Children Working on the Street

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Children Workingon the Street
Yoshie NOGUCHI, Senior legal officer, IPEC
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Contents

• Children working on the street
• General overview on child labour
• What is child labour (CL), and its worst forms
  (WFCL)?
• Challenges/lessons in addressing CL and WFCL on
  the street
• Data collection CL on the street
• Eliminating WFCL by 2016 !

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Children Working on the street

• Economic activities
• selling small objects,
• shoe-shining,
• portering
• Sexual exploitation (prostitution)
• Illicit activities
• scavenging,
• begging
• Criminal acts
• drug dealing,
• pick-pocketing

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Child labour statistics

• 215 million in child labour, globally
• 115 million of these children in hazardous work

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ILO Global Report 2010

• Child labour continues to decline, 3 decline
  between 2004-2008 but more modestly than
  previously
• 10 decline between 2000-2004
• On present trends, the goal of eliminating the
  worst forms of child labour by 2016 will not be
  reached

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Different trends girls and boys

• Fewer girls are now in child labour.
• declined by 15.
• Worrying trend for boys
• Increase by 20 among older boys (15-17)in
  hazardous work

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Regional trends

• Asia and Pacific significant reduction down to
  96m (14.8 of children)
• Latin America and Caribbean slight reduction
  down to 10m (9)
• Sub Saharan Africa further increase to 58m
  (28.4)
• No separate figure for Europe or developed
  countries lack of surveys

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CRC and child labour

• The right to be protected from economic
  exploitation (32) the protection from child
  labour (ILS)
• The right to education, health
• Non-discrimination
• Two issues under the Op Protocols(sexual
  exploitation, armed conflict) Worst Forms of
  Child Labour

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What is Child Labour?

• Child labour to be eliminated
• Worst Forms of Child Labour (C182)and
• Work done by a child below the minimum age for
  that kind of work(specified by national law, in
  line with C138 and CRC article 32(2))
• See UN SG Report to GA 2009 A/64/127

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What is child labour?
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Worst Forms of Child Labour

• Children in slavery, forced or compulsory labour,
  child trafficking
• Including debt bondage, forced recruitment for
  use in armed conflict
• Children used in prostitution and pornography
• Children used in illicit activities
• Children in hazardous work
• See ILO C182, Article 3

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C 182 coverage

• All sectors of economic activitywithout any
  exception
• Girls and boys under 18 years
• Special attention for most vulnerable e.g.
  minorities, girls, very young, and on the street
  !
• Worst forms of child labour as urgent priority
  target for action

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Child labour and its worst forms on the street

• Forced labour, including in begging, child
  trafficking
• Sexual exploitation
• The use of children in illicit activities or
  crime (e.g. drugs)
• hazardous work work likely to jeopardize/harm
  a childs health, safety or morals

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Challenges in addressing child labour on the
street

• Outside the scope of child labour legislation-
  absence of an employer, or formal relation- not
  considered in the hazardous work list
• The children may be perceived as delinquents
  rather than victims of WFCL
• Interest in / access to education ?
• Decent Work prospect for these children ?
• Social protection measures may focus adults or
  families e.g. Cash Transfer, income support
• Maybe lacking ID, birth certificate, legal
  status...

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Some good practice examples

• Listing street vending among the hazardous work
  and prohibit for children (Lebanon)
• Comprehensive rehabilitation for girls on the
  street and/or at risk of sexual exploitation
  (Russian Federation)
• Mobile schools facilitating the transition from
  street to school (Romania)
• Mobilizing public action by raising awareness
  among teachers and students (Paraguay) SCREAM
  (Supporting Childrens Rights through Education,
  the Arts and the Media) methods

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Some lessons learned

• Clearly define what is not acceptable in
  labour, criminal, or childrens rights or other
  laws
• Consider and address difficulties of enforcement
• Raise awareness among stakeholders of the
  specific risks of working street girls thus
  help raise the issue higher on the political
  agenda
• Gradually prepare the children for social /
  family integration
• Involve government entities from the beginning,
  giving them ownership
• Mobilize children and young people conveying the
  message to the public (families, community and
  institutions) and also the business community
• Respect and adapt to the socio-economic and
  cultural characteristics of each country and each
  community

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Child labour statistics

• SIMPOC (Statistical Information and Monitoring
  Programme on Child Labour) help countries in
• household-based surveys,
• establishment-based surveys,
• baseline surveys, and
• rapid assessments
• www.ilo.org/ipec/ChildlabourstatisticsSIMPOC

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Child labour statistics (2)

• Need to develop methodologies
• Need to define concepts for statistical operation
  lt legal definitions
• Resolution by the 18th International Conference
  of Labour Statisticians concerning statistics of
  child labour (ICLS Resolution) - 2008

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Challenges in collecting data on child labour on
the street

• Household-based surveys can gather information
  only on children living with their family and
  working on the street
• Establishment-based surveys may not cover any
  child labour on the street
• Childrens accessibility, availability and
  interest in the data collection

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Rapid Assessment

• Methodology jointly developed by ILO and UNICEF
• Especially useful for some WFCL
• Qualitative information obtained through a rapid
  assessment will apply with certainty only to the
  limited sample population and context
• See manuals available on SIMPOC website

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Capture-Recapture method

• See the UCW example (Study on child beggars in
  Dakar)
• Previously used (2002 Global Report on Child
  Labour) in estimating the scale of the WFCL other
  than hazardous work a huge challenge for us all
  in CL statistics

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Ethical considerations in child labour data
collection

• The best interest of the child
• Pre-research issues
• Assess the safety risk to the child of
  participating in the survey (and to the
  researchers) especially for children exploited
  in / by organize crime
• Informed consent for all interviews in a
  child-sensitive way with the right to say No
  at any time

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Ethical considerations in child labour data
collection (2)

• Issues during research
• Language and logic to avoid jargon and adapted
  to each child (age, sex, culture)
• Trust to be built patiently on relationship
• Conditions of listening carefully, with positive
  and neutral expression
• Pay and promises consider carefully
• Post research issues
• Right to privacy / sharing info outcome

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Accelerating action against child labour

• an increased global effort to tackle child
  labour and
• enhanced Government commitment
• reach out to children at special risk e.g. on
  the street !

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Further measures

• international cooperation
• social dialogue and cooperation Partnership
  with business and trade unions
• advocacy and mobilisation
• decent work for youth/adults

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The Global Action Plan

• Eliminating the worst forms of child labour by
  2016 !
• Roadmap 2010 (The Hague)
• Attention children on the street

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Thank you for your attention !
International Programme on the Elimination of
Child Labour 4, Route des Morillons CH-1211
Geneva 22 Switzerland Tel. (41 - 22) 799 81
81 Fax (41 - 22) 799 87 71
E-mail ipec_at_ilo.org Child labour
website http//www.ilo.org/ipec