Mini Action Guide: Child Labour

Definition of child labour:

The Article 1 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child defines a child as anyone below the age of 18.

“Child labour” is often defined as work that deprives children of their
childhood, their potential and their dignity, and that is harmful to physical and mental development.

It refers to work that:

• is mentally, physically, socially or morally dangerous and harmful to children and/or
• interferes with their schooling by: depriving them of the opportunity to attend school, obliging them to leave school prematurely or requiring them to attempt to combine school attendance with excessively long and heavy work.

Whether or not particular forms of “work” can be called “child labour”
depends on the child’s age, the type and hours of work performed,
the conditions under which the work is performed and the objectives
pursued by individual. The answer varies from country to country, as
well as among sectors within countries.


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Mini Action Guide: Child Labour

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