Is it legal?

To better understand where acceptable child work ends and where unacceptable child labour begins, international conventions and national laws help to define the kinds of activities children should never do.

To determine if a child’s work is legal, we look to international conventions (legally binding treaties agreed under international law) such as the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) and the International Labour Organisation (ILO) Conventions 138 and 182.

We can also look to the domestic laws of each country, which provide for a minimum age of work and may prohibit children under a certain age from working in particularly dangerous areas such as mining or domestic labour. The worst forms of child labour, including trafficking, prostitution and slavery, are never legal. Once a child reaches a certain age (in most developing countries it is 15) many forms of employment are acceptable, such as working in a market, shining shoes, sewing, restaurant work and other types of light employment.

The consequences of child labour for the children involved are wide ranging. In many cases it stops children from attending school which continues the cycle of poverty. It can also cause severe physical or psychological harm to the child. In its worst forms, child labour involves children being separated from their families, living in slavery-like conditions or being exposed to serious dangers and illnesses from a very early age. For these reasons, it is crucial that national and international laws related to child labour are implemented to the fullest.

Harmful work and the ‘worst forms’ of child labour

More than half of the 218 million children who work are doing so in dangerous condition in sectors as diverse as agriculture, mining, construction, manufacturing, service industries, hotels, bars, restaurants, fast food establishments, and domestic service. It is found in both industrialised and developing countries.

An estimated 8.4 million children are trapped in what the ILO calls the ‘worst forms’ of child labour, which include: forced labour, trafficking, debt bondage, use of children for prostitution or the production of pornographic material, use of children for trafficking drugs and other illicit activities, as well as involvement in armed conflict. All these unconditional ‘worst forms’ must be stopped with the utmost urgency and no changes in the working conditions can make such activities more acceptable for children to perform.

The largest category within the ‘worst forms’ is ‘hazardous child labour’ - children working in dangerous conditions in sectors as diverse as agriculture, mining, construction, manufacturing, service industries, hotels, bars, restaurants, fast food establishments, and domestic service. It is found in both industrialised and developing countries.

It is crucial, then, to know how harmful work is, in order to know what should be done about it. In the above ‘worst forms’ the harm is inevitable and so every urgent effort must be made to help the child leave this work. In other situations of work (for example some forms of weaving), it may be possible to prevent harm from occurring (e.g. decrease hours, do not weave in confined spaces, avoid chemicals). However, some work does not violate rights and can in fact contribute to the realization of rights, so can be encouraged (e.g. light, part-time work outside of school time, to help provide for the family). It is important to remember that we should also ask working children themselves in order to determine what types of work are harmful to them.

The UNCRC

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) (1989) is an international convention setting out the civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights of children. Almost every country in the world has signed up to this and agreed to abide by its terms. Article 32 of the UNCRC helps us define harmful work – as “work that is likely to be hazardous or to interfere with the child's education, or to be harmful to the child's health or physical, mental, spiritual, moral or social development.” The term ‘child labour’ is usually referring to this kind of work.

There are other important articles in the UNCRC which are related to child labour, namely the right to protection from exploitation (article 36) the right to education (articles 28 and 29), the right to leisure and play (article 31), the right not to be trafficked (bought and sold) (article 35) and the right to good health (article 24).

• Read the full list of children's rights in the UNCRC

The ILO

The International Labour Organization (ILO) is the UN specialized agency which seeks to promote and set international standards for labour rights, including the minimum age to work.

ILO Convention 138 (1973) states that the minimum age for a child to work must not be less than the end of compulsory education, or in any case, no lower than fifteen years old. However, developing countries may specify a minimum age of 14 years old. In some countries, then, it is legal to work full time in some forms of employment at age 14.

ILO Convention 182 (1999) covers the worst forms of child labour mentioned earlier on this page, which are inherently unacceptable and often illegal for adults too. This is work that through its nature is likely to cause harm to health, security or morality of the child. The largest category within these ‘worst forms’ is ‘hazardous’ work – work that is dangerous to a child.