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Worst
Forms of Child Labor Convention
WORST
FORMS OF CHILD LABOUR CONVENTION 1999
Having
been convened at Geneva by the Governing Body of the
International Labour Office, and having met in its 87th
Session on 1 June 1999, and
Considering
the need to adopt new instruments for the prohibition
and elimination of the worst forms of child labour, as
the main priority for national and international action,
including international cooperation and assistance, to
complement the Convention and Recommendation concerning
Minimum Age for Admission to Employment, 1973, which
remain fundamental instruments on child labour, and
Considering
that the effective elimination of the worst forms of
child labour requires immediate and comprehensive
action, taking into account the importance of free basic
education and the need to remove the children concerned
from all such work and to provide for their
rehabilitation and social integration while addressing
the needs of their families, and
Recalling
the resolution concerning the elimination of child
labour adopted by the International Labour Conference at
its 83rd Session in 1996, and
Recognizing
that child labour is to a great extent caused by poverty
and that the long-term solution lies in sustained
economic growth leading to social progress, in
particular poverty alleviation and universal education,
and
Recalling
the Convention on the Rights of the Child adopted by the
United Nations General Assembly on 20 November 1989, and
Recalling
the ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights
at Work and its Follow-up, adopted by the International
Labour Conference at its 86th Session in 1998, and
Recalling
that some of the worst forms of child labour are covered
by other international instruments, in particular the
Forced Labour Convention, 1930, and the United Nations
Supplementary Convention on the Abolition of Slavery,
the Slave Trade, and Institutions and Practices Similar
to Slavery, 1956, and
Having
decided upon the adoption of certain proposals with
regard to child labour, which is the fourth item on the
agenda of the session, and
Having
determined that these proposals shall take the form of
an international Convention;
adopts
this seventeenth day of June of the year one thousand
nine hundred and ninety-nine the following Convention,
which may be cited as the Worst Forms of Child Labour
Convention, 1999.
Article
1
Each
Member which ratifies this Convention shall take
immediate and effective measures to secure the
prohibition and elimination of the worst forms of child
labour as a matter of urgency.
Article
2
For
the purposes of this Convention, the term “child”
shall apply to all persons under the age of 18.
Article
3
For
the purposes of this Convention, the term “the worst
forms of child labour” comprises:
(a) all
forms of slavery or practices similar to slavery, such
as the sale and trafficking of children, debt bondage
and serfdom and forced or compulsory labour, including
forced or compulsory recruitment of children for use in
armed conflict;
(b) the
use, procuring or offering of a child for prostitution,
for the production of pornography or for pornographic
performances;
(c) the
use, procuring or offering of a child for illicit
activities, in particular for the production and
trafficking of drugs as defined in the relevant
international treaties;
(d) work
which, by its nature or the circumstances in which it is
carried out, is likely to harm the health, safety or
morals of children.
Article
4
1.
The types of work referred to under Article 3(d) shall
be determined by national laws or regulations or by the
competent authority, after consultation with the
organizations of employers and workers concerned, taking
into consideration relevant international standards, in
particular Paragraphs 3 and 4 of the Worst Forms of
Child Labour Recommendation, 1999.
2.
The competent authority, after consultation with the
organizations of employers and workers concerned, shall
identify where the types of work so determined exist.
3.
The list of the types of work determined under paragraph
1 of this Article shall be periodically examined and
revised as necessary, in consultation with the
organizations of employers and workers concerned.
Article
5
Each
Member shall, after consultation with employers’ and
workers’ organizations, establish or designate
appropriate mechanisms to monitor the implementation of
the provisions giving effect to this Convention.
Article
6
1.
Each Member shall design and implement programmes of
action to eliminate as a priority the worst forms of
child labour.
2.
Such programmes of action shall be designed and
implemented in consultation with relevant government
institutions and employers’ and workers’
organizations, taking into consideration the views of
other concerned groups as appropriate.
Article
7
1.
Each Member shall take all necessary measures to ensure
the effective implementation and enforcement of the
provisions giving effect to this Convention including
the provision and application of penal sanctions or, as
appropriate, other sanctions.
2.
Each Member shall, taking into account the importance of
education in eliminating child labour, take effective
and time-bound measures to:
(a) prevent
the engagement of children in the worst forms of child
labour;
(b) provide
the necessary and appropriate direct assistance for the
removal of children from the worst forms of child labour
and for their rehabilitation and social integration;
(c) ensure
access to free basic education, and, wherever possible
and appropriate, vocational training, for all children
removed from the worst forms of child labour;
(d) identify
and reach out to children at special risk; and
(e) take
account of the special situation of girls.
3.
Each Member shall designate the competent authority
responsible for the implementation of the provisions
giving effect to this Convention.
Article
8
Members
shall take appropriate steps to assist one another in
giving effect to the provisions of this Convention
through enhanced international cooperation and/or
assistance including support for social and economic
development, poverty eradication programmes and
universal education.
Article
9
The
formal ratifications of this Convention shall be
communicated to the Director-General of the
International Labour Office for registration.
Article
10
1.
This Convention shall be binding only upon those Members
of the International Labour Organization whose
ratifications have been registered with the
Director-General of the International Labour Office.
2.
It shall come into force 12 months after the date on
which the ratifications of two Members have been
registered with the Director-General.
3.
Thereafter, this Convention shall come into force for
any Member 12 months after the date on which its
ratification has been registered.
Article
11
1.
A member which has ratified this Convention may denounce
it after the expiration of ten years from the date on
which the Convention first comes into force, by an act
communicated to the Director-General of the
International Labour Office for registration. Such
denunciation shall not take effect until one year after
the date on which it is registered.
2.
Each Member which has ratified this Convention and which
does not, within the year following the expiration of
the period of ten years mentioned in the preceding
paragraph, exercise the right of denunciation provided
for in this Article, will be bound for another period of
ten years and, thereafter, may denounce this Convention
at the expiration of each period of ten years under the
terms provided for in this Article.
Article
12
1.
The Director-General of the International Labour Office
shall notify all Members of the International Labour
Organization of the registration of all ratifications,
and acts of denunciation communicated by Members of the
Organization.
2.
When notifying the Members of the Organization of the
registration of the second ratification, the
Director-General shall draw the attention of the Members
of the Organization to the date upon which the
Convention shall come into force.
Article
13
The
Director-General of the International Labour Office
shall communicate to the Secretary-General of the United
Nations, for registration in accordance with article 102
of the Charter of the United Nations, full particulars
of all ratifications and acts of denunciation registered
by the Director-General in accordance with the revisions
of the preceding Articles.
Article
14
At
such times as it may consider necessary, the Governing
Body of the International Labour Office shall present to
the General Conference a report on the working of this
Convention and shall examine the desirability of placing
on the agenda of the Conference the question of its
revision in whole or in part.
Article
15
1.
Should the Conference adopt a new Convention revising
this Convention in whole or in part, then, unless the
new Convention otherwise provides -
(a) the
ratification by a member of the new revising Convention
shall ipso jure involve the immediate denunciation of
this Convention, notwithstanding the provisions of
Article 11 above, if and when the new revising
Convention shall have come into force;
(b) as
from the date when the new revising Convention comes
into force, this Convention shall cease to be open to
ratification by the Members.
2.
This Convention shall in any case remain in force in its
actual form and content for those Members which have
ratified it but have not ratified the revising
Convention.
Article
16
The
English and French versions of the text of this
Convention are equally authoritative.
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Further
Information
For
more information, read the Society’s
publications entitled Myths and Facts About
Child Labor ($2.90) and Survey of Child
Labor in Asia ($15.50). Prices include
postage.
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