2021 marks the International Year for the Elimination of Child Labour, which was announced by the United Nations General Assembly on 25 July 2019 to encourage and influence member states to take action in order to reach target 8.7 of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. The target aims to “take immediate and effective measures to eradicate forced labour, end modern slavery and human trafficking and secure the prohibition and elimination of the worst forms of child labour, including recruitment and use of child soldiers, and by 2025 end child labour in all its forms”.

The International Labour Organisation (ILO) launched its first virtual event dedicated to the elimination of child labour; several organisations and people engaged in conversation about the impact of child labour and how they aim to abolish the practice by 2025.

INTERNATIONAL LABOUR ORGANISATION AND CHILD LABOUR

Child Labour is defined as “work that deprives children of their childhood, their potential and their dignity, and that is harmful to physical and mental development”.

ILO has a history of over 100 years of working to eliminate child labour. In 1919, ILO introduced the Minimum Age (Industry) Convention (No.5), which limited the minimum working age to 14, and it introduced a further convention in 1973, the Minimum Age Convention (No.138).

Progress by the ILO was slow until the 1990s when the International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour (IPEC) was established in 1992, following the introduction of the UN’s Convention on the Rights of the Child. The ILO now has 187 members, 186 of whom are member states of the United Nations (UN).

With just four years until 2025, the goal of completely eliminating child labour seems far-fetched. Recent statistics show that there are approximately 152 million children between ages five and 17 who are subjected to child labour. Between 2000 and 2016, the number of children removed from child labour fell from 246 million to 152 million. This is roughly 5.8 million children a year and, if one estimates based on these numbers, in the next four years the reduction in child labour could be just above 23 million. Thus, less than 130 million children could be left in child labour in 2025.

COVID-19 AND CHILD LABOUR

There are concerns that the effects of the current pandemic are going to further slow the progress of eradicating child labour by the desired date. The projected impacts of Covid-19 include the decline of adults in the workforce and the fall of global working hours by approximately 4.5 percent in the first quarter of 2020, which means approximately 130 million full-time jobs were lost. This puts children at risk of being exploited as companies are likely to increasingly rely on children as a cheap labour source.

Further exasperating the conditions for children, governments across the globe have temporarily closed schools and moved classes online, but not all households have the luxury of internet access. As a result, children’s access to education is limited, which puts them at risk of falling behind academically. This problem may not be solved when schools reopen. Instead, some families may struggle to pay school fees given the impact of COVID-19 on the job market. Children may be asked by their families to take on low-paying jobs instead of attending school. The New York Times has already found that during this pandemic children have turned to begging, sex work, construction work, and other dangerous jobs in order to help provide for their families.

While the goal of removing child labour by 2025 is a good initiative, the prospects of succeeding appears to be slim given the various factors affecting its progress. UNICEF recommends that governments assist with limiting the impact on children by: (i) training health, education, and child services on Covid-19; (ii) securing the delivery of essential health services; (iii) providing financial and material assistance to families; and (iv) developing, broadcasting, and publishing distance content for home study.

As stated by the ILO Director-General, Guy Ryder, “there is no place for child labour in society. It robs children of their future and keeps families in poverty”.

After having completed the Bar Professional Training Course (2018), Safia currently working as a Costs Advisor in a law firm. Her life goal is to make a positive change in the society we live in, no matter how small that change might be.

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