THE International Labour Organisation is stepping up its campaign against child labour around the world. The general secretary, Mr Michel Hansenne, has told a special EU conference in Amsterdam that it hopes to have a new international convention prohibiting child labour adopted shortly by its 174 member-states.
Stronger supervisory mechanisms are also to be put in place to ensure countries comply more effectively with existing ILO labour conventions, Mr Hansenne said.
About 250 million children aged between five and 14 are forced to work for a living, mainly in developing countries. Most of them are employed in commercial agricultural work and many are exposed to dangerous chemicals and pesticides.
Millions of girls are employed in domestic service, often receiving only board and lodging. There is growing evidence of widespread physical and sexual abuse, especially among those girls.
The Dutch Minister of Social Affairs and Employment, Mr Ad Melkert, who chaired the Amsterdam Child Labour Conference, said it was particularly urgent to end the most intolerable forms of child labour, such as slavery, forced labour, debt bondage, serfdom and the use of children in prostitution and pornography.
"There must be a total prohibition of work by the very young and special protection for girls," he said yesterday. He called on the ILO to expand its work and report more regularly on global trends. "This systematic worldwide monitoring would be a mechanism to review periodically and to identify best practices in combating child labour."
The government of the Netherlands has pledged £650,000 to fund the establishment of such a trend-monitoring unit by the ILO, as part of its new programme.
A second international conference to report on progress with the new ILO convention is to be held in Oslo next October.
The initiative has been welcomed by the Minister for Labour Affairs, Ms Eithne Fitzgerald. She said yesterday that Ireland would continue to support the ILO in its efforts.