Effective abolition of child labour: Conventions Nos. 138 and 182

	Information on other international labour standards on child labour
	Full text of Convention No. 138
	Full text of Convention No. 182
	Analysis of the international legal framework for combatting child labour
	Learn more about the ILO's activities in this area

The ILO adopted its first Convention on child labour in 1919, the year of its foundation. Since then, nine sectoral Conventions on the minimum age of admission to employment were adopted. Two ILO Conventions on child labour are Fundamental

Minimum Age Convention, 1973 (No. 138)

The States that ratify this Convention undertake to pursue a national policy designed to ensure the effective abolition of child labour and to raise progressively the minimum age for admission to employment or work to a level consistent with the fullest physical and mental development of young persons. One of the principal means to be taken for this purpose is the prohibition of employment or work for children under the duly fixed minimum age.

The Convention sets a number of minimum ages depending on the type of employment or work. The first principle is that the minimum age should not be less than the age for completing compulsory schooling and in no event less than age 15. For countries whose economic and educational facilities are insufficiently developed, the age can be set initially at 14.

The second principle is that a higher minimum age should be set for hazardous work. This age may not be less than 18. The Convention provides that the types of employment or work deemed to be hazardous shall be determined by national laws or regulations or by the competent authority, leaving it to the individual countries to determine the content of these activities.

Finally, in the case of light work, the minimum age can be set at 13 years, or 12 years where the economy and educational facilities are insufficiently developed.

The Convention is supplemented by Recommendation No. 146.

Convention No. 138 was not intended as a static instrument prescribing a fixed minimum standard but as a dynamic one aimed at encouraging the progressive improvement of standards and of promoting sustained action to attain the objectives. The number of ratifications of this Convention has been growing since the beginning in May 1995 of the Director-General's initiative to achieve universal ratification of the ILO's fundamental Conventions, although it is still fewer than other fundamental Conventions.

Worst forms of child labour

The ILO member States took a decisive step towards liberating scores of millions of children from slavery and debt bondage, prostitution and pornography, dangerous work and forcible recruitment for armed conflict with the unanimous adoption of the Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention, 1999 (No. 182).

The Convention applies to all persons under the age of 18 and calls for "immediate and effective measures to secure the prohibition and elimination of the worst forms of child labour as a matter of urgency." It defines the worst forms of child labour as:

• all forms of slavery or practices similar to slavery, such as the sale and trafficking of children, debt bondage, serfdom and forced or compulsory labour;
• forced or compulsory recruitment of children for use in armed conflict;
• use of a child for prostitution, production of pornography or pornographic performances;
• use, procuring or offering of a child for illicit activities, in particular for the production and trafficking of drugs; and,
• work which is likely to harm the health, safety or morals of children.

An accompanying Recommendation defines "hazardous work" as "work which exposes children to physical, psychological or sexual abuse; work underground, under water, at dangerous heights or in confined spaces; work with dangerous machinery or tools, or which involves heavy loads; work in unhealthy environments which may expose children to hazardous substances, temperatures, noise or vibrations; and work under particularly difficult conditions such as long hours, during the night or where a child is confined to the premises of the employers." The Recommendation urges ratifying States to declare the worst forms of child labour criminal offences and impose penal sanctions on those who would perpetrate them.