Moving towards a Child Labour Free Jordan

Recent estimates of the scale of child labour in Jordan show that 29,225 children, or 1.6% of Jordan's 1.8 million children aged between 5 and 17 are child labourers. The majority of them are above the minimum age for employment, indicating that the main problem lies in the conditions of work and other worst forms that child labourers in the 16 to 18 age group suffer from. Given the low and perhaps manageable number of child labourers, Jordan could be one of the first countries to become child labour free if concerted efforts are made to reach even the hard-to-reach, ensure occupational safety for the above 16s and link the families of child labourers with social protection schemes of the State. This four-year project (2010 – 2014) will prepare the ground for the country to move towards this. It builds on the previous IPEC Action Programme and Country Programme (2002 – 2007) also supported by the US Department of Labor (USDOL) and complements other initiatives of the Government of Jordan and civil society aimed at reducing drop-out from basic education, improving working conditions for youth and eliminating child labour. In particular, it will build the capacity of the Child Labour Unit (CLU) of the Ministry of Labour (MoL) to coordinate the implementation of the National Framework on Child Labour (NFCL) being developed under the “Combating Exploitative Child Labor through Education” (CECLE) project. Since the NFCL is not yet available, this project document will be finalised after a meeting in March 2011 to be organized by USDOL that will bring together USDOL, USDOL’s various Jordan grantees (ILO, CECLE and the FY2010 Child Labour Elimination project grantee) and perhaps other relevant stakeholders to discuss the role of each entity in implementing the NFCL. Child Labour Situation Child labour in Jordan is mainly concentrated in the governorates of Amman, Zarka, Balqa and Irbid. Participants at the stakeholder workshop conducted on October 7, 2010 as a preparation for this proposal were also concerned about the increase in child labour linked to tourism in the region of Petra and among children living in certain refugee camps in the outskirts of Amman. All the surveys confirm that large family size, low levels of education of parents, and intergenerational poverty are the main causes of child labour. This is compounded by the difficulty that families of child labourers experience in accessing social support from the State. A paradox that is found in many countries is that child labour persists in the context of high rates of youth unemployment. In 2008, the unemployment rate in the 16 to 19 age group was as high as 32.8% against a general unemployment rate of 12.7% in that year. There is clearly a need to, on the one hand, reorient demand away from child labour towards youth and, on the other, to reduce the occupational risks that the 16 -18 age group faces by enforcing occupational safety and health (OSH) standards present in Jordanian labour law. No studies have been done so far on the worst forms of child labour (WFCL) other than hazardous work. The Rapid Assessment Survey (RAS) on hazardous work indicated that 13% of working children are working against their will and recommended that priority be given to withdrawing them. The US Trafficking in Persons Report 2009 also refers to forced child labour stating that “Some Jordanian children employed within the country as street vendors, carpenters, painters, mechanics, domestics, restaurant staff, or agricultural labourers may be exploited in situations of forced labour.” Forced child labour is another area requiring further investigation and action. Legal and policy framework Jordan has ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) and ILO Convention No.s 138 (C138) and 182 (C182). As required by C138, Article 73 of the Jordanian Labour Law prohibits the employment of children under 16, the age under which schooling is compulsory. Article 74 also

Project symbol

JOR/10/50/USA

Admin unit

RO-Arab States/DWT-Beirut

Start date

31/12/2010

End date

31/08/2016

Total allocation

4040000

Total expenditure

Status

Closed

4023017

Development Partners

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

Country/Countries

Jordan

Outcomes

Protection of workers from unacceptable forms of work