Full
Text of the C182, ILO Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention,
1999
Convention concerning the Prohibition and Immediate Action for
the Elimination of the Worst Forms of Child Labour
(Date of coming into force: 19:11:2000)
Convention: C182
Place: Geneva / Session of the Conference: 87 / Date of adoption:
17.06.1999
The General Conference of the International Labour Organization,
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 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 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 who 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:
1. 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.
2. The use, procuring or offering
of a child for prostitution, for the production of pornography
or for pornographic performances.
3. 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;
4. 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:
» Prevent the engagement
of children in the worst forms of child labour.
» 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.
» Ensure access to
free basic education, and, wherever possible and appropriate
vocational training, for all children removed from the worst
forms of child labour.
» Identify and reach
out to children at special risk, and
» 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 who 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 –-
» The ratification
by a Member of the new revising Convention shall also 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.
» 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 who 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.
|
