Convention
concerning the Prohibition and Immediate Action for the Elimination of the
Worst Forms of Child Labour
(Note: Date of coming into force: 19:11:2000)
The General Conference of the
International Labour Organization,
Having been convened at
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 the 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
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 the
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 provisions 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.