An issue which is global in scale
The International Labour Organisation (ILO) defines child labour as: "Any economic activity carried out by children and adolescents, under the minimum working age pursuant to national legislation, or by those under 18 years of age, which interferes with their schooling, is carried out in dangerous environments or under conditions affecting their psychological, physical, social and moral, immediate or future development.”
Child labour throughout the world -especially in Latin America- is not a new phenomenon. In fact, Agreement 5 of the International Labour Conference established the minimum age for industrial work decades ago. Later, the persistence and worsening of the phenomenon led, in 1973, to the adopting of the so-called agreement No. 138 on the minimum working age for any job, and more recently in 1999 agreement No. 182 on the worst forms of child labour.
We are currently seeing a growing international commitment to the eradication of child labour. Despite this, child labour continues to be one of the most pressing concerns of our society, especially in Latin America, which is home to 16% of child workers. According to data from the International Child Labour Organisation (ILO), there are currently 211 million working children and adolescents of between 5 and 17 years of age worldwide, with almost three quarters of these working in dangerous situations: for example in mining, handling chemical products and pesticides, or in industry, handling dangerous machinery.
International agreements No. 138 and No. 182 (spanish)
The issue of child labour in Latin America
It is calculated that in Latin America and the Caribbean alone, there are 5.1 million working children, that is to say 2.4% of the global total.
In the region, child labour is both the result of poverty and a means of perpetuating it. Added to this poverty there are other factors that encourage the vicious circle of child labour: the collapse of the family unit, values and cultures that tend to legitimise child labour as being acceptable and even desirable, and the inadequacy of educational systems in terms of sustaining the schooling of minors.
Of particular relevance in Latin America and the Caribbean is the presence of the so-called worst forms of child labour, that is to say those that place children at most risk. Currently, 5.1 million minors find themselves in this situation, meaning that one third of working children work in the most dangerous and risky conditions.