Convention concerning the Prohibition and Immediate Action for the Elimination of the Worst Forms of Child Labor (Entry into force: 19 Nov 2000) Adoption: Geneva, 87th ILC session (17 Jun 1999) – Status: Up-to-date instrument (Fundamental Convention).
Convention may be denounced: 19 Nov 2020 – 19 Nov 2021
Preamble
The General Conference of the International Labor Organization,
Having been convened at Geneva by the Governing Body of the International Labor 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 labor, 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 labor, and
Considering that the effective elimination of the worst forms of child labor 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 labor adopted by the International Labor Conference at its 83rd Session in 1996, and
Recognizing that child labor 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 Labor Conference at its 86th Session in 1998, and
Recalling that some of the worst forms of child labor are covered by other international instruments, in particular the Forced Labor 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 labor, 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 Labor Convention, 1999.
Each Member which ratifies this Convention shall take immediate and effective measures to secure the prohibition and elimination of the worst forms of child labor as a matter of urgency.
For the purposes of this Convention, the term child shall apply to all persons under the age of 18.
For the purposes of this Convention, the term the worst forms of child labor 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 labor, 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.
- 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 Labor 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.
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.
- 1. Each Member shall design and implement programs of action to eliminate as a priority the worst forms of child labor.
- 2. Such programs 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.
- 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 labor, take effective and time-bound measures to:
- (a) prevent the engagement of children in the worst forms of child labor;
- (b) provide the necessary and appropriate direct assistance for the removal of children from the worst forms of child labor 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 labor;
- (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.
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 programs and universal education.
The formal ratification of this Convention shall be communicated to the Director-General of the International Labor Office for registration.
- 1. This Convention shall be binding only upon those Members of the International Labor Organization whose ratification have been registered with the Director-General of the International Labor Office.
- 2. It shall come into force 12 months after the date on which the ratification 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.
- 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 Labor 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.
- 1. The Director-General of the International Labor Office shall notify all Members of the International Labor Organization of the registration of all ratification 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.
The Director-General of the International Labor 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 ratification and acts of denunciation registered by the Director-General in accordance with the provisions of the preceding Articles.
At such times as it may consider necessary, the Governing Body of the International Labor 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.
- 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.
The English and French versions of the text of this Convention are equally authoritative.
