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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.
Each Member which 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.
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 labour" 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 labour, 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 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.
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 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.
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:
(a) prevent the engagement of children in the worst forms of
child labour;
(b) 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;
(c) ensure access to free basic education, and, wherever possible
and appropriate, vocational training, for all children removed
from the worst forms of child labour;
(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 programmes
and universal education.
The formal ratifications of this Convention shall be communicated
to the Director-General of the International Labour Office for
registration.
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.
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 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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The foregoing is the authentic text of the Convention unanimously
adopted by the General Conference of the International Labour
Organization during its Eighty-seventh Session which was held
at Geneva and declared closed on 17 June 1999.
IN FAITH WHEREOF we have appended our signatures this day of June
1999.
The President of the Conference,
The Director-General of the International Labour Office,
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