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CHILD LABOR
Overview

“Child labor” 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).

Child labor is fueled by the demand for cheap, malleable and docile labor
where working conditions and treatment often violate children’s rights.
Child Labor

Though the global number of children in child labor has declined by 1/3
since 2000 from 246 million, there are still 168 million child laborers. (ILO)

Asia and the Pacific has the largest number of child laborers- 78 million
(9.3% of the child population; Sub-Saharan Africa has 59 million (21%); 13
million (8.8%) in Latin America and the Caribbean and 9.2 million (8.4 %) in
the Middle East and North Africa. (ILO)

Agriculture is the main sector in which child labor can be found (98 million
or 59%) followed by services (54 million) and industry, mostly in the
informal economy (12 million).
Forced Labor

Forced labor is any work or services which people are forced to do against
their will under the threat of some form punishment. Almost all slavery
practices, including trafficking in people and bonded labor, contain some
element of forced labor. (Anti-slavery.org)

Individuals and enterprises are responsible for exploiting the vast majority
of forced labor victims (19 million); states or rebel groups (2 million). (ILO)

Worldwide the annual illegal profits from forced labor in the private
economy are $150 billion. (ILO)
NGO Committee to Stop Trafficking in Persons / Business Ethics Task Force / June 2015

Sex exploitation is 6x more profitable than all other forms of forced labor.

Illegal profits from domestic workers alone are an estimated $8 billion
annually (workers receive only 40% of wage they should have earned.)
7.4 million children under 15 are domestic workers (ILO).
Forced Child Labor

Of the 20.9 million victims of forced labor, 26% or, 5.5 million are children
under 18. (ILO 2012)

85 million children are in hazardous work (ILO).

Children with no birth certificates, victims of abuse, migrants, and those
affected by conflict or natural disaster are among the most vulnerable.
Trafficking of Children

Child trafficking directly affects 1.2 million children at any given time. (IPEC)

Of the total number of trafficked persons, 33% are children, up 5% since the
2007-2010 report (UNODC Global Report on Trafficking in Persons 2014)

According to the ILO, a high percentage of children trafficked for one form of
forced labor is later sold into another form of slavery.

Of the 33% of children trafficked, 21% are girls and 12% are boys.

Girls are affected disproportionately, trafficked for sexual exploitation and
child domestic labor. Boys are particularly trafficked for work in agriculture,
mining, and armed conflict.
Areas for Most Effective Actions

Prevention - understanding and eliminating root causes of child labor and
trafficking is the most important intervention.

Learning from children and former victims helps to identify risk factors,
others in need and how to assist them.

Local communities at source and destination points must have the
understanding and capacity to address points of vulnerability.
NGO Committee to Stop Trafficking in Persons / Business Ethics Task Force / June 2015