ILO Convention 182

Subject: IR

Context:

ILO Convention No. 182 on the Worst Forms of Child Labour has become the first international labour standard ever to achieve universal ratification.

Concept:

• Ending child labour has been one of the main goals of the ILO, which was founded in 1919.
• The UN agency estimates that 152 million children worldwide are affected, with 73 million in hazardous work.
• Most child labour takes place in the agriculture sector, mainly due to poverty and parents’ difficulties in finding decent work.
• Convention No. 182 calls for the prohibition and elimination of the worst forms of child labour, which includes slavery, forced labour and trafficking.
• It forbids the use of children under18 in armed conflict, prostitution, pornography, illicit activities such as drug trafficking, and in hazardous work.
• The Convention was adopted by ILO member states meeting in Geneva in 1999.
• It is one of the organization’s eight Fundamental Conventions, which cover issues such as the elimination of forced labour, the abolition of work-related discrimination and the rights to freedom of association and collective bargaining.
• The Pacific island nation Tonga deposited its ratification instruments with the ILO on Tuesday, becoming the final country to do so.
• The ILO said incidence of child labour and its worst forms dropped by almost 40 per cent between 2000 and 2016 as ratification rates increased and countries adopted laws and policies, including relating to minimum age to work.