrument and interventions on working children themselves.

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