Around the world, nearly 1 out of 10 children is subjected to child labour, which accounts for 152 million children across the globe.
Children are led to work for various reasons. Amongst these reasons, the most prevalent ones are the financial challenges caused by poverty and/or loss of a primary familial revenue. Nonetheless, child labour is the result of the conjugation of several conditions, such as: the condoning of social norms, lack of decent work opportunities for adults and adolescents, or migration.
The impact on children’s lives is immense and, most of the time, permanent. Child labour is harmful to a child’s physical, mental, social, and moral development, and, in extreme levels, can result in death. It can even lead to slavery or even sexual or economic exploitation. Moreover, in almost every case, it deprives the child of his/her education, health care and fundamental rights.
More specifically, migrant and refugee children who are fleeing from conflict zones are one of the most extreme cases, since they risk being forced into work and even trafficked. Children targeted by child trafficking can be subjected to violence, abuse or other human rights violations. In this regard, the threat of sexual exploitation is very prevalent in girls, while boys may be exploited by armed forces or groups.
According to Article 32 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, International Labour Organisation (ILO) Convention 182 on the Elimination of the Worst Forms of Child Labour, and ILO Convention 138 on the Minimum Age of Employment, every child has the right to be protected from economic exploitation and from performing any work that is likely to interfere with the child’s education or harm the child’s health. That is why the world committed to ending all forms of child labour by 2025, in the global Sustainable Development Goals (SGDs).
Fortunately, in the last two decades, we have seen 94 million fewer children falling victim to child labour, due to a social service workforce deployed by UNICEF that, together with ILO, identify and respond to potential situations of child labour. In addition, they also focus on birth registration to ensure that all children possess birth certificates that prove they are under the legal age to work. To address child trafficking, UNICEF works together with the United Nations and the European Union (EU) in 13 countries around the world to implement strategic national counter-trafficking and counter smuggling efforts through a prevention, protection, prosecution, and partnerships approach.
However, this accomplishment is now under threat, due to the pandemic of COVID-19 (just like past experience has shown with the 2015 Ebola epidemic), which will likely reverse the progress and make the global target to end child labour harder to achieve. The increase of children at risk of child labour on account of the pandemic would mean a rise in child labour for the first time since 2000.
The pandemic has increased economic insecurity, profoundly disrupted supply chains, and halted manufacturing. Tightening credit is constraining financial markets in many countries. Public budgets are straining to keep up. When these and other factors result in losses in household income, expectations that children should contribute financially can intensify. More children could be forced into exploitative and hazardous jobs. Those already working may do so for longer hours or under worsening conditions. Gender inequalities may grow more acute within families, with girls expected to perform additional household chores and agricultural work. Temporary school closures may exacerbate these tendencies, as households look for new ways to allocate children’s time.
To tackle this crisis, ILO marks the year of 2021 as the UN International Year for the Elimination of Child Labour to reinvigorate the efforts of ILO’s Flagship International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour and Forced Labour (IPEC+)These efforts require special attention to overcome the setbacks laid by the pandemic and to achieve the 2025 target to end child labour by 2025 (Goal 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth).
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