International legal standards on child labour

Appendix 1 examines international treaties and conventions that include articles regarding the employment of children.

Whilst these legal standards bestow responsibility primarily on governments, they are also helpful in identifying the priorities and processes that businesses should take into account. It is also worth noting that there is currently a strong move towards making some international laws binding on individual businesses.

The standards covered by this appendix are as follows:

Human rights treaties

• The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948)
• The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (1966)
• The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989)

The economic exploitation of children is prohibited by international human rights treaties such as those above. The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, ratified by every country in the world but two*, is the most comprehensive in its provisions concerning child employment. It obliges States Parties to provide for a minimum age for employment, appropriate regulation of hours and conditions and penalties to enforce these.

Standards to be observed by businesses

• Norms on the Responsibilities of Transnational Corporations and Other Business Enterprises with Regard to Human Rights (2003)

The Norms contain an article concerning the employment of children with an official commentary defining what is meant by the economic exploitation of children, hazardous work, light work and a plan to eliminate child labour.

ILO “core” conventions

• ILO Convention No 138 concerning the Minimum Age for Admission to Employment (1973)
• ILO Convention No 182 on the Worst Forms of Child Labour (1999)
• Conventions on Forced Labour

The ILO expects governments to implement the “core” conventions above, whether they have been ratified or not. These conventions confer various responsibilities on employers, such as keeping certified age registers of their young employees, ensuring children under a certain age are employed appropriately and that abuses such as forced labour do not occur.

*The USA and Somalia