Combating the Worst Forms of Child Labour through Horizontal Cooperation in South America

Executive Summary Latin American countries have achieved impressive success over the last decade in reducing the number of child labourers in the region - particularly when compared to other regions of the world. This result stems from a number of factors, among which the increased focus on the issue from policymakers and the inclusion of child labour in central policy development have been key. The adoption of the governments and social partners of Latin American countries of the Hemispheric Agenda for Decent Work in the Americas 2006-2015 in which the goal of eliminating the worst forms of child labour from the hemisphere by 2015 and all forms for child labour eliminated by 2020 demonstrates the will of the countries of the region to continue to combat child labour. Even though important progress has been made, there remain large pockets of poverty and social exclusion. Efforts made to date have not effectively been able to reach the people suffering from poverty and social exclusions. This is particularly true for communities which are socially and economically excluded for reasons of race and ethnicity, and where in some instances the worst forms of child labour takes place in a context definable as forced labour, often in sectors of the economy which are hidden and hard to reach for labour inspection and other law enforcement agencies. Available figures show that for the 2015 target to be reached, increased and targeted efforts must still be made. This project stems from this recognition and targets four countries with difficult to reach child labour populations. In the four project countries, there are currently over 6 million children between 5 and 17 in child labour. Indigenous children are highly overrepresented within this total. Needs to be addressed by the project: The issue of child labour still remains an important problem in the region. It is also clear that to have real impact, it is crucial to focus interventions on areas where the problem is particularly common and serious, as well as to continue strengthening the institutional capacity of the countries to deal with the issue. The highest number of cases of exploitative practices such as forced child labour in slavery-like conditions like serfdom and debt-bondage affect the indigenous populations including indigenous children. It has been suggested by the South American specialist of the ILO’s Special Action Programme on Forced Labour (SAP-FL)– a key partner in the project implementation - that in order to address effectively issues of forced child labour in the region, it is necessary to focus on indigenous child labour due to the high degree of overlap. Among the main weaknesses when combating child labour in the region is the relative weakness of central institutions for labour law enforcement, such as labour inspection. Also, other central law enforcement agencies face difficulties in addressing the worst forms of child labour which fall under their jurisdiction. There are a number of reasons for this, among which is the fact that worst forms of child labour is rarely a focus area for other law enforcement entities beyond labour inspection. This, in spite of the fact that most of the areas defined by ILO Convention No. 182 as a worst form of child labour, falls into categories that go beyond the scope of labour legislation and its enforcement (slavery or practices similar to slavery, sale and trafficking of children, debt bondage and serfdom and forced or compulsory labour, prostitution and pornography, or illicit activities, in particular the production and trafficking of drugs). Main Areas of Focus In this context, the project will focus its action on the following four central areas: a) Discrimination and social exclusion Groups suffering from discrimination and social exclusion, such as indigenous peoples in all the four project countries and afro-descendant people, particularly in Brazil and Ecuador, show a clear overrepresentation when

Project symbol

RLA/09/52/USA

Admin unit

CO-Brasilia

Start date

30/09/2009

End date

30/09/2013

Total allocation

6750000

Total expenditure

Status

Closed

6570468

Development Partners

USA, United States Department of Labor, Bureau for International Labor Affairs, Office of Child Labor, Forced Labor and Human Trafficking

Country/Countries

Americas - regional

Outcomes

Child Labour