Child labor is recognized today as a problem that affects countries around the world. The International Labor Organization (ILO) estimated that there were some 211 million children between the ages of 5 and 14 in economic activity in the world in 2000.¹

1. Why do children work?

Child labor is generally the result of a combination of factors. The most frequently cited cause, however, is poverty. Children often work to provide for themselves or to help their families meet basic needs such as food and shelter. Families may suffer financial hardship because of adult unemployment, underemployment, low prevailing adult wages, or the death, illness, or injury of a parent or guardian. Child labor perpetuates poverty since children who work in lieu of going to school are generally more likely to earn a lower income in the future.²

An increase in the incidence of child labor may also be associated with the impact of a domestic or regional pandemic or economic shock. For example, in Africa, the rapid spread of HIV/AIDS has undermined the ability of many extended families to provide for children, leading to a rise in the number of child-headed households and of children engaged in various forms of child labor.³ The East Asian crisis, which began as a currency crisis in 1997, created economic hardship and led to a rise in adult unemployment, leaving many households less able to provide for their children.⁴ Natural disasters, such as Hurricane Mitch, which struck Central America in 1998, can also have a severe impact on households, exacerbating the child labor situation in a country or region.

Many children also work because they lack alternatives. Globally, an estimated 113 million children do not have access to primary education.⁵ Some lack access because schools are not available or are located too far from their homes. Costs of schooling that have to paid by the family—such as school fees or the cost of textbooks or required uniforms—can also place education beyond the reach of children from poor families.

As demonstrated by the country profiles in chapter 3 of this report, cultural factors may also restrict some children’s access to schooling. For example, in areas where girls are traditionally considered essential to the running of a household, parents may be reticent to send their daughters to school. Parents may also see little value in investing in a daughter’s education since they expect her to leave the family once she marries. Other family circumstances may make access to school particularly difficult for children. For example, children of migrant workers face unique obstacles to schooling because their families move seasonally in search of work.⁶

Another factor contributing to child labor is the demand for children’s work. Some employers may favor children for certain kinds of work—such as maneuvering through small mine spaces or harvesting plants that are low to the ground—because of their small size.⁷

2. What kinds of work do children do?

As the evidence presented in this report suggests, children engage in many types of work and are employed in many sectors. While child labor occurs in both urban and rural areas, evidence suggests that work participation rates for children are much higher in rural areas, where most children work in agriculture.⁸

In agriculture, children often work alongside their parents on commercial farms and plantations or in subsistence agriculture. In many cases, systems of pay, such as piece work in harvesting crops, encourage parents to rely on the labor of their children to increase family income. Children working in agriculture face many hazards. They are exposed to the elements, risk bites from snakes and insects, and in many instances, work without protective gear while wielding dangerous tools such as machetes and working in close proximity to harmful pesticides.⁹

Children are also employed in manufacturing, mining, quarrying, and services (e.g. in restaurants and hotels, and in wholesale and retail trades). In manufacturing, children are employed in making a variety of goods, including shoes, sporting goods, carpets, surgical instruments, bidis,¹⁰ matchsticks, glass bangles, and fireworks. They often work long hours for little pay, and under hazardous conditions. Many children work without any sort of protective clothing or gear, in workplaces that are poorly lit, inadequately ventilated, and generally unsafe.¹¹

Most children work in the unregulated “informal sector,” which is generally beyond the reach of the protection afforded by national laws on child labor.

Children work in mine shafts deep beneath the earth. They also break stones in quarries, fish off deep-sea platforms, and scavenge in garbage dumps. In the service sector, children are exploited as street vendors, porters, prostitutes, and domestic servants. Still, other children are exploited and abused at the hands of criminals who use them to smuggle illicit goods, or they are trafficked to be used for various forms of exploitative labor.¹²

Child labor does not affect all children uniformly. While boys are more likely to be employed in wage-earning jobs, girls work more often in the family home or as domestic servants in the homes of others, often without pay. The nature of such work often results in girls being undercounted in child labor statistics.¹³ Certain children may also face greater risks than others. Working children under the age of 12 years and working girls as being among the most vulnerable.¹⁴

3. How has the international community taken action to address child labor?

In 1992, the International Labor Organization launched the International Program on the Elimination of Child Labor (ILO-IPEC) with the aim of working towards the progressive elimination of child labor through strengthening countries’ capacity to address the problem and supporting a movement to address child labor worldwide.¹⁵ Since its inception, membership in ILO-IPEC has grown from 6 to 51 countries,¹⁶ and donor participation has grown from one country in 1991 to 25 countries in 2000.¹⁷ The United States has contributed funds to support ILO-IPEC since 1995. As of fiscal year (FY) 2001, the United States had contributed more than US$112 million to ILO-IPEC, making it the program’s largest donor.

In addition to USDOL-funded child labor programs conducted by ILO-IPEC, the United States has also funded child labor programs through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). These programs include activities intended to remove children from abusive child labor and to develop educational alternatives for these children and others at risk of abusive child labor.

The global campaign to address child labor has also involved the adoption of new international instruments that seek to address the most serious forms of child exploitation. In June 1998 at the 86th International Labor Conference, delegates adopted the ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work.¹⁸ Among other things, the declaration calls for the elimination of all forms of forced or compulsory labor and the effective abolition of child labor.¹⁹

One year later, in June 1999, delegates to the ILO’s 87 th International Labor Conference unanimously adopted ILO Convention No. 182 on the Worst Forms of Child Labor. Convention No. 182 built upon an earlier ILO convention, ILO Convention No. 138 on Minimum Age for Employment. Article 3 of Convention No. 182 identifies as among the worst forms of child labor all forms of slavery and practices similar to slavery; the use of children in activities such as prostitution, pornography, drug production and drug trafficking; and the employment of children in work likely to harm their health, safety or moral well-being.²⁰ The convention calls on ratifying countries to take immediate and effective measures to secure the prohibition and elimination of the worst forms of child labor as a matter of urgency. Article 7 of the convention further calls upon ratifying countries to take time-bound steps to ensure that children removed from the worst forms of child labor have access to basic education, and where appropriate, vocational training. Convention No. 182, which formally came into force on November 19, 2000, has become the most rapidly ratified convention in the ILO’s history. One hundred and fifteen countries had already ratified this convention by February 2002.²¹

On May 25, 2000, the United Nations General Assembly adopted two new optional protocols to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC).²² The Optional Protocol on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict calls for countries party to the protocol to “take all feasible measures to ensure that members of their armed forces who have not attained the age of 18 years do not take a direct part in hostilities” and “ensure that persons who have not attained the age of 18 years are not compulsorily recruited into their armed forces.”²³ The UNCRC Optional Protocol on the Sale of Children, Child Prostitution and Child Pornography calls on countries that are party to the protocol to prohibit the sale of children and their commercial sexual exploitation through prostitution or pornography.²⁴

In 2000, the United Nations General Assembly also adopted the Convention against Transnational Organized Crime and the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children. The protocol aims to prevent and combat trafficking in persons, especially women and children, and calls for protection and assistance for trafficking victims, and cooperation among ratifying states.²⁵ The protocol calls for countries party to the protocol, in applying its provisions, to take into account the “age, gender and special needs of victims of trafficking in persons, in particular the special needs of children, including appropriate housing, education and care.”²⁶ In addition, it calls for countries party to the protocol to “take or strengthen measures, including through bilateral or multilateral cooperation, to alleviate the factors that make persons, especially women and children, vulnerable to trafficking, such as poverty, underdevelopment and lack of equal opportunity.”²⁷

In October 2000, the United States enacted national legislation, the Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act of 2000 (H.R. 3244) to address the trafficking of persons for exploitative labor. This new legislation aims to provide assistance and protection to trafficking victims, with a special emphasis on women and children, both in the United States and abroad. The act also calls for actions aimed at prevention, including programs intended to keep children, especially girls, in elementary and secondary schools, and the development of educational curricula regarding the dangers of trafficking.²⁸

Initiatives that promote universal access to primary education for children have complemented the campaign to eliminate child labor. In April 2000, participants at the World Education Forum in Dakar reaffirmed the 1990 World Declaration Education for All initiative. Article 7 of the Dakar Framework for Action calls for:

…ensuring that by 2015 all children, particularly girls, children in difficult circumstances and those belonging to ethnic minorities, have access to and complete free and compulsory primary education of good quality...²⁹

The vision expressed in the Dakar framework focused on education as a fundamental human right of all children. The framework calls education “the key to sustainable development and peace and stability within and among countries.”³⁰

In addition to its support for efforts to combat child labor through ILO-IPEC, the U.S. Department of Labor provided grants in FY2001 and FY2002 to promote and enhance children’s access to quality education. This effort aimed to raise awareness about the importance of education for all children and mobilize a wide array of actors to improve and expand existing educational infrastructures. It also sought to strengthen formal and transitional education systems that encourage working children and those at risk of working to attend school, while working to enhance national capacity to ensure the long-term sustainability of these efforts.

¹ For an explanation of the distinction between the terms “economic activity” and “non-economic activity,” see Appendix A. Every Child Counts: New Global Estimates on Child Labour (Geneva, Switzerland: International Labour Office, 2002), 15 [hereinafter Every Child Counts.]

² See By the Sweat and Toil of Children: An Economic Consideration of Child Labor, vol. 6 (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Labor, 2000), 41-44 [hereinafter By the Sweat and Toil of Children, vol. 6].

³ For a general discussion, see Child Workers in the Shadow of AIDS: Listening to the Children (Nairobi, Kenya: UNICEF Eastern and Southern Regional Office, June 2001).

⁴ The East Asian Crisis began in mid-1997 as a currency crisis in Thailand, but its impact was also felt in countries such as Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia and the Republic of Korea. While debate continues about what kind of impact the crisis had on child labor in the region, some reports suggest that the child labor rose as a result of the crisis. See Human Development Report of Thailand 1999 (Bangkok: United Nations Development Program, 1999), 142-43.

⁵ See figures on Education for All cited in the Dakar Framework for Action adopted by delegates to the World Education Forum in Dakar, Senegal, in April 2000; see (www.unesco.org/education/efa/ ed_for_all/ dakfram_eng.shtml); cited October 1, 2001.

⁶ For a discussion of the link between child labor and education, see Good Practices in Action Against Child Labour: A Synthesis Report of Seven Country Studies, 1997-98, by Independent Researchers (Geneva: International Labor Organization, 2001), 69-70.

⁷ Christiaan Grootaert and Ravi Kanbur, “Child Labour: An Economic Perspective,” International Labour Review 134 (2) (1995): 195-96.

⁸ Survey evidence suggests that, on average, children in rural areas are twice as likely to participate in economic activities than children in urban areas. See Statistics on Working Children at Section II. For full text, see (www.ilo.org/public/english/standards/ipec/simpoc/stats/child/stats.htm); cited October 24, 2001.

⁹ See Statistics on Working Children and Valentina Forastieri, Children at Work: Health and Safety Risks (Geneva: International Labor Organization (ILO), 1997), 10.

¹⁰ The term bidi refers to small, hand-rolled cigarettes made primarily in South Asia.

¹¹ See Statistics on Working Children.

¹² See Statistics on Working Children; see also By the Sweat and Toil of Children: Efforts to Eliminate Child Labor, vol. 5 (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Labor, 1998), 22-35, for a detailed discussion of the types of work children do and the hazards they face in various sectors [hereinafter By the Sweat and Toil of Children, vol. 5].

¹³ See Statistics on Working Children; see also “Statistics: Revealing a Hidden Tragedy” (SIMPOC) (www.ilo.org/ public/english/standards/ipec/simpoc/stats/4stt.htm).

¹⁴ “IPEC at a Glance” (www.ilo.org/public/english/standards/ipec/about/implementation/ipec.htm) [hereinafter “IPEC at a Glance.”]

¹⁵ Ibid.

¹⁶ For a complete list of IPEC member countries, see (www.ilo.org/public/english/standards/ipec/ about/countries/t_country.htm).

¹⁷ For a full list of IPEC donor countries, see (www.ilo.org/public/english/standards/ipec/about/donors/ t_donor.htm).

¹⁸ For the full text of the declaration, see (www.ilo.org/public/english/standards/decl/declaration/ text/index.htm); cited October 24, 2001 [hereinafter Declaration].

¹⁹ Declaration at Section 2.

²⁰ International Labor Organization (ILO) Recommendation No. 190, which accompanies Convention No. 182 on the Worst Forms of Child Labor, provides further detail defining the worst forms of child labor.

²¹ In December 1999, the United States became one of the first countries to ratify the convention. See (http:// webfusion.ilo.org/public/db/standards/normes/appl/index.cfm?lang=EN); cited October 25, 2001.

²² Article 32 of this convention establishes the right of a child to be protected from economic exploitation and from performing any work that is likely to be hazardous, interfere with his or her education, or is harmful to his or her health or physical, mental, spiritual, moral, or social development. See Appendix F for the full text of the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

²³ For the full text of the protocol, see (http://www.unhchr.ch/html/menu2/6/protocolchild.htm); cited September 18, 2001.

²⁴ Where sale is defined as “any act or transaction whereby a child is transferred by any person or group for remuneration or any other consideration,” child prostitution as “the use of a child in sexual activities for remuneration or any other consideration,” and child pornography as “any representation, by whatever means, of a child in real or simulated explicit sexual activities or any representation of the sexual parts of a children for primarily sexual purposes”; see (www.unhchr.ch/html/ menu2/dopchild.htm); cited September 18, 2001.

²⁵ According to the protocol, the “recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring or receipt of a child for the purpose of exploitation” shall be considered trafficking even if the circumstances did not involve “threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception.” See Section I, Article 3, points c and d of the protocol. For the full text of the protocol, see (www.uncjin.org/Documents/Conventions/dcatoc/ final_documents_2/convention_ traff_eng.pdf); cited September 19, 2001.

²⁶ Ibid. at Section II, Article 6, point 4, of the protocol.

²⁷ Ibid. at Section III, Article 9, point 4, of the protocol. For the full text of the protocol, see (www.uncjin.org/ Documents/Conventions/dcatoc/final_documents_2/convention_%20traff_eng.pdf); cited September 19, 2001.

²⁸ See H.R. 3244, “Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000,” 106 th Congress.

²⁹ For the full text of the Dakar Framework for Action adopted by the World Education Forum in Dakar, Senegal, in April 2000, see (www.unesco.org/education/efa/ed_for_all/dakfram_eng.shtml).

³⁰ Ibid.