The International Labor Organization established the World No Child Labor Day in 2002, focusing on the global attention to child labor and the actions needed to eliminate this phenomenon. Every year on June 12th, governments, employers’ and workers’ organizations, civil society, and hundreds of millions of people from all over the world gather to highlight the plight of child labor and discuss how people can help them.
All over the world, a large number of children are engaged in paid or unpaid domestic work in the homes of third parties or employers. These children are particularly vulnerable to exploitation. Their work is often hidden from public view, they may be isolated, or they may work far away from home. Child abuse incidents in domestic work are not uncommon. The 2013 World Day without Child Labor calls for:
- Reform legislation and policies to ensure the elimination of child labor in domestic work, while providing decent work conditions and appropriate protection to young people who have reached the legal working age.
- The member states of the ILO ratify Article 189 of the ILO Convention on decent work for domestic workers and implement the ILO Convention on Child Labor
- Create a global anti-child labor movement and promote the capacity building of domestic helper organizations
The adoption of ILO Convention No. 182 has consolidated the global consensus on the elimination of child labor. Millions of child laborers have benefited from the Convention, but there is still much work to be done. According to the latest estimates, 215 million children are still forced to work as child laborers, and 115 million of them are engaged in hazardous work. The member states of the International Labor Organization have set 2016 as the deadline to eliminate the worst forms of child labor. To achieve this goal requires greater effort and commitment.
