Copyright Š Global March Against Child Labour, 2012 The working paper has been commissioned with the generous support of the International Labour Organisation Programme for the Elimination of Child Labour (ILO-IPEC). It may be noted that the contents of this publication are the sole responsibility of Global March Against Child Labour.
Applications for permission to reproduce or translate all or part of this material should be made to: Global March International Secretariat L-6, Kalkaji, New Delhi-110019, India Email: info@globalmarch.org
Cover photograph courtesy of U Roberto Romano, ŠROMANO
FOREWORD Millions of children who participated in the 80,000 km long and worldwide physical march against child labour in 1998 have clearly told the world that they don't want arms and tools in their tiny hands. They want books and toys. Their aspirations and voices were supported by the entire world, not only morally and emotionally, but more importantly by the unanimous adoption of a new international legislation – ILO Convention 182 on the worst forms of child labour. Most of these children are grown-ups now and ironically, they have been replaced by the next lot of working children. Given this, the question is - how will the international community respond as to why we have failed in protecting these children from economic exploitation and ensuring them a meaningful education. It is a known fact that 3 out of 5 child labourers work in the agriculture sector. For the food we eat, the chocolate bar we enjoy, the coffee we drink, cotton clothes we wear and many more items we eat and drink everyday – we do not know how many children have been forced to spoil their childhood in producing them. I can still recall the endless and painful tears flowing from Rakesh and his mother's eyes when after being reunited upon rescue from 7 years of bondage in agriculture labour, mother and son could not communicate with each other as Rakesh had forgotten his mother tongue. At an early age, he had been trafficked for labour to Punjab (India), a different language speaking state. The image of Abrahem, a young child labourer in Ethiopia screaming out of fear of punishment by his employer for a mistake committed is fresh in my memory. The pig that he had taken for grazing had accidently drowned in a nearby pond. For Abrahem, this meant several years of bondage to repay the price of this “lost pig”. The loud and vigorous chants of Amanda who was suffering from breathing problems and other serious ailments due to her work in agriculture, still ring in my ears. She was a child core marcher from the United States with us in the march of 1998. I have not forgotten Velucia, whose hands were awfully injured and bleeding from plucking oranges when I first met him in a village in Brazil. Velucia, rightly asked me – “how can you enjoy the juice from these oranges, when children like me have to shed their blood to pluck them? Is this correct?” Are these instances not enough to make you and me angry and get up and act immediately to end this unjust and inhuman practice these three children and million others are subjected to? Disturbed by this issue, Global March Against Child Labour decided to create high level advocacy and mobilise all key stakeholders in tackling this largely neglected problem of child labour in agriculture. We strongly believe that none of the Millennium Development Goals, particularly, universal primary education, gender parity and poverty reduction and many other goalposts can ever be achieved without eliminating child labour, especially in the agricultural and rural settings. Nor can we ensure decent employment for youth and adults. It's true that this category of child labourers is invisible and hard-to-reach due to the traditional mindset towards agriculture work, remote locations, limited access to education, inadequate rural development and inappropriate legal and social protection measures. This calls for urgent united action. Therefore, with active support of workers' unions, grassroot practioners, international NGOs and the ILO, Global March is organising the first ever International Conference on Child Labour in Agriculture. Most of you, who know Global March would agree that we believe in action and not mere words. Therefore, I firmly believe that this Conference would trigger multiple actions, build new alliances, partnerships and engagements, enhance accountability, generate political will and create ripple effects to end the menace of child labour from the face of humankind.
Kailash Satyarthi Chairperson Global March Against Child Labour
TABLE OF CONTENTS Global March Against Child Labour................................................................................................................ i International Conference on Child Labour in Agriculture................................................................................ iii Executive summary...................................................................................................................................... v List of abbreviations...................................................................................................................................... vii
Part 1. Child labour in agriculture................................................................................... 1 1.1 International goals and targets on child labour....................................................................................... 2 1.2 Background: Child labour in agriculture................................................................................................. 3 1.3 Difficulties in combating child labour in agriculture................................................................................. 4
Part 2. What is child labour? Conventions, definitions, terminology, examples and case studies....................................................................... 9 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4
2.5 2.6 2.7 2.8
International legal framework on child labour......................................................................................... 10 What is “child labour”?........................................................................................................................... 10 Who is defined as “a child”?.................................................................................................................... 10 What are “the worst forms of child labour”?............................................................................................. 11 2.4.1 WFCL, C 182, Article 3 (a), (b) and (c)....................................................................................... 11 a) Child trafficking and agriculture........................................................................................ 11 b) Forced labour, debt bondage and intergenerational debt-bondage.................................. 13 2.4.2 WFCL , C 182, Article 3 (d) Work which is likely to harm the health and safety of children.......... 14 Minimum age for employment and young workers.................................................................................. 18 Transforming hazardous child labour in agriculture into decent youth employment................................. 18 Light work.............................................................................................................................................. 19 Acceptable work.................................................................................................................................... 20
Part 3. Tackling child labour in agriculture - Agricultural workers, their organisations, and others....................................................................................... 21 3.1 Scope of “agriculture” in this working paper............................................................................................. 22 3.2 Agriculture: An important rural sector...................................................................................................... 22 3.3 Agricultural workforce............................................................................................................................ 22 3.3.1 Agricultural/Rural workers....................................................................................................... 23 a) Waged workers............................................................................................................... 23 b) Self-employed workers.................................................................................................... 23 c) Unpaid family members................................................................................................... 23 d) Others............................................................................................................................. 24 3.3.2 Decent work deficits................................................................................................................. 24 3.4 Agricultural/Rural workers’ organisations................................................................................................ 25 3.4.1 Farmers’ organisations in agriculture and supply chains.......................................................... 25 3.4.2 Cooperatives in agriculture and supply chains......................................................................... 26 3.4.3 Contract farming, smallholder out-grower associations, supply chains, and child labour in agriculture.................................................................................................. 27 3.4.4 Trade unions in agriculture and supply chains......................................................................... 29
3.5 Employers’ organisations in agriculture................................................................................................... 3.6 Voluntary initiatives, multinational enterprises, child labour and supply chains........................................ 3.7 Eliminating child labour in agricultural supply chains................................................................................ 3.8 Multi-stakeholder initiatives and child labour in agriculture....................................................................... 3.9 Social labelling and child labour in agriculture.......................................................................................... 3.9.1 Fair trade and child labour..................................................................................................... 3.10 Other opportunities to combat child labour in agriculture........................................................................ 3.10.1 Rural education and child labour........................................................................................... 3.10.2 Bringing child labour concerns into the mainstream of agricultural policy and programme making........................................................................................................ 3.10.3 Agricultural extension officers and child labour...................................................................... 3.10.4 Making agricultural workplaces safe and healthy for all workers - young and adult................. a) Farmers using safety and health risk assessment to improve safety and health conditions on their farms, and promote youth employment.............................. b) Making use of workplace/enterprise safety and health committees to combat child labour in supply chains............................................................................. 3.10.5 Right to food and the elimination of child labour....................................................................
30 31 33 35 35 36 37 37 38 39 39 39 41 41
Part 4. Key messages: Way forward................................................................................43 Message 1: Message 2: Message 3: Message 4: Message 5:
Message 6:
Message 7: Message 8: Message 9: Message 10: Message 11: Message 12:
Mainstream trafficking, forced and bonded labour and slavery across actions to eliminate child labour in agriculture......................................................................... 44 Transforming hazardous child labour into youth employment .................................. 44 Make workplaces safe and healthy for all and increase workplace cooperation........ 44 Ensure labour right and standards for all agricultural/rural workers.......................... 44 Dialogue and cooperate with farmers’ organisations and their national, regional and international bodies to eliminate child labour, especially in contract farming supply chains................................................................................................................. 45 Dialogue and cooperate with agricultural cooperatives and their national, regional and international bodies to eliminate child labour, especially in supply chains............................................................................................................. 45 Dialogue and cooperate with agricultural trade unions and federations to eliminate child labour, especially in supply chains..................................................... 45 Increase NGOs’ role in the creation and implementation of hazardous work lists........................................................................................................................ 45 Right to adequate food means ending child labour...................................................... 46 Overcome the urban/rural and gender education gap................................................. 46 Multinational enterprises should ensure that their agricultural product supply chains are child labour free........................................................................................... 46 Promote rural strategies and programmes aimed at improving rural livelihoods, and mainstreaming of child labour concerns into agricultural policy and programme making................................................................................................. 46
Table 1: Number and percentage of children, aged 5 to 17, engaged in hazardous work................................. 16 Table 2: Minimum age for admission to employment or work.......................................................................... 19
GLOBAL MARCH AGAINST CHILD LABOUR The Global March Against Child Labour is a worldwide network of trade unions, teachers’ and civil society organisations that work together towards the shared development goals of eliminating and preventing all forms of child labour and ensuring access by all children to a free, meaningful and good quality public education. It mobilises and supports its constituents to contribute to local, national, regional and global efforts and support for a range of international instruments relating to the protection and promotion of children’s rights and engages with United Nations (UN), international and intergovernmental agencies on the same, including for: Ÿ the ratification and implementation of the International Labour Organization (ILO)’s core labour standards, in
particular the Child Labour Conventions No. 138 on Minimum Age of Employment and No. 182 on the Worst Forms of Child Labour; Ÿ the implementation of and follow-up to the ILO’s Declaration of the Fundamental Principles and Rights at
Work; Ÿ the implementation of and follow-up to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child; Ÿ the implementation of the Dakar Framework for Action on Education for All (EFA); Ÿ the achievement of the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs); and Ÿ the follow-up to the Roadmap for Achieving the Elimination of the Worst Forms of Child Labour by 2016.
The Global March recognises the critical importance of ensuring that the world continues to progress towards the achievement of the MDGs, in particular the alleviation of poverty and ensuring universal primary education, as a prerequisite in the sustainable elimination and prevention of child labour. In addition, it promotes the achievement of decent work for all and the application of a social protection floor worldwide (including at national levels) to reinforce social cohesion and ensure the rebuilding of a global economy based on social justice as key elements in the fight against child labour. Global March also promotes the meaningful participation of all stakeholders, including children themselves, in decision-making processes affecting their lives and well-being and works towards the unification and strengthening of the worldwide movement against child labour, advocating coherence and integration between local, national, regional and international development policies, programmes and resources. As highlighted in the ILO’s Global Report on Child Labour for 20101, the issue remains a significant challenge for human development with an estimated 215 million child labourers in the world, 115 million of whom are exposed to hazardous work. Although child labour continued a very modest decline between 2004 and 2008, it is anticipated that this trend will be adversely affected by the global economic crisis and that the figures may even begin to climb worldwide. Most child labourers (around 60 per cent) are to be found in the agricultural sector and it is vital that greater efforts are directed towards rural and agricultural development. The situation in sub-Saharan Africa gives cause for extreme concern as one in four children in this region is a child labourer. Global March is also concerned by the increasing challenge of creating decent work opportunities for young people in agriculture and rural areas. According to latest ILO estimates, 75 million youth worldwide are currently unemployed and more than 150 million young people are living on less than US$1.25 a day. The ILO has warned that this situation risks creating a “lost generation” and is a threat to social cohesion. Reducing hazardous child labour and promoting decent work for youth go hand in hand. Hazardous work in agriculture for young workers 1. Accelerating action against child labour, ILO, Geneva, 2010.
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above the legal minimum age of employment but below 18 is a major contributing factor to worst forms of child labour and it is vital that any response to agricultural and rural child labour includes the development and promotion of decent work for youth. It is widely acknowledged by international organisations and development experts that as long as child labour persists, the MDGs and EFA goals cannot be achieved, and conversely, if the MDGs and EFA are not achieved, child labour will persist. In the light of the current global economic crisis, the situation remains a significant development concern and highlights the importance of the role and work of the Global March and its partners at all levels and the need for greater solidarity, effectiveness, efficiency and commitment among and between its worldwide membership and other actors operating in the inter-related fields of child labour, child protection, education, poverty and decent work.
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INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON CHILD LABOUR IN AGRICULTURE Agriculture is the sector in which, according to latest estimates of the ILO around 60 per cent of child labourers around the world work and the problem is not limited to developing countries but occurs in industrialised countries as well. And yet it remains a sector in which limited progress has been made to address child labour and where programmes are under-developed. A wide range of factors make child labour in agriculture particularly difficult to address, including: Ÿ the large numbers of girls and boys involved; Ÿ large and disparate populations in rural areas; Ÿ the fact that children in rural areas start work from a very young age; Ÿ the extremely hazardous nature of work in this sector; Ÿ lack of regulation in agriculture in many countries and/or the lack of government capacity to monitor and
enforce existing legislation and regulation; Ÿ lack of strong, well-organised and well-resourced agricultural trade unions given the characteristics of
workforce and the significant challenge in organising in rural areas; Ÿ the challenge in identifying child labour in agriculture given the widespread and rural nature of the problem; Ÿ denial of education often due to limited or non-existent access to schools and/or the poor quality of education
in rural areas, sometimes due to the challenge in recruiting teachers, especially women, to work in these areas and reducing teaching staff turnover; Ÿ the lack of public infrastructure in rural areas, not only in education, but also health, social protection, transport,
water, electricity, and others; Ÿ the effects of widespread and endemic poverty; and Ÿ ingrained attitudes and perceptions about the roles of children in rural areas.
If significant and sustainable progress is to be made towards the elimination of child labour, then tackling the issue in agriculture must be central to these efforts and must become a priority. The establishment of the International Partnership for Cooperation on Child Labour in Agriculture (the Partnership) in 2007, bringing together some of the main international stakeholders in the sector, including the ILO, the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the Global Union Federation for agricultural and food workers, i.e., the IUF is a welcome step in bridging the knowledge and capacity gaps between labour and agriculture stakeholders on child labour elimination. However, it is important that progress towards eliminating child labour in agriculture is accelerated and hazardous child labour in agriculture is transformed into decent work for youth. This will require building on activities of the partnership to mainstream the issue into agriculture and rural policies, address its root causes by promoting sustainable and safer agricultural practices, promoting decent work for youth, and to strengthen collaboration and communications with other stakeholders, including Global March and its members. Tackling child labour in agriculture, therefore, must be allocated the highest priority in future development programmes and actions. There needs to be an improved knowledge base, the introduction of more efficient and effective resources, the implementation of sustainable and long-term programmes and the mainstreaming of child labour across policies, programmes and legislative frameworks. As part of its ongoing efforts, Global March is reaching out to the Partnership, multi-stakeholder initiatives on child labour in agriculture, international,
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regional and national organisations active on child labour and agriculture, farmers’ and out-growers’ organisations, trade unions, teachers’ organisations, businesses involved in agriculture and allied activities, governments, policy makers and experts, to enhance knowledge management through sharing models of good practice in sustainable agriculture without child labour, and strengthening coherence and collaboration between the key stakeholders and actors. As part of its strategic targeting of agriculture as a priority, Global March is organising the International Conference on Child Labour in Agriculture from 28-30 July 2012 in Washington D.C., USA. The International Conference on Child Labour in Agriculture (Agriculture Conference) will address the continuing widespread incidence and serious consequences of child labour in agricultural activities. Towards catalysing meaningful and constructive action for protection of children from exploitation and elimination of child labour in agriculture, the Agriculture Conference is aiming at the following key objectives: Ÿ High level advocacy for elimination of child labour in agriculture; and Ÿ Empowerment, knowledge sharing, engagement and networking of civil society organisations to accelerate
actions at grassroots and national levels. Through the Agriculture Conference, the Global March will work with governments, UN agencies, farmer and outgrower organisations, trade unions, employers and businesses, multi-stakeholder initiatives, and civil society organisations to raise social and political awareness and will on child labour in agriculture, support the analysis of the knowledge base including the good practices, provide technical assistance and guidance to the civil society organisations and businesses in promoting decent work in agriculture, thereby empowering families, communities and civil society organisations to be active participants in the fight against exploitation of children, particularly in agriculture. Global March has prepared this working paper to support discussions at the Agriculture Conference, highlighting the critical areas of concern and outlining possible recommendations as key messages. This working paper will be disseminated to Global March members and partners, as well as the Agriculture Conference participants in advance of the Conference. A draft outcome document building upon the key messages and reflecting the Agriculture Conference discussion will be prepared through the work of the Conference. Global March gratefully acknowledges the support of the International Labour Organization’s International Programme for the Elimination of Child Labour (IPEC) for the preparation and publication of this working paper, including technical support for the working paper and the Conference workshops, as well as for the overall generous support for the Agriculture Conference.
This draft has been prepared by Peter Hurst with the support of and inputs from the Global March and ILO-IPEC.
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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The ILO’s Global Report for 2010 on child labour observes, “Sometimes, the obvious needs to be stated or restated. Meeting the 2016 target (for the elimination of the worst forms of child labour) and the ultimate goal of the effective abolition of child labour requires a breakthrough in agriculture.” According to the ILO, agriculture is a key economic sector for countries around the world, employing more than 1 billion people and being the second greatest source of jobs, especially for women and young people. Moreover, agricultural work bears a strong link to poverty in most countries around the globe with the agricultural workers representing some of the most vulnerable and poorest section of population. Agriculture is the sector where 60 per cent of child labour is found in both developed and developing countries. Some 130 million girls and boys under 18 years of age help to produce much of the food and drink that is consumed globally, and fibres and raw materials used to make other products. In addition to this, farming and other agricultural processes have been recognised as some of the most dangerous and hazardous working activities.
Child Labour in Agriculture Recognising the urgent need to eliminate hazardous child labour, Part 1 of the working paper focuses on child labour in agriculture where progress has been slow. Children in agriculture are “invisible” as much of the work they do in agriculture is considered “helping out” and seldom recognised as “labour”. The “family farm” aspect of agriculture is universal and bound-up in culture and tradition making it both difficult to acknowledge that children can be exploited in such a setting, as well as a no-go area for child labour action. Starting at a very young age and in large numbers, children work for long hours, in scorching heat or extreme cold, haul heavy loads of produce, are exposed to toxic chemicals (pesticides, etc.), work with heavy equipment or machinery, suffer high rates of injuries, and overall are exposed to extreme hazards. Their work is gruelling, harsh, unregulated and violates their rights to health, education and protection from work that is hazardous or exploitative. It is precisely for all these difficulties that agriculture should be a priority sector for elimination of child labour. Yet despite their numbers and the difficult nature of their work, child labour in agriculture has received little attention compared to other sectors such as manufacturing for exports. Child labour in agriculture may also go unrecognised when underage workers are supplied through labour contractors and sub-contractors, who are often victims of trafficking. Indeed, agriculture is one of the sectors in which trafficked workers, both adults and children are most commonly found.
What is child labour? Conventions, definitions, terminology, examples and case studies Part 2 of the working paper is dedicated to understanding what is child labour, the definitions, the international legal framework and how child labour conventions and elimination efforts link to wider international frameworks on labour rights, the development goals, particularly the MDGs and EFA, and others. It also presents many facets of child labour in agriculture – myriad ways children are engaged in agriculture, the range of tasks they perform and the numerous risks they face. Agricultural child labourers may work as unpaid workers on family-owned farms or for livestock rearing, as hired labour on commercial farms and plantations or may be contracted for labour as part of a migrant family work unit. In the most extreme conditions, they may be victims of trafficking, attached to an agricultural undertaking by debt bondage or held by their employers in slavery-like conditions. The link between minimum age of employment and transforming hazardous child labour into decent work for youth has also been discussed. It further explores the topic of hazardous child labour in agriculture in detail, and discusses the wide array of initiatives to tackle child labour in agriculture, including stronger national regulations and labour inspections, awareness raising, prevention, withdrawal, rehabilitation, law enforcement, access to education, improving health and safety measures at work, promoting decent working conditions, etc.
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Tackling child labour in agriculture – agricultural workers and their organisations, and others Agriculture remains a key sector for employment engaging over 35 per cent of the global workforce. Also, it is central to many national economies, and critical for sustainable rural livelihoods and poverty reduction. However along with this, the agricultural sector is also home to significant numbers of self-employed smallholder farmers and waged agricultural workers who are in poor labour conditions, with low incomes and wages, and often only poorly protected by national law compared to workers in other sectors, and among the least organised into representative organisations. Part 3 of the working paper argues that smallholder farmers (especially under contract farming arrangement in supply chains) and agricultural cooperatives must be more systematically engaged in combating child labour as, to date, their energies and potential to combat this phenomenon remains largely unharnessed. Similarly, greater use should be made of agricultural trade unions, working in cooperation with plantation and farming companies (often multinational enterprises), through joint workplace management-worker safety and health committees, to help smallholder farmers in supply chains to combat child labour. It further discusses the significant role that agricultural trade unions can play along with the initiatives undertaken by the business enterprises and civil society organisations to combat child labour in agriculture by developing or supporting initiative to attack child labour on the global, regional and national levels, compliance with child labour laws and international conventions, voluntary codes of conducts, social labelling and fair trade mechanisms, etc. While some of these initiatives have not drawn significant conclusions, they are included to provide an overview of the spectrum of programmes to tackle child labour in agriculture. All these types of organisations and initiatives have a common interest in combating child labour in agriculture. With cooperatives marketing about 50 per cent of the global agricultural output, they are identified as a key stakeholder for action to end child labour in agriculture. This Part also outlines the clear links between elimination of child labour and sustainable agriculture and food security, with the overall aim to eliminate child labour and provide quality education to children and more and better jobs along with safe and healthy working conditions to adults and youth.
Key messages and way forward Part 4 focuses on the role of the Global March, its partner organisations and other stakeholders in the fight against child labour in helping to achieve a breakthrough in combating child labour in agriculture based on twelve key messages indicating the ways forward: Message 1:
Mainstream trafficking, forced and bonded labour and slavery across actions to eliminate child labour in agriculture
Message 2:
Transforming hazardous child labour into decent youth employment
Message 3:
Make workplaces safe and healthy for all and increase workplace cooperation
Message 4:
Ensure labour right and standards for all agricultural/rural workers
Message 5:
Dialogue and cooperate with farmers’ organisations and their national, regional and international bodies to eliminate child labour, especially in contract farming supply chains
Message 6:
Dialogue and cooperate with agricultural cooperatives and their national, regional and international bodies to eliminate child labour, especially in supply chains
Message 7:
Dialogue and cooperate with agricultural trade unions and federations to eliminate child labour, especially in supply chains
Message 8:
Increase NGOs’ role in creating and implementing hazardous work lists
Message 9:
Right to adequate food means ending child labour
Message 10: Overcome the urban/rural and gender education gap Message 11: Multinational enterprises should ensure that their agricultural product supply chains are child labour free Message 12: Promote rural strategies and programmes aimed at improving rural livelihoods, and mainstreaming of child labour concerns into agricultural policy and programme making vi
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ACT/EMP ACTRAV CAADP CEACR CGIAR CLMS COLSIBA CONEPTI CRC ECLT EFA ETI FAO FLO GCE GAWU GEA HIV/AIDS ICEM ICI IFAD IFAP ILO IOE IOM IPCLA IPEC ITGLWF IUF MDG MNE NEPAD NGO OECD OSH SME UN UNESCO UNICEF UNODC WFCL WFO
ILO Bureau for Employers’ Activities ILO Bureau for Workers’ Activities Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme Committee of Experts on the Application of Conventions and Recommendations Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research Child Labour Monitoring System Latin American Coordination of Banana Workers Union National Committee for the Progressive Elimination of Child Labour UN Convention on the Rights of the Child Foundation for the Eliminating Child Labour in Tobacco-Growing Education for All Ethical Trading Initiative Food and Agriculture Organization Fairtrade Labelling Organization Global Campaign for Education Ghana Agricultural Workers’ Union Ghana Employers’ Organisation Human Immunodeficiency Virus/Acquired Immuno Deficiency Syndrome International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions International Cocoa Initiative International Fund for Agricultural Development International Federation of Agricultural Producers International Labour Organization International Organisation of Employers International Organization for Migration International Partnership for Cooperation on Child Labour in Agriculture International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour International Textile, Garment, Leather Workers Federation International Union of Food, Agricultural, Hotel, Restaurant, Catering, Tobacco and Allied Workers’ Associations Millennium Development Goal Multinational Enterprise New Partnership for Africa's Development Non-Governmental Organisation Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development Occupational Safety and Health Small and Medium-sized Enterprise United Nations United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation United Nations Children’s Fund United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime Worst Forms of Child Labour World Farmers’ Organisation
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PART 1
CHILD LABOUR IN AGRICULTURE
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WORKING PAPER ON CHILD LABOUR IN AGRICULTURE
1.1 International goals and targets on child labour The global objective with regard to ending exploitation of children is the elimination of all forms of child labour with the target of the elimination of the worst forms of child labour by 2016. Governments, employers’ organisations, trade unions, and civil society organisations like Global March are fundamental in working to achieve both these aims as part of a growing worldwide movement against child labour. The concerted efforts over the past two decades to reduce the levels of child labour have met with some success. The good news is that, globally child labour is on the decrease. From a total of 246 million girls and boys engaged in child labour in 2000, the figure fell by 11 per cent to 218 million in 2004, with a further decline to 215 million by 2010. However, owing especially to the current worldwide financial and economic crisis, the global pace of reduction of child labour worldwide has slowed down. In the period between 2004 and 2008, the number of child labourers declined from 222 million to 215 million – representing only a 3 per cent reduction in child labour worldwide. Yet, even though six out of ten child labourers work in agriculture, which translates into nearly 130 million girls and boys under 18 years, the sector remains an underdeveloped area of work on child labour, and one where combating child labour continues to be difficult and slow for reasons discussed in Section 1.3 below. As the ILO’s Global Report for 2010 on child labour observes, “Sometimes the obvious needs to be stated or restated. Meeting the 2016 target and the ultimate goal of the effective abolition of child labour requires a breakthrough in agriculture. Agriculture is, after all, the sector in which most child labourers work. In addition, the problem is not confined to developing countries, as demonstrated by the ILO supervisory system's regular monitoring of (ILO) Convention No. 182.” (See, for instance, the ILO’s CEACR observations concerning hazardous child labour in US agriculture.)2 The Hague Global Conference on Child Labour 20103 reinforced the growing recognition that unless a concerted effort is applied to reducing agricultural child labour, it will be impossible to achieve the goal of elimination of all worst forms of child labour by 2016, let alone the global objective of total elimination. The Conference adopted a Roadmap for Achieving the Elimination of the Worst Forms of Child Labour by 2016. The Roadmap acknowledged, “the available data concerning the incidence of child labour, by sector, with the highest incidence of child labour in agriculture (60%), and 26% in services, while recognizing the need for more data collection covering hard-to-reach children including in domestic work, slavery, sexual exploitation and illicit activities”.4 The Roadmap calls for, “Strengthening efforts (together with governments and other relevant partners) to address hazardous work by children particularly in sectors and occupations where child labour is most prevalent”5, which obviously implies a very strong focus on child labour in agriculture.
1.2 Background: Child labour in agriculture Agriculture is the largest employer and the largest locus of child labour. Whilst child labour is a global phenomenon spanning numerous economic sectors in both developed and developing economies, it is overwhelmingly an agricultural and rural phenomenon. As noted earlier, globally, 60 per cent of an estimated 215 million child labourers work in agriculture and the problem is not confined to developing countries.6 Add to this 60
2. Accelerating action against child labour. Global report under the follow-up of the ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work. Report of the Director General, ILO Geneva, International Labour Conference, 2010, Report I(B), Paragraph 250, p. 56. 3. IPEC action against child labour: Highlights 2010. ILO IPEC Geneva, 2011, Paragraph 30. 4. IPEC action against child labour: Highlights 2010. ILO IPEC Geneva, 2011, Preamble vii. 5. IPEC action against child labour: Highlights 2010. ILO IPEC Geneva, 2011, Paragraph 11.5. 6. “Agriculture also remains an employer of child labour in those OECD countries which have not ratified (ILO) Convention No. 138 and which, in some cases, have not yet prohibited hazardous work in the sector for all children under the age of 18 years as required by (ILO) Convention No. 182.” Accelerating action against child labour: Global report (Geneva, ILO, 2010), Paragraph 251, p. 56.
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International Conference on Child Labour in Agriculture
per cent, the number of children working in exploitative activities in the countryside such as fishing, smallscale mining, construction, and services, and it is clear that the bulk of child labourers are found in rural areas.7
Children herding farm animals Child labourers herd farm animals, water them, and milk them. Draught animals such as horses, donkeys, mules and oxen are used for dragging or carrying loads. Children are frequently injured by being bitten, butted, jostled, stamped on, gored or trampled. Animals do not need to be aggressive to cause serious harm or even kill a child. The dangers of mature cattle and horses are obvious, but sheep and pigs can also cause serious injury, often when apparently playful. 8
The vast majority of the world’s child labourers are not toiling in factories and sweatshops or working as domestic workers or street vendors in urban areas, they are working from sun up to sun down, planting and harvesting crops, spraying pesticides, tending livestock on rural farms and plantations and in aquaculture. Girls and boys have historically been and continue to be part of the world’s agricultural workforce. Much of the food and drink that is consumed and the fibres and raw materials that are used to make other products are produced, at least in part, by child labourers in agriculture. Many of them work in product supply chains as part of the global food chain. They also help to supply commodities used in other global supply chains such as cotton used in global textile and garment manufacturing supply chains; and leather used in global shoe and garment manufacturing supply chains, to cite two examples.
Children in pastoral communities may spend many months as shepherds/herders in remote, isolated areas looking after the herds. Herders are one of the most widespread categories of child worker in Africa. One of their principal tasks is to water their animals. When the well is deep (40 to 50 metres), water must be drawn up with the help of a team of animals. The child worker must lead the team to the end of the pumping track and then lead it back to the well often at a run. Assuming a well depth of 40 metres and a container averaging 30 litres, the child worker has to travel 27 kilometres back and forth in order to water a herd of 200 camels.9
The list of agricultural goods produced with child labour is a long one which includes: Bamboo; Bananas; Beans Blueberries; Brazil nuts/Chestnuts; Broccoli; Cashews; Cattle; Coca; Chile peppers; Citrus fruits; Cloves; Cocoa; Coconuts; Coffee; Maize; Cotton; Cottonseed (hybrid); Cucumbers; Cumin; Farmed fish; Aubergines; Flowers; Garlic; Goats; Grapes; Hazelnuts; Pigs; Lobsters; Manioc/Cassava; Melons; Miraa Oil palm; Olives; Onions; Peanuts; Pineapples; Poultry; Pulses; Rice; Rubber; Shellfish; Shrimp; Sisal; Strawberries and other soft fruits; Sugar beet; Sugarcane; Tea; Tobacco; Tomatoes; Vanilla; and Yerba mate.10
7. The breakdown of child labourers between economic sectors is as follows: 60% in agriculture; 7% in industry; 25.6% in services; 7.5% undefined. Accelerating action against child labour: Global report (Geneva, ILO, 2010), Figure 1.4, p. 11. 8. Preventing accidents to children on farms. Health and Safety Executive, UK, AS10(rev2) 2002, C150. 9. M. Bonnet: Child Labour in Africa. In International Labour Review, ILO, Geneva, 1993, Vol. 132, No. 3, p. 382. 10. 2011List of goods produced by child labor or forced labor. US Department of Labor. Bureau of International Labor Affairs. Office of Child Labor, Forced Labor and Human Trafficking. Report required by the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act (TVPRA) 2005; http://www.dol.gov/ilab/programs/ocft/pdf/2011TVPRA.pdf
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WORKING PAPER ON CHILD LABOUR IN AGRICULTURE
Agricultural child labourers work on all types of undertakings, ranging from family farms (small, medium and large-sized), corporate-run farms, plantations, agro-industrial complexes, and fish farms. They may work with basic equipment and low levels of mechanisation and agricultural inputs (fertilisers, pesticides, electrical energy, etc.) or intensive, highly organised, highly capitalised and commercial production systems.
Changes in types of agricultural production generate demands for child labour In India, the introduction of hybrid cottonseeds in the early 1970s not only contributed to the rise in productivity and quality of cotton, but also generated a substantial amount of additional employment in the agricultural sector, particularly in the state of Andhra Pradesh which accounts for about 65 per cent of Indian cottonseed production. However, much employment generated was the hiring of female children as bonded labourers.
There are several types of child labour in agriculture. These include child labour in hazardous conditions working on family farms, commercial farms and plantations, as well as child labour contracted to commercial farms, forced/bonded child labour and trafficked child labour. (See Section 2.4.1)
An estimated 450,000 children, in the age group of 6 to 14 years, are employed in cottonseed fields in India, with about 248,000 of them in Andhra Pradesh alone. Local seed farmers, who cultivate hybrid cottonseeds for national and multinational enterprise seed companies, secure the labour of girls by offering loans to their parents in advance of cultivation, compelling the girls to work at the terms set by the employer for the entire season, and, in practice, for several years. These girls work long days, are paid very little, are deprived of an education and are exposed for long periods to dangerous agricultural chemicals.11
The prevalence of child labour in agriculture undermines decent work for all workers, sustainable agriculture, rural development, food security and the right to food, as it perpetuates a cycle in which household income for both self-employed farmers and waged agricultural workers is insufficient to meet their economic needs and those of their families and households. Hazardous child labour in agriculture depresses decent work for youth, as doing hazardous work in adolescence can create huge barriers – educational, physical, psychological and social - that impede a young person from competing successfully for good and safe jobs in the future. Rural poverty also drives girls and boys in the countryside to migrate, legally or illegally, or to be trafficked to towns and cities where they often end up as urban child labourers, urban unemployed or underemployed – exchanging their rural poverty for urban poverty.
1.3 Difficulties in combating child labour in agriculture As mentioned earlier, the effective abolition of child labour requires a breakthrough in agriculture. The ILO acknowledges that, “Progress has been slow in eliminating child labour in agriculture in part because these children, spread out over the rural areas of the world, are the hardest to reach. Seldom do abuses in agricultural child labour make the news. But farming, including livestock-herding, has many hazards (and high levels of risks) and creates more injuries and illnesses than what we hear about. Given that this sector has over 100 million child labourers, agriculture must be a priority for the elimination of hazardous child labour.”12 A number of factors have made agricultural child labour a particularly difficult one to tackle for reasons, which are discussed in the following paragraphs. Overcoming the “special” status of agriculture: There has traditionally been a resistance across different cultures and regions of the world to the idea that “helping out” on farms, particularly on family farms, can qualify as “child labour”. Agriculture is a way of life in which children work to learn their future trade. This “family farm” 11. Venkateswarlu D. Child labour and trans-national seed companies in hybrid cottonseed production in Andhra Pradesh, India. India Committee of the Netherlands, Utrecht, The Netherlands, undated. 12. Children in hazardous work: A review of knowledge and policy challenges (Geneva, ILO IPEC, 2010), p. 23.
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element in agriculture, that is so bound-up with culture and tradition, makes it difficult to acknowledge that children can be systematically exploited in such a setting and makes it difficult to reach for child labour action. The fact that children work on family farms can be perceived as “family solidarity”. Although this can be the case, it is important to take a closer look and examine the working conditions, which may well be hazardous, and the amount of time that may be devoted to work and thereby lost to education, particularly by girls.13 On farm and off farm work: As with adult rural workers, rural child labourers often combine farm and off-farm work. They work on a casual or seasonal basis on farms and plantations, especially at peak times such as during planting and harvesting. Then, when the farm work runs out, i.e., the “hungry months”, they move out for work, for example, on market stalls, in shops, small workshops, in mines, or carrying out odd-jobs. Because of their job mobility, rural child labourers can be difficult to track and work with. Large numbers: Six out of ten child labourers work in agriculture which translates into nearly 130 million girls and boys under 18 years. Also, as many of them live and work in remote areas, the poor transport system makes it difficult for support services to reach these children. Begin work young: Unfortunately, “helping out” in some parts of the world begins at an age that a child should be entering primary school. Many poverty-stricken rural children in developing countries, girls in particular, become farm labourers while still very young, even as young as 5 years. In some countries, children below 10 years are estimated to account for 20 per cent of rural child labour.14 Cheap labour: In many instances, children in rural areas represent a plentiful source of cheap farm labour that can suppress wages and discourage the implementation of more productive methods or technologies to improve farm productivity, and not just the yield. Whilst poverty is undoubtedly a cause of child labour, child labour itself is a cause of poverty. If children can do the work of adults at lower wages, then that is a threat to adult workers’ wages and working conditions. Undermining youth employment: Child labour also undermines efforts to promote rural youth employment under decent conditions of work. Children who have reached the minimum legal age for employment in their country (i.e., 14/15 years of age upwards) continue to work in exploitative and hazardous conditions with poor future job and economic prospects instead of being decently and properly employed as “young workers.” (See Part 2 and Message 2) The importance of child labourers’ contributions to household economies: The importance to a poor family of one family member having a job cannot be overestimated. Also, where basic education is not free, for some families child labour is the only way to generate enough income to ensure at least partial schooling for their children. The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) estimated that each job held by a migrant worker in Côte d'Ivoire contributes to the economic well being of twenty members of his/her extended family in the region.15 Invisible, hidden and unacknowledged: Work by children in agriculture is often carried out as piecework or to contribute towards a quota required of farm-worker families on large farms or plantations. Agricultural child labour remains hidden from the authorities and support service providers as these children are not legally registered as employed (often only the head of the household, usually male, is registered as working, especially in case of migrant workers and their families). It may also be invisible to policy and decision-makers since much of the work that these children do is considered to be “helping out” and is seldom recognised in official statistics. In fact, “undeclared work” in agriculture is on the increase in many regions.16 13. The end of child labour: Within reach. ILO, Geneva, 2006), Paragraph 165. 14. Child labour: Targeting the intolerable (ILO, Geneva, 1996). 15. UNICEF: “Cõte d`Ivoire sub-regional crisis. UNICEF Donor alert”, 24 January, 2003; see www.unicef.org/Emergencies_Cote _Divoire_Donor_Update_240103.pdf 16. “Undeclared work is variously referred to as underground or hidden labour, clandestine employment, “black” labour, moonlighting, or commonly, as illegal work. These terms are for the most part used in industrialized countries and refer to kinds of work whose activities are covered by labour law but are not in conformity with its administrative requirements.” Labour inspection in Europe: undeclared work, migration, trafficking. LAB/ADMIN, ILO Geneva 2010, Working Document No. 7, p 1.
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Weak laws and enforcement: Labour laws remain limited, non-applicable, unenforced or only poorly enforced in the agricultural sector in many countries. Workers in agriculture generally have poorer working conditions and lower levels of social protection than their counterparts in industry or commerce. Government labour inspection services in agriculture and rural areas are either absent or weak.17 Rural labour markets are weak: The labour markets in rural areas are generally weak with poor governance and institutions, including weak or non-existent labour inspection in many countries - all unable to stop abuses such as child labour.18 Weak rural labour markets are characterised by large (monopsonistic) employers, oversupply of labour, poor transport and communications infrastructure restricting movement of labour to stronger markets. As a result, wages in rural areas remain depressed and people trapped in poverty.19 Labour contracting: Contracting of labour is becoming increasingly common in many forms of commercial agriculture. Such arrangements, if not properly regulated, can disguise child labour and allow employers to disclaim responsibility for any child labour found on their farms or plantations. Also the multiple dependencies of workers on the labour contractors such as for negotiating the wages to be paid, other terms of employment, etc., only increase the vulnerabilities of the workers to abuse, and even in cases of legally migrant workers, the working conditions in host destinations could lead to conditions of forced labour and at worst they could end up being trafficked. Unregulated labour contractors can lead to illegal migration of adult workers and their families, and often play a singular role in promoting trafficking of adults and children for forced labour. (See Section 2.4.1a on child trafficking and agriculture) Food and commodity supply chains: Much of child labour is found in product supply chains - domestic and for export. Under economic pressures, smallholder farmers supplying the main plantation or farm with produce may use child labour which is a source of cheap labour. Regulating and controlling supply chains, especially the use of child labour, is not straightforward. (See Section 3.4.3 on smallholder outgrower farmers and associations) Hazardous work: Irrespective of age, agriculture is one of the four most hazardous sectors in terms of fatalities, accidents and ill health, along with construction, mining and fishing. When facing the same dangers, children are at greater risk of harm than adult workers as their minds and bodies are still growing and developing, and they lack experience. In agriculture, there is often no clear boundary between living and working conditions and so improving safety and health standards in agriculture has also proved difficult. According to ILO statistics, half of all fatal accidents still occur in agriculture.20 (See Section 2.4.2 on Work which is likely to harm the health and safety of children) Girl child labour: Girl child labour in agriculture forms a significant part of the workforce, and helps maintain this phenomenon. Girl child labourers have a double burden and are particularly disadvantaged since they usually have to also undertake domestic chores in their own homes before and after their agricultural work and at weekends. Also, their access to education is often more restricted than that of boys.21
17. Managing labour inspection in rural areas. ITC-ILO Curriculum on Building modern and effective labour inspection systems, ILO Geneva, 2011. Module 14, Section 1.2, p. 9. 18. Managing labour inspection in rural areas. ITC-ILO Curriculum on Building modern and effective labour inspection systems, ILO Geneva, 2011. Module 14, p. 5. 19. Promotion of rural employment for poverty reduction. ILO, Geneva 2008, Report IV, Paragraph 188. 20. Safety & Health in Agriculture: Report (VI) I, ILO International Labour Conference, 88th session, Geneva, 2000, p. 3. 21. The ILO estimates that about 100 million girls are involved in child labour around the world. Accelerating action against child labour. Global report under the follow-up of the ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work. Report of the Director General, ILO Geneva, International Labour Conference, 2010, Report I(B), Box 3.3 (Girls still at special risk and still being left behind), p. 57.
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Story of Amina: Child labourers in Turkey Amina is nine years old and for the last two years she has been working picking peanuts with her parents in the north of Turkey. She has three younger brothers and an older sister who stays at home to look after their mother. Their mother is disabled and cannot walk. Their father died two years ago. Amina works from 7 in the morning until 6 in the evening. She is given one main meal and one snack a day. Amina used to go to school but now her family depends on her wage. She misses her school friends and is too tired to see them when she goes home. She was able to read and write but now she has forgotten most of what she learned. She would like her brothers to go to school because she thinks schooling will help them earn a better income, but it is unlikely the family will be able to afford it.22
Rural education: The limited availability of a free, good quality education, which should be universally available for all children, is a further barrier to reducing agricultural child labour (See Section 3.10.1). Rural children generally have poor access to quality education due to lack of schools, lack of or poorly trained and paid teachers, irrelevant curricula, poor attendance rates, lower standards of educational performance and achievement.23 Illiteracy or poor literacy is often common, and acts to reinforce child labour. Poor skills and vocational training: Poor skills and vocational training also conspires to keep children as child labourers. Transferable skills and vocational training should be incorporated into school curricula to prepare and equip children from an early age for their entry into the world of adult work. Skills and vocational training are especially vital for children who have reached the minimum legal age for employment in their country to ensure that they can find decent employment and do not end up as child labourers working in poor and hazardous conditions. Weak rural organisations: Organisations for both self-employed smallholder farmers and for waged workers tend to be weak and fragmented in rural areas, where traditional, even feudal labour relations persist, and where rural workers enjoy weaker legal rights than other workers.24 (See Section 3.4) Rural poverty: Most child labourers come from poor families and households. The bulk of the world's chronic poor live and work in rural areas. It is a sad and ironic paradox that those women and men who grow food and feed the world are often not able to adequately feed and clothe themselves and their families and to send their children to school. (See Section 3.2) Migrant, seasonal and temporary workers: The agriculture sector depends heavily on migrant (both internal and cross-border), seasonal and temporary workers and the precarious employment of these workers and their families, including children. Migrant workers, including their children are more willing to accept temporary employment and seasonal jobs that lack long-term security or other benefits, and perform “dirty” jobs that locals do not want to do. The on-going demand for seasonal agriculture workers combined, in numerous cases, with limited legal migration channels, leads to clandestine means and trafficking for labour exploitation and forced labour, including of underage children. Additionally, even in cases of legal migration, the lack of social protection mechanisms and strict labour regulations make workers vulnerable to trafficking, forced labour, etc. Lack of media attention: Another factor that has impeded action for child labour in agriculture is the insufficient media attention that this issue has received. The ILO has also noted that “apart from the export sector, the media has given virtually no exposure to agriculture.”25 22. Working together we can stop child labour. ILO Brochure for teachers for World Day Against Child Labour, 2006. 23. International Partnership for Cooperation on Child Labour in Agriculture. Brochure, 2007. 24. Managing labour inspection in rural areas. ITC-ILO Curriculum on Building modern and effective labour inspection systems, ILO Geneva, 2011. Module 14, Section 1.2, p. 9. 25. Accelerating action against child labour. Global report under the follow-up of the ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work. Report of the Director General, ILO Geneva, International Labour Conference, 2010, Report I(B), Paragraph 251, p. 56.
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In conclusion, all these factors make agriculture both “special” and “difficult” to reach for child labour action. However, it is precisely because of all these factors that agriculture should be a priority sector for the elimination of child labour, but this is not the case at the national level, where historically an urban and industrial view of what constitutes child labour has prevailed.26
26. The end of child labour. Within reach. (ILO, Geneva, 2006), pp. 37-39.
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PART 2
WHAT IS CHILD LABOUR? CONVENTIONS, DEFINITIONS AND TERMINOLOGY
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2.1 International legal framework on child labour The international legal framework to combat child labour refers to conventions, other international instruments and treaties that seek to protect children from exploitation and abuse and to ensure their access to fundamental rights, including education. There are three main international instruments that underpin national efforts to prevent and eliminate child labour: Ÿ ILO Convention on Minimum Age for Employment 1973 (No. 138) requires ratifying ILO member States to
pursue a national policy designed to ensure the effective abolition of child labour and to progressively raise the minimum age for admission to employment or work to a level consistent with the fullest physical and mental development of young persons (163 ratifications as of 14.05.2012, some 89 per cent of ILO member States). Ÿ ILO Convention on the Prohibition and Immediate Action for the Elimination of the Worst Forms of Child Labour
1999 (No. 182), calls on member States to prohibit and eliminate the worst forms of child labour, as defined below, and applies to all children under 18 (175 ratifications as of 14.05.2012, some 96 per cent of ILO member States). Ÿ United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) 1989, sets out the basic rights of the child and
makes reference to the relevant provisions of other international instruments. Article 32 of the CRC contains provision with regard to child labour. However, these Conventions also have to be seen in the context of the wider international framework of labour rights, especially what are termed as the ILO “fundamental human rights Conventions,”27 and linked to other key social and rights frameworks and programmes such as the Millennium Development Goals, Educational for All, the Right to Food, etc. Fully and sustainably eliminating child labour will only be possible if these and other ILO Conventions, such as Convention No. 184 on Safety and Health in Agriculture (only 14 ratifications as of 13.03.2012), are ratified and implemented, and the other key social and rights frameworks are used. Eliminating child labour means, for example, fully securing the rights of workers to organise and bargain collectively in free, independent trade unions; creating decent employment and ensuring decent wages and work for adult workers. Eliminating hazardous child labour will only be possible by making workplaces safer and healthier for all workers - young and adult. Child labour elimination cannot be seen in isolation from labour conventions and programmes to provide decent work for all, sustainable agriculture, rural development, poverty reduction, education for all, and so on.
2.2 What is “child labour”? The term “child labour” reflects the engagement of children in prohibited work and activities, that is, work and activities by children to be eliminated as socially and morally undesirable.28
2.3 Who is defined as “a child”? “The term “child” shall apply to all persons under the age of 18.” (ILO C 182, Article 2) “A child means every human being below the age of eighteen years.” (UN CRC, Article 1) 27.
ILO fundamental human rights Conventions are: Forced Labour Convention, 1930 (No. 29) Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise, 1948 (No. 87) Right to Organise and Collective Bargaining, 1949 (No. 98) Equal Remuneration Convention, 1951 (No. 100) Abolition of Forced Labour Convention, 1957 (No. 105) Discrimination (Employment and Occupation) Convention 1958 (No. 111) Minimum Age Convention, 1973 (No. 138) Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention, 1999 (No. 182) Also known as “core labour standards”, these human rights Conventions are not only important in their own right, but also serve as enabling rights, i.e., they create conditions to allow access to other rights. 28. Every child counts: New global estimates on child labour. ILO IPEC Geneva 2002, p. 23. Ÿ Ÿ Ÿ Ÿ Ÿ Ÿ Ÿ Ÿ
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2.4 What are “the worst forms of child labour” (WFCL)? The international community has given special priority to prohibition and immediate action for the elimination of the worst forms of child labour, defined in ILO C 182, Article 3 as: “(a)
all forms of slavery or practices similar to slavery, such as the sale and trafficking of children, debt bondage and serfdom and forced or compulsory labour, including forced or compulsory recruitment of children for use in armed conflict;
(b)
the use, procuring or offering of a child for prostitution, for the production of pornography or for pornographic performances;
(c)
the use, procuring or offering of a child for illicit activities, in particular for the production and trafficking of drugs as defined in the relevant international treaties;
(d)
work which, by its nature or the circumstances in which it is carried out, is likely to harm the health, safety or morals of children.”
2.4.1 WFCL: C 182, Article 3 (a), (b), and (c) With regard to the worst forms of child labour as defined in Article 3 (a), (b), and (c), under no circumstances whatsoever must any child under 18 be allowed to remain in these exploitative and illegal activities. A child found in any of these worst forms of child labour must be rapidly withdrawn from that exploitation, taken to a place of safety, and the process of rehabilitation begun. The numbers of children in WFCL as defined in Article 3 (a), (b), and (c) is not known precisely but estimated at millions. The difficulties of collecting data on this issue can be illustrated using the example of forced labour. The ILO Global Reports on child labour (2002) and on forced labour (2005) settled on the global figure of around 5.7 million children in forced and bonded labour, which represent about half of all victims in these forms.29 However, the ILO 2010 Global Report on child labour observes that, “There is a general scarcity of data on forced labour. While IPEC has commissioned a number of country studies and other work on methodological development, beginning in 2007 and due to run to 2012, the research effort has faced considerable political difficulties, resulting in the exclusion of some countries with significant levels of children in forced labour.”30 a) Child trafficking and agriculture In the first years of the twenty-first century, human trafficking has become a central issue to security and stability. Human trafficking is a very old phenomenon, which has acquired new complexities over time. Although the global experience in dealing with trafficking as a crime is relatively young, the frequency and extent of human trafficking has been on the increase for the last few decades. As a result, this nefarious trade in human beings continues unabated in many parts of the world, with the deliberate purpose of profiting from the vulnerability of people, especially women and children. Article 3 (a) of the United Nations Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, especially Women and Children, supplementing the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organised Crime defines “trafficking in persons” as “the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons, by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation. Exploitation shall include, at a 29. Accelerating action against child labour. Global report under the follow-up of the ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work. Report of the Director General, ILO Geneva, International Labour Conference, 2010, Report I(B), Paragraph 255, pp 56-57. 30. Accelerating action against child labour. Global report under the follow-up of the ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work. Report of the Director General, ILO Geneva, International Labour Conference, 2010, Report I(B), Paragraph 255, p. 57.
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minimum, the exploitation of the prostitution of others or other forms of sexual exploitation, forced labour or services, slavery or practices similar to slavery, servitude or the removal of organs.”
Salient features of trafficking are: Ÿ Activities: recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of person; Ÿ Means: by force, coercion, menace of penalty, threat, abduction, fraud, deception, of the abuse of power
or a position of vulnerability Ÿ Purpose: exploitation, including forced labour or removal of organs
Victims of labour trafficking, including child victims, have been found across countries, as migrant and seasonal farm workers, who harvest corps, raise animals, fish, dive, transport, pack products, etc. Within Cambodia and from it to Thailand, Vietnam and other neighbouring countries, children are trafficked to work in fishing, where typical activities include work on board fishing vessels, construction and repair of fishing boat and gear, fish processing, transport and marketing.31
Child trafficking in fisheries and aquaculture Trafficking of child labourers in fisheries and aquaculture is increasingly being recognised as a big issue, particularly in India, Bangladesh, Thailand and West Africa.32 In a number of countries, including Burma, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Ecuador, India, Indonesia, Peru, Sri Lanka, and Thailand, child labour has been reported within the shrimp industry. Many of these children work as cheap labour, collecting shrimp fry from the sea for shrimp farms, working in shrimp processing depots, or working on the farms themselves.33 An ILO survey, on migrant labour in shrimp processing depots in Thailand found that roughly 19 per cent of the migrant workers in processing plants interviewed for the report were less than 15 years of age, while another 22 per cent were between 15 and 17.34
Sometimes, what is considered as migration of children for working in agricultural farms is actually trafficking. As defined in Article 3 (c) of the Trafficking Protocol, “The recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of a child for the purpose of exploitation shall be considered “trafficking in persons” even if this does not involve any of the means set forth in subparagraph (a) of this article.” Furthermore, subparagraph (d) notes, “Child” shall mean any person under eighteen years of age.
An important “way forward” for Global March, its partners and members is to raise awareness on child trafficking among the civil society organisations, government agencies, rural institutions, and in countries to support the withdrawal and remediation of trafficked children working in farms and support the Partnership, ILO, FAO and also IOM and UNODC in the development of guidance and other tools to tackle child trafficking for labour in agriculture and allied activities. (See Message 1)
31. 32. 33. 34.
Report of the FAO workshop on child labour in fisheries and Aquaculture in cooperation with ILO, Rome, 14–16 April 2010, p. 12, http:// www.fao.org/docrep/013/i1813e/i1813e00.pdf Sustainable Fisheries Livelihoods Programme (SFLP), FAO, Rome; Website: http://www.sflp.org/ Smash and Grab: Conflict, corruption and human rights abuses in the shrimp farming industry. Environmental Justice Foundation and WildAid, 2003. Women, The Mekong Challenge: Underpaid, Overworked and Overlooked, the Realities of Young Migrant Workers in Thailand (Bangkok, Thailand: ILO 2006), vol. 1, p. 82, http://www.ilo.org/public/english/regio n/asro/bangkok/child/trafficking/downloads/underpaid-eng-volume1.pdf.
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b) Forced Labour, debt bondage and intergenerational debt bondage Forced labour and debt bonded slavery are two of the oldest forms of slavery that continue into the present day. Children across the world are often forced into agricultural labour due to poverty and food insecurity at home. “Forced or compulsory labour” according to the ILO Convention No. 29, means “all work or service, which is exacted from any person under the menace of any penalty and for which the said person has not offered himself voluntarily.” Embedded in the international definition of forced labour as formulated in ILO Convention No. 29 are two essential criteria: “menace of penalty” and “involuntariness”. Accordingly, forced labour occurs when people are being subjected to psychological or physical coercion (the menace or the imposition of a penalty) to perform some work that they would otherwise not have accepted to perform at the prevailing conditions (the involuntariness). For children, the force of poverty and food insecurity at home (menace of penalty) and the social, physical and emotional immaturity of the child (involuntariness), even for one who consented, all point towards exploitation and forced labour.
Labour inspection and forced labour in Brazil In 2004, to combat forced labour, especially in agriculture and cattle ranching, Brazil recruited 150 new inspectors, and created a Special Mobile Inspection Unit made up of labour inspectors and federal police officers to tackle forced labour. All were volunteers, none of whom operated in their federal state of residence for reasons of personal safety and independence from pressures. Their job was to investigate allegations of forced labour on “fazendas” (rural estates or ranches). Sometimes labour judges were also part of the Unit so that prosecution could be carried out swiftly and on the spot. Regular evaluations of the operations of this Unit have pointed to two main criteria for effectiveness: centralised organisation and absolute secrecy in planning. The investigative work of the mobile inspection teams has been replicated at the local and state level. The Brazilian Federal Government has rescued more than 36,000 workers since the creation of the Special Mobile Inspection Group in 1995.
The entrapment of a child into forced labour or bondage is one of the worst forms of child labour and of human trafficking. Children find their way into bondage by being abducted, sold by their parents, given away, or orphaned. Poor parents with large families are offered money for a child and falsely told that the child will be educated, given a good job and will be able to Source: Managing labour inspection in rural areas. ITC-ILO send money home to help feed the starving family. The Curriculum on Building modern and effective labour inspection parents reluctantly agree to let their child go, and systems, ILO Geneva, 2011. Module 14, p. 23. usually these parents never hear from or see that child again. Trafficking of children in the fishing villages of Ghana in West Africa is a case in point. The boys are taught to fish and swim at the early age of 4. During the lean fishing seasons, when the people face starvation, the traffickers working for large fishing companies come to recruit children. The traffickers look for boys who can swim and whose labour can be used to untangle the fishing nets. ln 2002, a study of child labour on some 1,500 cocoa-producing farms in Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana and Nigeria found that hundreds of thousands of children were engaged in hazardous tasks on cocoa farms.35 Many child labourers came from impoverished countries in the region like Burkina Faso, Mali and Togo. Parents often sent their children in the belief that they would find work and send earnings home. However, once separated from their families, the boys were forced to work in slave-like conditions. In the Côte d’Ivoire, nearly 12,000 of the child labourers had no relatives in the area, and were considered to be at high risk of trafficking and forced labour. Further, a 2011 survey of Migration and Child Trafficking to the Cocoa Sector by the Tulane University36, indicates that child trafficking for work in cocoa agriculture continues to be major in Burkina Faso and Mali. Debt bondage is defined by the UN Supplementary Convention on the Abolition of Slavery, the Slave Trade and Practices similar to Slavery (1956) as “the status or condition arising from a pledge by a debtor of his personal
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services or of those of a person under his control as security for a debt, if the value for those services as reasonably assessed is not applied towards the liquidation of the debt or the length and nature of those services are not respectively limited and defined” (Article 1a). In this case the individual becomes a security against a debt or loan, works partly or exclusively to pay off the debt, which has been incurred, and in most cases the debt perpetuates or persists for a long time. The debt bonded labourer is often at the mercy of his or her trafficker, employer or creditor and the terms of the loan or advance are either not stipulated or not followed. In many cases, the obligation to repay the loan is inherited by the victims' children who are born into a life of bonded labour. Indeed the problem of debt-bonded labour is linked to rural unemployment. The landless and bonded labourers are among the weakest and most exploited segments of the rural communities across the world. Bonded labourers are mostly from socially excluded groups, including indigenous people, minorities and migrants, who suffer additionally from discrimination and political disenfranchisement. Bonded labourers, their children and families have been systematically exploited for “economic reasons” in the agriculture supply chains, including in food production. Often bonded labourers are compelled to place other members of the family, often the children in bondage in order to repay a debt. This situation perpetuates a cycle of debt from one generation to another in the form of intergenerational debt bondage. Children in debt bondage face major health and physical risks. Also, debt bondage of children often becomes entrenched in as a common practice due to societal and cultural norms such as child bonded labour in India, Kamaiya (for girls, Kamlahari) in Nepal, and some child slaves in conditions of forced labour on cocoa farms in Cote d’Ivoire and Mexico. Furthermore, bonded labour is involuntary work for which a child never offered herself or himself; with the illegal pledging of the child’s labour as collateral; and the transmission of the debt from the parent to the child, which reinforces the intergenerational transmission of inequalities and exploitation.
Global March has strongly advocated for the abolition of slavery, forced labour, bonded labour, including its inclusion in the ILO Convention No. 182 on worst forms of child labour. An important “way forward” could be for Global March to raise awareness on these issues, advocate for stricter enforcement of the laws against child forced labour and bonded labour, and advocate to provide poor families and vulnerable communities with sources of cooperative insurance products - mainly life, health and insurance, with investments in education for children and vocational training for youth. (See Message 1 and 2)
2.4.2 WFCL C 182 Article 3 (d) : Work that is likely to harm the health, safety of children Another type of worst form of child labour is defined in C 182, Article 3 (d) as “Work which, by its nature or the circumstances in which it is carried out is likely to harm the health, safety or morals of children.” This work is popularly termed as “hazardous child labour.” Girls and boys in hazardous work labour in jobs with poor safety and health conditions that can result in them being killed, injured or suffering work-related ill health, including psychosocial problems. Some of the safety and health problems they experience can result in permanent disability, impairment, or illness in later life.37 35. 36. 37.
International Institute of Tropical Agriculture: Child Labour in the Cocoa Sector of West Africa: A synthesis of findings in Cameroon, Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana, and Nigeria (Croydon, UK, Lambourn Ltd. 2002). Final Report - Oversight of Public and Private Initiatives to Eliminate the Worst Forms of Child Labour in the Cocoa Sector in Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana, Tulane University, March 31, 2011. When speaking of child labourers it is important to go beyond the concepts of work hazard and risk as applied to adult workers and to expand them to include the developmental aspects of childhood. Because children are still growing they have special characteristics and needs that must be taken into consideration when determining workplace hazards and the risks associated with them, in terms of physical, cognitive and behavioural development and emotional growth. The World Health Organization's definition of “child health” is a complete physical, mental and social well-being of a child and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity. Guidebook 2: Overview of child labour in agriculture. In Tackling hazardous child labour in agriculture: Guidance on policy and practice (Geneva, ILO, 2006), Section 1.4.4.
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The determination of what constitutes “Work which by its nature” is hazardous for children, is made nationally in a government-led process of tripartite consultation. ILO C 182, Article 4 requires governments, after consultation with the organisations of employers and workers concerned, to draw up and apply a legally-binding hazardous work list, prescribing activities and sectors that are prohibited for children under 18.38 Many countries also include NGOs and other institutions in drawing up their list. This is then followed by dissemination, implementation and enforcement of the list's requirements, along with periodic review and updating.39
Global March could help strengthen the inputs of NGOs in the development, implementation and periodic revision of national lists of hazardous labour, especially in relation to hazardous agricultural activities. (See Message 8)
The determination of what constitutes “Work which by the circumstances” is hazardous to children has to be done on an enterprise by enterprise basis, workplace by workplace basis, based on making the workplace safer for all workers - young and adult, and using a variety of processes and methodologies which include the following: Ÿ Promoting employment for young workers (i.e., for those between 15 to 17 years) by ensuring good safe and
healthy conditions and practices in the workplace; Ÿ Encouraging employers to carry out their own workplace safety and health risk assessments and
implementing the safety and health improvements they have identified; Ÿ Making greater use of joint employer-worker safety and health committees in the workplace, to combat child
labour in their own enterprise, and/or to help small producers in the enterprise's supply chain to stop the hiring of child labour; Ÿ Increasing safety and health inspections by government labour inspectors on farms, plantations, and
throughout supply chains, and links with enterprise safety and health committees; and Ÿ Promoting the development of trade union roving safety representatives who are able to cover several
workplaces in an area. These issues, and how Global March could make better use of them to combat child labour are discussed in Sections 3.10.3 and 3.10.4. The number of children in hazardous work has fallen more rapidly, with a 26 per cent decline in the period from 171 million to 126 million and a further decline to 115 million by 2010. However, as 2011 ILO report notes, “Progress has been uneven, neither fast enough nor comprehensive enough to reach the 2016 goal.” Regionally, Asia and the Pacific have the largest number of children in hazardous work. However, the largest proportion of children in hazardous work relative to the overall number of children in the region is in sub-Saharan Africa (see Table 1).
38. Whilst both ILO Conventions 138 and 182 state that hazardous work should not be carried out by anyone under the age of 18, C 138, Article 3.3 allows governments to “authorise employment or work (under hazardous conditions) as from the age of 16 years on condition that the health, safety and morals of the young persons concerned are fully protected and that the young persons have received adequate specific instruction or vocational training in the relevant branch of activity.” 39. Advice for governments and the social partners on “work which, by its nature [...] is likely to harm the health, safety or morals of children” is given in ILO Worst Forms of Child Labour Recommendation, 1999 (No. 190), Paragraph 3.
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Table 1: Number and percentage of children, aged 5 to 17, engaged in hazardous work (by region) Region
Total children ('000)
Hazardous work ('000)
Incidence rate (%)
World
1,586,228
115,314
7.3
Asia and the Pacific
853,895
48,164
5.6
Latin America and the Caribbean
141,043
9,436
6.7
Sub-Saharan Africa
257,108
38,736
15.1
Other regions
334,242
18,978
5.7
Source: Children in hazardous work: A review of knowledge and policy challenges (ILO IPEC, Geneva, 2011), p. 8, and p. 47.
What poor health and safety means in practice for child labourers in agriculture? Ÿ In Zimbabwe, the wheels of a tractor, which had been standing overnight, had become bogged down in
the mud. The following morning, Matthew, a 12-year-old boy, started the tractor, revved up the engine to free the wheels, trying to move in a forward direction (when the safe procedure would have been to try to reverse out). The wheels remained stuck, that is, resisted movement, and the tractor reared up on its front wheels and overturned backwards, fatally crushing the boy beneath it.40 Ÿ Hella, an 11-year-old girl illegally employed on a farm in Ceres, Western Cape, South Africa, fell off a
tractor, resulting in the amputation of her left leg.41 Ÿ A 15 year old migrant farm worker in the USA was fatally electrocuted when a 30-foot section of
aluminium irrigation pipe he was moving came into contact with an overhead power line. Two other child labourers with him sustained serious electrical burns to their hands and feet.42 Ÿ In the United Kingdom, Gary, a schoolboy, was riding on the drawbar of a tractor/trailer combination
when he fell off and was run over by the trailer near the side wheel. He died of internal injuries.
General hazards and risks in agriculture Also, for both crop and livestock production, including aquaculture, there are important issues to be tackled in relation to child labour that may not have previously been to health and safety. For example: Ÿ long working hours, lack of rest periods, consecutive working; Ÿ way work is organised (work arrangements); Ÿ monotonous or poorly designed work; Ÿ sexual and racial harassment; Ÿ bullying; Ÿ violence and aggression; Ÿ staffing levels; Ÿ working alone.
40. Personal communication to the author by Mr Mutubuki, Chief Inspector of Factories, Zimbabwe, 2003. 41. Personal communication to the author by Joy Mehlomakulu, Deputy director, Labour Relations, South African Department of Labour, Pretoria, November 2004. 42. Landrigan and McCammon. Child labour: Still with us after all these years. Public Health Reports, Washington D.C. USA, Nov-Dec 1997, vol 112, No. 6.
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Hazards in crop production Ÿ dangerous machinery such as tractors, balers, harvesters, cutting and piercing; Ÿ electrical hazards - fixed and portable equipment, including extension cable; Ÿ hazardous, cancer-causing (carcinogenic) chemicals - pesticides, fertilisers, commodity chemicals; Ÿ allergic respiratory diseases from exposure to crop and animal organic dusts resulting in occupational
asthma and/or alveolitises (farmers’ lungs, etc.); Ÿ allergic reactions from plants and flowers resulting in respiratory and skin irritation (dermatitis, etc.); Ÿ confined spaces such as silos, pits, cellars and tanks with oxygen-deficient air resulting in danger of
asphyxiation; Ÿ noise and vibration; Ÿ ergonomic hazards - carrying heavy and awkward loads; forceful repetitive work, use of poorly designed
equipment and tools; unnatural body position or prolonged static postures such as bending, stooping, kneeling, etc.; Ÿ extreme temperatures and weather, working in rain; Ÿ contact with wild and poisonous animals and insects - mites, spiders, scorpions, snakes, etc. and certain
wild mammal; Ÿ poor hygienic and sanitary conditions, including prolonged wearing of unwashed clothing; Ÿ psychosocial hazards.
Hazards in livestock production including aquaculture Ÿ injuries from livestock - butting, crushing, being stamped on, being gored; Ÿ machinery hazards - tractors, forklift trucks, feed milling and grinding machinery; Ÿ electrical hazards - fixed and portable equipment, including extension cables; Ÿ hazardous chemicals - veterinary products, medicines and equipment; includes pesticides applied to an
animal's skin for control of external parasites; Ÿ allergic respiratory diseases - occupational asthma, alveolitises - due to feathers, etc.; Ÿ transmissible animal diseases such as brucellosis, bovine tuberculosis, hydatid disease, tularaemia,
rabies, Lyme disease, tinea and listerioses; Ÿ other diseases such as leptospirosis, tetanus leishmaniasis, bilharziasis, malaria; Ÿ confined spaces such as silos, pits, cellars and tanks; Ÿ noise; Ÿ ergonomic hazards - carrying heavy and awkward loads; forceful repetitive work, use of poorly designed
equipment and tools; unnatural body position or prolonged static postures such as bending, stooping, kneeling; Ÿ contact with wild and poisonous animals and rats, mice, mites, etc.; Ÿ poor hygienic and sanitary conditions, including prolonged wearing of unwashed clothing; Ÿ psychosocial hazards - stress, working in isolation (herding), etc.; Ÿ aquaculture workers face the risk of drowning from falling from boats or fish cages (e.g. when repairing
them), plus skin disorders associated with wet conditions, and working in extreme temperatures (both hot and cold).
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2.5 Minimum age for employment and young workers The ILO Minimum Age Convention, 1973 (No. 138) stipulates that ratifying States must fix a minimum age for admission to employment or work. Under this Convention, the minimum age for employment or work should not be less than 15 years, but developing countries with “insufficiently developed economies and educational systems” may fix it, for an initial period, at 14 years. Of the 163 countries which have ratified Convention 138, only 49 have ratified fixing an initial age of 14 years. However, young workers, above the national legal minimum age for employment but under 18, must not be engaged in hazardous work. If they are involved in hazardous work then they would be classed as child labourers and not as young workers, their employment under such hazardous conditions would be in breach of the law and they would have to be removed to a place of safety.
2.6 Transforming hazardous child labour into decent youth employment One of the main challenges in child labour is how to help employers to transform hazardous work into decent youth employment in agriculture as well as in other sectors, so that youth remain in employment, earning wages43 and learning skills. “Young workers” are female and male adolescents below the age of 18 who have attained the minimum legal age for admission to employment and are therefore legally authorised to work under certain conditions (See Table 2). Between the ages of 14/15 to 17, “children” and “youth” share an overlapping age bracket. According to the ILO Conventions Nos. 138 and 182, those within this age bracket, having attained the minimum age for employment are free to work so long as it is not in a job classified as “hazardous work”. If it is hazardous work they would remain classified as child labourers and not as young workers. Further, as their employment under hazardous conditions would be in breach of child labour law, they would have to be removed to a place of safety. However, if employers can sufficiently improve workplace safety and health conditions to guarantee children in the 14/15 to 17-year age bracket “decent conditions of work”, including proper training for them on safety and health at work, then there is no reason why these children should not remain at work, productively employed and earning wages. By sufficiently improving workplace safety and health conditions, the child ceases to be a “child labourer” and becomes classed as a “young worker.” So an important “way forward” could be for Global March to advocate transformation of hazardous child labour in agriculture (and other sectors) into youth employment under decent conditions of work. This could be linked to advocacy to make agriculture a more attractive sector to rural youth within the context of sustainable agricultural and rural development. (See Message 2)
However, promoting youth employment in agriculture involves much more than raising safety and health standards. Many youngsters not only see agriculture as dangerous but as dirty and a dead-end as well. Stimulating rural youth employment is particularly critical given the large numbers of unemployed or underemployed rural youth, which also reinforces the pressure on urban migration (where rural youth often end up as urban child labourers), and the presence of large numbers of child labourers in rural areas. Urban and rural unemployment cannot be considered as two separate things for, in many countries, much of urban unemployment is migrated rural unemployment.44 43. The only exception to this scenario is small-scale artisanal mining – surface and underground – which has been judged by the ILO's governments, employers' and workers' organisations to be so hazardous that no child under 18 should work in this sector under any circumstances. 44. Denu, B. Report on the study on employment opportunities of rural youth in Ethiopia. ILO Addis Ababa, 2006, Section VII, p 47.
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International Conference on Child Labour in Agriculture
In promoting youth employment in this sector, a central question that has to be addressed, and on which Role of rural youth advocating for research and data are needed, is: What would make child rights agriculture a sector where young persons would want In Brazil, a major ILO action programme was to work? Indeed, a central, but unproven, assumption finalised with the National Confederation of Rural underlying the idea of increasing smallholder, family Workers, CONTAG, to promote the active support farm productivity as the keystone of rural development of rural youth for children's rights. Awareness is that young people in the developing world will be raising, training and capacity- building activities content to live in rural areas and construct their were executed countrywide. Some 4,000 youth livelihoods around agriculture. There is growing rural leaders benefited from this initiative. To entice evidence however that some of the very people who youth to this sector, the work must be based on ought to be the basis of a productivity- driven rural appropriate training, good employment and career transformation – those who are young, educated and opportunities, decent employment conditions with motivated, may be the least likely to remain in rural decent levels of remuneration and good health and areas, with their own mass-exit strategy - i.e., safety standards.45 migration - being the logical outcome of their rising aspirations. So making agriculture more attractive to youth by, for example, raising levels of pay, and improving skills training and career prospects, as well as improving rural facilities, amenities and infrastructure are some of the key components of sustainable agricultural and rural development to be taken into consideration. (See Message 2)
2.7 Light work Girls and boys aged 13 to 15 who are too young to work full-time legally in their country are permitted to carry out “light work” as per the ILO Minimum Age Convention, 1973 (No. 138), Article 7, which states the following: “1. National laws or regulations may permit the employment or work of persons 13 to 15 years of age on light work which is: (a) not likely to be harmful to their health or development; and (b) not such as to prejudice their attendance at school, their participation in vocational orientation or training programmes approved by the competent authority or their capacity to benefit from the instruction received.” Article 7, Paragraph 4 of the same Convention allows countries which have ratified the Convention initially with a general minimum aged of 14 to substitute the ages of 12 and 14 for 13 and 15 in Paragraph 1 above. Table 2. Minimum age for admission to employment or work In general
Developing countries
General
15 years
14 years
Light work
13 years
12 years 18 years
Hazardous work
45. The Social Partners and IPEC: Action against child labour, 2008-2009. Supplementary report to the ILO IPEC International Steering Committee, March 2010, p. 30.
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2.8 Acceptable work It must be emphasised that the term “child labour� does not encompass all economic activities performed by children under the age of 18 years. Millions of children legitimately undertake work, paid or unpaid, that is appropriate for their age and level of maturity. By so doing, they learn to take responsibility, gain skills and enhance their families' and their own well-being and income. The aim is not to ban all work by children under 18 years of age in agriculture. Age-appropriate tasks that are of lower risk and do not interfere with a child's schooling and right to leisure time are not at issue here. Indeed, many types of work experiences for children can be positive, providing them with practical and social skills for work as adults. Improved self-confidence, self-esteem and work skills are attributes often found in young people engaged in some aspects of agricultural work.
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PART 3
TACKLING CHILD LABOUR IN AGRICULTURE AGRICULTURAL WORKERS, THEIR ORGANISATIONS, AND OTHERS
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WORKING PAPER ON CHILD LABOUR IN AGRICULTURE
3.1 Scope of “agriculture” in this working paper The term “agriculture” covers an enormous range of activities and types of production. Agricultural workers labour in crop fields, orchards, glasshouses, livestock units, fish farms, and primary processing facilities to produce the world's food, fibres and biofuels, as part of the global food chain. Agricultural producers range from highly mechanised, intensive, large scale farms and plantations to many hundreds of millions of smallholder farmers; including urban and peri-urban agricultural producers.46 There is, of course, no one definition of such a complicated sector but in this working paper, “The term agriculture covers agricultural and forestry activities carried out in agricultural undertakings including crop production, forestry activities, animal husbandry (including aquaculture) and insect raising, the primary processing of agricultural and animal products by or on behalf of the operator of the undertaking as well as the use and maintenance of machinery, equipment, appliances, tools, and agricultural installations, including any process, storage, operation or transportation in an agricultural undertaking, which are directly related to agricultural production” 47 (with commercial forestry and fishing as separate areas of employment).
3.2 Agriculture: An important rural sector Three out of every four poor people in developing countries are rural, that is 2.1 billion persons living below a US$2 day poverty threshold in absolute poverty, which translates into one third of humanity. Most depend directly or indirectly on agriculture for their livelihoods, so agriculture and poverty are closely interlinked. Whilst agriculture is not the only instrument that can take these women, men and children out of poverty, it is a highly effective source of growth for doing just that.48 Paradoxically, even as the focus on poverty and hunger has intensified from the 1990s onwards, investment in agriculture has been generally decreasing as a proportion of public expenditure on agriculture, i.e., overseas development assistance going to agriculture, and spending by international financial institutions on agriculture. “The decline in attention to agriculture is all the more striking because it happened in the face of rising rural poverty”.49 The food crises of 2008 and 2011 have highlighted the need for serious reinvestment in agriculture and rural infrastructure.50 There is growing consensus that increasing smallholder, family farm productivity should be the keystone of rural development. The proposition that, in most of the developing world, and perhaps particularly in sub-Saharan Africa, agriculture is the only realistic driver for mass poverty reduction is now accepted by many international development organisations, national governments and academics.51
3.3 Agricultural workforce Rural economies are generally mixed with both farming and non-farming populations earning their living from a mix of both agricultural and non-farm activities. However, agriculture continues to provide the predominant source of employment in many regions, accounting for 63 per cent of rural household income in Africa, 62 per cent in Asia, 50 per cent in Europe and 56 per cent in Latin America.
46. Urban and peri-urban agriculture and related enterprises already employ as many as 800 million people, and this number is likely to expand in the future. Urban Harvest; http://www.cipotato.org/urbanharvest/about_ua.htm 47. International Labour Organization, Convention No. 184 on Safety and Health in Agriculture, Article 1. 48. World Development Report 2008: Agriculture for development. World Bank, Washington D.C., p. 1. 49. World Development Report 2008: Agriculture for development. World Bank, Washington D.C., p. 42. 50. Food Crisis: What the World Bank is doing, 15.09.2011; http://www.worldbank.org/foodcrisis/bankinitiatives.htm 51. World Development Report 2008: Agriculture for development. World Bank, Washington D.C.
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International Conference on Child Labour in Agriculture
In 2009, the ILO estimated that there were 1.068 billion workers in agriculture, forestry, fishing and hunting, representing 35 per cent of the global workforce and a much higher portion in many developing countries. With over 700 million agricultural workers (mainly in China and India), Asia accounts for more than 70 per cent of the world total, and sub-Saharan Africa, with 192 million workers for almost 20 per cent.52 Agriculture is the second greatest source of employment worldwide after services and occupies the greatest portion of the rural workforce.53 The FAO estimates that agriculture provides employment to 1.3 billion people worldwide, 97 per cent of them in developing countries.54 Even with migration to cities, rural populations continue to grow, sometimes very rapidly as in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. In India, for example, the rural labour force still grows at 1.5 per cent a year, adding 4 million new workers annually. In Bangladesh, 1 million people join the rural workforce every year.
3.3.1 Agricultural/Rural Workers These agricultural/rural workers do not form a homogenous group. Their terms and conditions of employment and self-employment vary tremendously, creating diverse, and sometimes overlapping, categories. “Occupations” in this context can be difficult to distinguish and categorise. Those who work in agriculture include:55 a) Waged workers Ÿ Permanently employed agricultural workers usually employed for wages on medium-sized and large farms,
and plantations. Ÿ Seasonal, casual, temporary, and daily workers, including migrant workers and indigenous workers. Often
working as piece rate paid labour on medium-sized and large farms and plantations, and even on smallholder farms. Some workers may receive some form of “in-kind” payment. Ÿ Waged workers may represent up to 40 per cent of the total agricultural workforce.
56
b) Self-employed workers Ÿ Large landowners run enterprises specialised in agricultural production. They use advanced technologies and
benefit from access to credit, crop insurance, technical assistance, etc. Ÿ Smallholder landowners operate farms with varying financial and technical means. They may produce for the
domestic and/or export market. Ÿ Subsistence farmers mainly found in developing countries, often own very small holding; lack technical know-
how, supplies and access to credit and to markets. They may work as temporary wage workers to supplement their income. Ÿ Sharecroppers and tenants (often smallholders) cultivate communally owned, state-owned or private
property, the former paying a share of the production as rent, the latter renting the land for a fixed annual rent. Ÿ Many smallholder farmers are, in reality, part self-employed farmer, part waged worker, and part employer.
c) Unpaid family members Ÿ Their work contributes to household income and they share in the benefits of the family's production,
though their contribution does not appear in labour statistics. Many women and child labourers figure among this category of workers. 52. 53.
54. 55. 56.
ILO global employment trends, 2010. At the international level, statistics on agricultural employment are more readily available than statistics on rural employment. This is because data on agricultural employment, if classified according to the International Standard Industrial Classification of All Economic Activities (ISIC), are comparable across regions and countries. In contrast, due to national differences in the characteristics that distinguish urban from rural areas, the distinction between urban and rural employment is not yet amenable to a standard definition which would be applicable to all countries or even to countries within a region. http://faostat.fao.org. Cited in World Development Report 2008: Agriculture for development. World Bank, Washington D.C, 2008, Chapter 3, p. 77. Adapted from: Who works in agriculture? Promotion of rural employment for poverty reduction. ILO, Geneva, Report IV, for the International Labour Conference, 97th Session, 2008, Box 2.5, p. 17. Hurst, P. et al. Agricultural Workers and Their Contribution to Sustainable Agriculture and Rural Development. FAO-ILO-IUF Report, 2008, Part 1.1, p. 23; http://www.ilo.org/public/english/dialogue/actrav/new/061005.pdf.
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d) Others Ÿ Cooperative workers participate in collective economic enterprises for agricultural production and marketing. Ÿ Indigenous people own land as collective property, are often engaged in subsistence agriculture; may work on
a temporary basis in agricultural enterprises. Ÿ Child labourers
Many smallholders employ casual or seasonal labour at peak times, which may include child labour. For example, although wage labour in rural Africa is often thought of in the context of large commercial farms, there is an active labour market in the smallholder sector.57 Farmers may also use unpaid family labour, including children. This phenomenon, where small farmers regularly form part of the waged workforce and regularly employ seasonal labour, needs to be taken account of in efforts to strengthen rural labour markets, and to combat child labour.
Rural workers The ILO Convention No. 141 on Rural Workers' Organisations, Article 2 states that, “the term rural workers means any person engaged in agriculture, handicrafts or a related occupation in a rural area, whether as a wage earner or, subject to the provisions of paragraph 2 of this Article, as a self-employed person such as a tenant, sharecropper or owner-occupier. This Convention applies only to those tenants, sharecroppers or owner-occupiers who derive their main income from agriculture, who work on the land themselves with the help only of their family or with the help of occasional outside labour and who do not (a) permanently employ workers; or (b) employ a substantial number of seasonal workers; or (c) have any land cultivated by sharecroppers or tenants.”
3.3.2 Decent work deficits Huge numbers of self-employed and waged rural workers are in poor labour conditions. Decent work deficits typically include lack of freedom of association and collective bargaining; underemployment; low wages; poor occupational safety and health standards and general working conditions; gender inequality; long hours of work; poor working time arrangements; lack of social protection, poor housing; discrimination, weak social dialogue, and child labour. Compared to those working in other economic sectors, many rural/agricultural workers are only poorly protected by national labour laws.58 Millions of workers employed in rural areas are trapped in low-earning jobs in agriculture, forestry, fishing, small-scale mining, and services. In addition to child labourers, vulnerable groups of rural workers include: migrant workers (and their families); indigenous workers; forced and bonded labourers; victims of trafficking for labour exploitation, and people living with HIV and AIDS.59 Labour markets in rural areas take many forms and involve many different types of employment relationship. However, they tend not to function well because labour market governance and institutions are usually weak and have little capacity to directly address factors determining supply or demand for labour.60 Another feature of rural labour markets is the high incidence of hidden unemployment, which is the underestimation of unemployment levels in labour statistics, where only those who are “actively looking for work” are counted as unemployed.61 57. Leavy, J., and White, H. Rural labour markets and poverty in Sub-Saharan Africa. Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex, UK, 2008. 58. Managing labour inspection in rural areas. ITC-ILO Curriculum on Building modern and effective labour inspection systems, ILO Geneva, 2011. Module 14, Section 1.1., p. 6. 59. Managing labour inspection in rural areas. ITC-ILO Curriculum on Building modern and effective labour inspection systems, ILO Geneva, 2011. Module 14, Section 1.1., p. 5. 60. Promotion of rural employment for poverty reduction. ILO, Geneva, Report IV, for the International Labour Conference, 97th Session, 2008, Paragraph 45, p. 20. 61. Hurst, P. et al. Agricultural Workers and Their Contribution to Sustainable Agriculture and Rural Development. FAO-ILO-IUF Report, 2008, Section 1.1.4, p. 39; http://www.ilo.org/public/english/dialogue/actrav/new/061005.pdf
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3.4 Agricultural/Rural workers' organisations The agricultural workforce is still among the least organised in representative organisations of selfemployed farmers or waged workers, continues to register some of the highest incidence of poverty, and has least access to effective forms of social protection.62 The different categories of rural workers are organised in, and represented by, different types of organisations.
ILO Convention No. 141, Article 3. 1 states: “All categories of rural workers, whether they are wage earners or self-employed, shall have the right to establish and, subject only to the rules of the organization concerned, to join organizations of their own choosing without previous authorization.”
3.4.1 Farmers’ organisations in agriculture and supply chains Farmers’ organisations are rural organisations whose self-employed members organise themselves with the objective of dealing with: Ÿ policies on issues such as pricing and export and import of agricultural products; Ÿ improvement of agricultural production practices; Ÿ access to inputs and services, including agricultural credit; Ÿ marketing of agricultural production; Ÿ local processing of agricultural production and its marketing; Ÿ contract farming arrangements.
The term “agricultural producer organisation” is often also used rather than “farmer organisation” because it covers all aspects of agricultural production, including livestock and aquaculture/fisheries, and the processing of agricultural products on-farm or in the rural areas (such as the women's cottage industries).63 Farmer’s organisations vary from national level organisations (See Employers’ organisations in agriculture) to smallholder farmer outgrower associations involved in contract farming. It cannot be assumed that farmers’ organisations representing large commercial farmers have the same interests and perspectives as those representing smallholder farmers. In general, and with some exceptions, farmers’ organisations (as opposed to employers’ organisations) have not been systematically and fully engaged in the elimination of child labour and this represents one of the biggest gaps to be addressed. So a “way forward” could be for Global March to dialogue and cooperate with network of farmers’ organisations at international, regional, national, and outgrower/local levels (See Message 5). The global umbrella body for farmers, the International Federation of Agricultural Producers (IFAP), was declared bankrupt in 2009. A new international body, the World Farmers’ Organisation (WFO), was set up in 2010 and is becoming operational. IFAP was a founder member of the International Partnership for Cooperation on Child Labour in Agriculture, established in 2007. 62. Health insurance & Medical care; Sickness and Maternity benefits; Unemployment benefits; Family benefits; Employment injury, invalidity & survivors' benefits; Pensions. 63. Rondot, P. & Collion, M-H (Editors). Agricultural Producer Organizations: Their Contribution to Rural Capacity Building and Poverty Reduction. The World Bank, Washington D.C, 2001, Preface. In cooperation with the International Federation of Agricultural Producers, Agriterra, CECI, CIRAD, Club du Sahel, INERA , Inter-Reseaux.
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International Partnership for Cooperation on Child Labour in Agriculture Founder member organisations: Ÿ International Labour Organization (ILO); Ÿ Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO); Ÿ International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD); Ÿ International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) of the Consultative Group Ÿ Agricultural Research (CGIAR); Ÿ International Union of Food, Agricultural, Hotel, Restaurant, Catering, Tobacco and Allied Workers’
Associations (IUF); and Ÿ International Federation of Agricultural Producers (IFAP).
The key objectives of the Partnership are: Ÿ promote cooperation and programme and policy coherence on child labour among the Partners,
especially at national level; Ÿ mainstream child labour into existing activities of agricultural organizations and help raising awareness
on how child labour elimination contributes to achieving organizational mandates of agricultural organizations; Ÿ promote action and cooperation to improve rural livelihoods and alternative income-generating
activities, and to ensure that children do not carry out hazardous work in agriculture; Ÿ promote opportunities for decent youth employment in agriculture and in rural areas. Source: Partnership Brochure. The International Partnership for Cooperation on Child Labour in Agriculture, 2007. http://www.fao-ilo.org/fao-ilo-child/international-partnership-for-cooperation-on-child-labour-in-agriculture
One other type of farmers' organisation which could be important for Global March to dialogue and cooperate with are smallholder farmer outgrower associations working under contract farming arrangements to plantations, large farms, food processors and supermarkets as part of agricultural/commodity supply chains. It is at this level that much of the child labour is found, and smallholders and their associations need support to move away from being forced to use this type of labour to make a living. (See Section 3.4.3 on Contract farming, smallholder farmer outgrower associations and child labour)
3.4.2 Cooperatives in agriculture and supply chains There are farmers' and agricultural producer cooperatives in just about every country. Measured by market share, they are the most successful type of cooperative, accounting for US$ 400 billion of commodities. More than 50 per cent of global agricultural output is marketed through cooperatives; and producer cooperatives often supply consumer cooperatives. Cooperatives dominate the market for many agricultural products: wool, beef, milk, sugar, rice, etc. They are widely found in the production of coffee, cocoa, cotton, and other export crops. Some cooperative enterprises are very large, particularly in grains, dairy, livestock and certain export crops. Cooperatives provide farmers with agricultural inputs such as fertilisers, sell their produce on to wholesalers, marketing boards, inter-cooperative partnerships, cooperative retailers, food processors, fair trade organisations, or other types of buyers for export.
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At country level, cooperatives are generally organised at primary, secondary (groupings of cooperatives in a given sector), and apex (national) levels. So agricultural producer cooperatives link ultimately to apex organisations, which represent cooperatives in a range of economic sectors in a country. The International Co-operative Alliance is their international organisation, which also has regional bodies. A cooperative is both a business enterprise and, as a membership based, membership driven, and membership controlled organisation, part of civil society.64 The prime purpose of all cooperatives is to meet the needs of their members rather than to make a profit for shareholders as is the case in many other forms of enterprises. Part of the surplus earned by cooperative enterprises may be used for social purposes. Worldwide, at least 800 million people are members of cooperatives and part of the “cooperative movement.” Cooperatives are guided in their business, social and cultural activities by a series of cooperative values and principles that oppose exploitation of labour, in whatever form.65 As business enterprises they also operate in sectors where child labour is found, or purchase and market products from sectors where there is child labour. Given these factors, cooperatives and their members, and the wider cooperative movement, would seem natural allies in the growing global movement against child labour. Yet, as a joint International Co-operative Alliance- ILO report in 2009 demonstrated, cooperatives and the cooperative movement have an important, but as yet an unharnessed, role to play in the elimination of child labour worldwide.66
So a “way forward” could be for Global March to dialogue and cooperate with cooperatives - at producer, secondary, and/or apex levels, as appropriate, to help harness their untapped potential to combat child labour in agriculture and food/commodity supply chains of which cooperatives are a part of . (See Message 6)
3.4.3 Contract farming, smallholder farmer outgrower associations, supply chains and child labour in agriculture Contract farming is defined as an agreement between farmers and processing and/or marketing firms for the production and supply of agricultural products under forward agreements, frequently at predetermined prices.67 Contract farming is being practiced by multinational and domestic corporations alike. In India, for example, private retailers and processors have linked with farmers directly.68 By contracting smallholder farmers as “outgrowers” in supply chains rather than engaging in direct production themselves, corporations and large farming companies reduce their costs while maintaining control over production and marketing of the product. The smallholder farmers organise themselves in a variety of ways, ranging from agricultural cooperatives to what are termed “smallholder farmer outgrower associations”.69 In practice, the terms “contract farming schemes” and “outgrower schemes” are often used interchangeably. Typically though, the agribusiness enterprise and the smallholder farmer outgrower association negotiate a product/crop production contract agreement, generally on an annual basis. By negotiating a single renewable agreement with the farmer outgrower association, the agribusiness enterprise avoids having to deal directly with, 64.
65. 66. 67. 68. 69.
The term “cooperative” means: “An autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly owned and democratically controlled enterprise.” ILO Recommendation No. 193 on Promotion of Cooperatives (2002), Paragraph 1, Point 2. Cooperative Identity Statement, International Co-operative Alliance, cited in ILO Recommendation No. 193. Cooperating out of Child Labour: Harnessing the untapped potential of cooperatives and the cooperative movement to eliminate child labour. ILO Cooperative Programme, ILO IPEC, International Co-operative Alliance, Geneva. 2009. Eaton C. and Shepherd A. Contract farming: partnerships for growth. FAO, Rome. Agricultural Services Bulletin 145, 2001, p. 2. Reardon, T., and Gulati, A. The Rise of Supermarkets and Their Development Implications: International Experience Relevant for India. International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), New Delhi Office, Discussion Paper 00752, February 2008, p 41. In some countries such as, for example, Tanzania, farmer outgrower associations are formally registered with the government, and they also have a central outgrowers federation to represent them at national level.
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and organise, the often tens of thousands of smallholder farmers who supply it with produce. The individual farmer's production contract is, therefore, handled via the farmer outgrower association and not directly with the agribusiness enterprise.70 Increasingly, farmer outgrower associations are commercial businesses in their own right, which often raise significant amounts of credit as working capital to finance their members’ production activities. For example, Kilombero sugar estate, Tanzania, owned by a South African company, ILLOVO, has two smallholder farmer outgrower associations. Each growing season, both of these outgrower associations take out bank loans for as much as US$3-5 million per organisation, to help finance their supply chain work. More and more, farmer outgrower associations are providing inputs and services to their farmer members, which were previously provided and/or financed by the agribusiness enterprise. Ideally, contract farming should benefit both sides - buyers and farmers. Supporters of contract farming see it as an arrangement to improve the ability of smallholder farmers to participate in higher-value product supply chains. An opposite viewpoint, as expressed by an article in the UK newspaper, the Guardian, is that, “There is little room for small family farms in this world, unless they are willing to provide what amounts to bonded labour, growing seeds for company x, or rearing chickens for company y”.71 Whatever the pros and cons, contract farming is likely to remain an important and expanding feature of agricultural production globally for the foreseeable future. Especially given that Western donors and international/regional financial institutions consider contract farming an appropriate tool for achieving economic growth through the free market and the private sector. In Africa, for example, the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) has made contract farming, “due to its immense potential”, one of the priority investment areas of its Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP). NEPAD has observed that whilst currently contract farming arrangements are more significant with high-value crops and animal products, future opportunities in the continent will be in staple foods.72 It is important therefore to try to ensure that contract farmings’ arrangements are as advantageous as possible to the smallholder farmers, and waged labourers, engaged in outgrower schemes. There is a need for greater attention to be paid to the outgrower component, especially the following:
Ÿ their use of child labour which is often viewed as “essential” for many overburdened, poorly resourced, often cash strapped, farmer outgrowers; 73 Ÿ wage rates paid by outgrower farmers; Ÿ outgrower-agribusiness contractual agreements, including hidden employment relationships; Ÿ gender aspects.
An important “way forward” for Global March could be to make links with smallholder farmer outgrower associations to help provide more information and research on contract farming supply chains and use of child labour. This may be done with a view to helping the smallholder farmers to move away from use of child labour as “essential” to their production, by helping them improve their incomes and ensuring sustainable livelihoods. (See Message 5 and 6)
70. 71. 72. 73.
Hurst, P. & Msangi, Y. Tanzania: Child labour, Farmer outgrower associations, contract farming, and child labour in agricultural supply chains. ILO IPEC and ILO Gender Bureau, Geneva, 2009, unpublished. Working the land to feed the people. Guardian Weekly, UK, 4-10 July 2002, p. 22. NEPAD/SIDA East Africa policy brief No. 2, undated; http://www.relma.org/pdfs/Policy%20Brief%20-%20Contract%20Farming.pdf A study of outgrower schemes in the Transkei region, South Africa observed that, “The outgrower component is much more difficult to control [than the hired labour component]. Child labour is essential for many overburdened poorly resourced women outgrowers [in Transkei] – as indeed it is for women farmers in non scheme areas. The Transkei pattern of outgrowers paying labour below core estate rates may be widespread across Africa.” Porter, G., and PhillipsHoward, K. Comparing contracts: An evaluation of contract farming schemes in Africa. World development, 1997, 25(2): 227-238; p. 234.
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Role of community-based organisations in combating child labour in agriculture Community-based organisations are extremely well placed to understand the drivers as well as the interventions for child labour elimination. Composed of and situated within the communities, these grassroots and indigenous organisations act as social advocates to draw attention to the problems in their areas and immediate communities. Child labour monitoring at the community level is an integral part of child labour elimination strategy. Child labour monitoring though community-based organisations is an element of child labour elimination programme designed expressly for sustainability and involves: a) identification of children in child labour or at risk; b) prevention or withdrawal; c) referral to appropriate services; and d) tracking progress to ensure that the children concerned have sustainable alternatives. Child labour monitoring in the agricultural sector involves observing and reporting on a range of indicators related to a child's work, family, health and education. It can also include indicators related to the child's school and workplace. By regularly repeating the cycle of observations and reporting on the findings, child labour monitoring becomes a means of both preventing and eliminating child labour in a given area. ILO-IPEC has been working with cocoa growing communities in Ghana to implement and evaluate child labour monitoring system (CLMS). Overall, evaluation findings have shown that the models of CLMS, developed specifically for cocoa growing communities, have overall been effective. These systems can be as simple and informal or as elaborate and formal as called for by the purpose or reason for establishing it. Child labour monitoring does not replace labour inspection, but it can support it. Therefore, linkages with labour inspection or with other local authority are important from the standpoint of giving credence to the monitoring, providing sanctions if necessary, but most of all for sustaining or even expanding the work once the pilot phase has finished. The implementation of the child labour monitoring system in Ghana has shown that a comprehensive and effective system can be implemented, given sufficient time, capacity building and financial resources.
3.4.4 Trade unions in agriculture and supply chains Data on agricultural trade union membership are far from comprehensive. In agriculture-dependent economies, there are often specific agricultural trade unions. In countries with smaller agricultural workforces, agricultural workers are often an occupational sector/trade group within a trade union representing mainly industrial, commercial or even public sector workers. The level of trade union representation among agricultural workers, and particularly workers who are not permanent, is generally low in most countries, and particularly among women agricultural labourers.74 There are many reasons why agricultural workers remain poorly organised. Some of these difficulties are practical or financial in nature such as difficulties of organising over large geographical areas, lack of transport for organisers, low membership dues resulting in only basic union services, and so on. Often, however, legal and administrative barriers are placed in the way of workers wishing to exercise their basic human right to freedom of association by becoming unionised and joining the union of their choice. Furthermore, waged workers engaged by labour contractors or subcontractors often face difficulties in registering as union members.
74.
Wage workers in agriculture - conditions of employment and work. ILO Sectoral Activities Programme, Geneva, Report TMAWW/1996, Part I.
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Global March’s international board and regional representations include representatives from international and national trade union centres (e.g. International Trade Union Confederation and Education International), and national sectoral unions (e.g. General Agricultural Workers Union, Ghana). As a “way forward”, Global March would work more closely with global union federations such as the IUF, which organises workers in the global food chain, and which is very active on child labour issues. IUF is also one of the founding organisations of the Partnership. (See Message 7)
Trade unions and their members are active in the global movement against child labour internationally, regionally, nationally and locally, across a wide range of sectors.75 Agriculture and the global food chain is a sector where they are especially active, linking up with civil society organisations like Global March, fair trade organisations and so on.
3.5 Employers' organisations in agriculture Rural employers vary from large plantations and commercial farms through to smallholder “family units”. Agricultural employers often have their own national organisations such as a national farmers union, which may be linked to, or even part of, a national employers’ federation representing the industrial and commercial sectors as well. As already described, smallholder farmers often have their own producer associations which are not necessarily linked to the larger national farmers unions, and there are obviously differences of perspective and interest between organisations representing large farmers and those representing thousands, even tens of thousands, of smallholder farmers. In countries where agricultural commodity production is a major sector of the economy, national employers’ organisations often have affiliated crop/livestock associations that engage in sector-wide bargaining, reaching agreements with agricultural trade unions on the terms and conditions of employment that can affect wide swathes of the rural workforce. The Federation of Kenya Employers, for example, acts as a secretariat to a number of trade associations, including the Sisal Growers and Employers’ Association, the Agricultural Employers’ Association and the Kenya Coffee Growers’ and Employers’ Association. The Kenya Tea Growers’ Association is one of the federation's affiliates.76 Many of these employer organisations or trade associations run, or have run, child labour elimination projects and have child labour focal points.77
Using social dialogue to combat child labour in Ecuador In Ecuador, the Social Forum for Flower Production was set up in 2005, and attached to the National Committee for the Progressive Elimination of Child Labour (CONEPTI) to prevent and eliminate in the cutflower sector through social dialogue. The Forum is made up of Ministries of Labour Relations, Education and Agriculture, workers’ and employers’ organisations, and representatives of civil society organisations. The use of social dialogue as a tool to confront child labour enabled communication channels to be established to address other topics, such as unionisation. Work was done with the farm owners and labour inspectors, for example, to reduce the work week from 60 to 30 hours, in accordance with the country's current legislation.78
75. 76.
Trade Unions and Child Labour Pack (7 booklets). ILO Workers' Bureau (ACTRAV), Geneva, 2000. Currently being completely revised and updated. Managing labour inspection in rural areas. ITC-ILO Curriculum on Building modern and effective labour inspection systems, ILO Geneva, 2011. Module 14, Section 2.2., p. 18. 77. Eliminating child labour: Guides for employers. ILO Employers' Bureau (ACTEMP) & International Organisation of Employers (IoE), Geneva, 2007. 78. Good Practices on Child Labour in Latin America. ILO IPEC, Geneva, May 2010, pp. 11-14.
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3.6 Voluntary initiatives, multinational enterprises, child labour and supply chains Voluntary initiatives, that is, codes of conduct or other initiatives taken by companies or enterprises under the heading of “corporate social responsibility” or some similar term79 are becoming more prevalent. Over the past 20 years, more and more multinational and national business enterprises, including employers’ organisations, and even industry sectors, have adopted formal statements containing ethical principles that govern their conduct. They often combine these statements with activities and initiatives to improve the sustainability of their production and services. Codes of conduct and linked initiatives are designed to stimulate improvements in the performance of enterprises in respect of issues like occupational safety and health, child labour, environment, and so on.80 These codes are not negotiated with other stakeholders such as trade unions and NGOs, but decided unilaterally by the company.81 However, one central feature that they all have in common is that they attempt to tap market forces to improve company, enterprise, and sector performance and standards.
Global/international framework agreements Voluntary corporate codes of conduct must be distinguished from global or international framework agreements which are overarching agreements directly negotiated between multinational companies and global trade union federations concerning the international activities of that multinational. The global framework agreement addresses labour rights, standards and employment, throughout all parts of the company's operations; and usually covers child labour elimination. Framework agreements all share a common characteristic. They do not seek to substitute in any way for local or national collective bargaining between employers and trade unions. Local and national organising and bargaining must continue to be seen as the essential building blocks of industrial relations. It is an additional level of bargaining, which complements and supports bargaining at the other levels. Another key difference between corporate codes of conduct and negotiated global framework agreements is that the former rely primarily on internal company social auditing systems while in the latter, the regular monitoring by trade unions affiliated to the relevant global union federation is crucial. An example of global framework agreement in agriculture is the IUF, COLSIBA and Chiquita Agreement on Freedom of Association, Minimum Labour Standards and Employment in Latina American Banana Operations. In the Agreement, Chiquita reaffirms its commitment to respect the core ILO Conventions which include effective abolition of child labour.
79. Other terms include: business principles, sustainable business initiatives, product stewardship, ethics statements or guidelines, vendor standards and sourcing guidelines. 80. Step 7. Using a code of conduct . Guide 2: How employers can eliminate child labour, p. 39. In Eliminating child labour: Guides for employers. ILO Employers' Bureau (ACTEMP) & International Organisation of Employers (IoE), Geneva, 2007. 81. A clear distinction must be drawn/needs to be made between an industry voluntary “initiative” and an industry “agreement” (collective bargaining or global framework agreements). The problem arises when an “initiative” is either promoted or perceived as an “agreement”. An “agreement” has to involve at least two discrete groups of stakeholders and implies a higher level of commitment from the parties to it. E.g. collective bargaining agreement or global framework agreement. By contrast, an industry “initiative” may involve only industry stakeholders. Nor does an initiative become synonymous with an agreement simply through a process whereby industry co-opts onto “advisory boards” or “industry councils” a limited number of individuals from other stakeholder groups. However desirable, such measures lie more in the realm of community outreach, public relations and general communication. Source: International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Union (ICEM) viewpoint, 1998 in Voluntary initiatives affecting training and education on safety, health and environment in the chemical industries. ILO Sectoral Activities Programme, Geneva, TMC1/1999.
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Code of conduct developed to eliminate child labour in oil palm and rubber plantations The Ghana Employers' Association (GEA) and five commercial oil palm and rubber plantations in Western Ghana have developed a code of conduct on elimination of child labour. The code of conduct enables the plantation companies to establish principles for responsible farming and labour practices among contractors, subcontractors, smallholders, outgrowers and agents in relation to child labour. To implement the code, the GEA and companies have developed voluntary “inspection teams” made up of representatives from the: Ministry of Labour's Child Labour Unit, and Factory Inspectorate; Ghana Employers' Association; oil palm and rubber companies, Ghana General Agricultural Workers Union, Smallholder, Outgrower and Contractor Associations; and ILO IPEC. A GEA Training Workshop for Inspection Teams on Codes of Conduct on Child Labour on Oil Palm and Rubber Plantations was held in December 2007, Takoradi, Ghana, facilitated by a trainer from IPEC. The Codes of conduct were reviewed and proposals made for clarification and harmonisation of key terms. An inspection visit was made to an oil palm plantation. Guidelines on the codes of conduct, especially on occupational safety and health issues, will now be developed - in the form of an illustrated booklet - for use by Inspection Teams and others.82 This trend has been driven to some degree by multinational enterprises (MNEs) responding to media campaigns and pressure from consumers and the general public to “clean up their act”. This pressure followed wellpublicised incidents in which enterprises with branded names were linked to unethical behaviour or substandard performance with respect to labour conditions, especially child labour, and other matters such as the environment.83 Revelations of the use of child labour in the production of consumer goods and agricultural products have been particularly shocking. Although some of these situations have been exposed by the media, it has been human rights organisations, NGOs, and trade unions that have denounced intolerable conditions in factories and farms supplying brand-name companies.84
Concentration in food supply chains Concentration in the agrifood sector has been increasing over the past few years, with sometimes tragic consequences for small-scale farmers and agricultural workers. Concentration at certain segments is particularly striking in globalised food chains, illustrated by the example of coffee. Coffee is grown by about 25 million producers. At the other end of the chain, there are around 500 million consumers of coffee. Yet, just four firms carry out 45 per cent of all coffee roasting, and only four firms carry out 40 per cent of all international coffee trading. Similarly, just three companies control over 80 per cent of the world's tea markets, and four companies control 40 per cent of international trading in cocoa, 51 per cent of cocoa grinding and 50 per cent in confectionary manufacturing. There are additional examples: in the Brazilian soybean market, roughly 200,000 farmers attempt to sell to five main commodity traders; in the Ivorian cocoa industry, three large transnational commodity buyers (ADM, Cargill and Barry Callebaut) dominate; and in 1996, two transnational food and beverage companies (Nestlé and Parmalat) controlled 53 per cent of the Brazilian dairy processing market, driving off a large number of cooperatives, which had to sell their facilities to these companies. Source: Addressing Concentration in Food Supply Chains. The Role of Competition Law in Tackling the Abuse of Buyer Power”, Briefing note by the Special Rapporteur on the right to food, December 2010, De Schutter; http://www.srfood.org/index.php/en/component/content/ article/1024-briefingnote-addressing-concentration-in-food-supply-chains
82. Press release. Ghana Employers Association, Accra, Ghana, December 2007. 83. Step 7. Using a code of conduct . Guide 2: How employers can eliminate child labour, p. 39. In Eliminating child labour: Guides for employers. ILO Employers' Bureau (ACTEMP) & International Organisation of Employers (IoE), Geneva, 2007. 84. Trade Unions and Child Labour Pack (7 booklets). ILO Workers' Bureau (ACTRAV), Geneva, 2000.
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3.7 Eliminating child labour from agricultural supply chains Eliminating child labour in supply chains is one of the main challenges with regards to agriculture, and indeed other sectors. Given the increasing integration of agriculture in international supply chains, the position of smallholder farmers strongly depends on their strategies for reaching economies of scale and scope in marketing operations, strengthening their bargaining power on profit margins, controlling high transaction costs and risks, and creating alliances for improving competitiveness through upgrading of quality and generating aggregated value. The main stakeholders involved in cleaning up agricultural supply chains include: Ÿ large, often multinational, food/commodity product suppliers; Ÿ smallholder farmers and their outgrower associations/organisations; Ÿ food processing companies; Ÿ food supermarket chains (retailers)– including consumer/food cooperatives; Ÿ agricultural input industries – pesticides, fertilisers, seed companies, animal feed and supply companies, etc.; Ÿ international, sectoral, and national agricultural industry/trade associations and networks in agriculture; Ÿ catering/restaurant companies and global chains; Ÿ private auditing companies and schemes; Ÿ consumer associations.
The International Organisation of Employers (IOE) and ILO's Bureau for Employers' Activities (ACT/EMP) guidance on child labour and supply chains is that, “Many large enterprises subcontract their production and purchase their inputs from smaller enterprises operating in both the formal and informal economies. A large enterprise may not employ child labour itself but it may knowingly or unknowingly source from enterprises that do. While large firms usually have no legal responsibility to ensure that their suppliers are free from child labour, those that are export-oriented are under increasing pressure to put in place screening and monitoring systems to ensure that their suppliers are child labour free. When these requirements are written into contracts between international buyers and domestic firms, then the issue does have legal implications. In the same way, large agricultural buyers, often supermarkets, and processing firms source from small producers further up the supply chain. It is in these small farms, often known as out-growers, that child labour is most prevalent in the agriculture sector.”85 Contracts with suppliers can set out the minimum age of employment, the hazardous tasks that cannot be undertaken by those under 18 and any other labour conditions. The consequences of breaching the conditions, including the possible termination of the contract, can be stated clearly to avoid confusion. While some buyers will terminate contracts with suppliers immediately when found in breach, most opt for constructive engagement with suppliers so that a programme of reform is put in place. Where verbal contracts are the usual practice – for instance when a mid-chain buyer purchases from a home-based producer and where literacy is a problem – the conditions need to be clearly explained and reiterated at subsequent meetings.86 Many common brand name companies in footwear, clothing and other sectors no longer manufacture their own products, and similar trends are being observed in agriculture. For example, in the mid-1990s, Adidas, the clothing and sporting goods company, shifted from being primarily a producer of goods to a marketing firm buying from local firms located primarily in Asia. It currently sources from over 700 independent businesses. To avoid bad publicity, brand name companies in Europe, North America and elsewhere need to ensure that child labour is not being used by any of its suppliers or by any of its suppliers' suppliers.87 Commercial banana production in Africa, for example, is following this new pattern, with the international producers no longer directly running plantations. The concern is that national companies, operating under an international brand name, may have less to fear from bad publicity themselves, and so may be less willing to tackle abuses like child labour, especially in their supply chains. 85. Introduction to the issue of child labour. Guide 1, p. 14. In Eliminating child labour: Guides for employers. ILO ACTEMP & IoE, Geneva, 2007. 86. How employers can eliminate child labour. Guide 2, p. 35. In Eliminating child labour: Guides for employers. ILO Employers' Bureau (ACTEMP) & International Organisation of Employers (IoE), Geneva, 2007. 87. Ibid, p. 32.
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Child labour free areas/communities A child labour free area/community is an area chosen for development concentration, with the goal that after some years of systematic work, all children will be in formal full time education and none in child labour. A zone or community could be a state, or a district or even a village. This area or community-based approach entails a sustained engagement with the community to change attitudes toward and norms around child labour and to empower the community to eliminate child labour. Creating child labour free areas/communities is aligned with the Global March’s three-pronged strategy of the “Triangular Paradigm� which underscores the inter-connected goals of elimination of child labour, achievement of EFA and poverty reduction.88 This is further reflected in integrated area based approaches which supports the establishment of child labour free area/community which strengthens community capacity to manage risk and address the needs of the most vulnerable members, enhance local governments' capacity for social service provision and coordination and create an enabling environment at the area level for combating child labour through awareness-raising, training, as well as support for child labour laws and their enforcement. As agriculture is mainly a rural activity, rural communities or the geographic area have the potential of becoming the hub for development process. The child-friendly villages89 in India have successfully withdrawn 10,290 child labourers from agriculture, livestock rearing and allied activities and enrolled them in schools from 125 villages in India from 2009-2011. This child friendly village concept is being replicated in 250 villages in Nepal to end child slavery and bonded labour in agriculture. With the added advantage of community participation and inculcation of the democratic values, this is a successful intervention with potential for scaling-up.
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In response to several reports in media about child labour and child trafficking in cocoa plantations in West Africa, the global chocolate and cocoa industry representatives signed an agreement in September 2001 to work towards the elimination of the worst forms of child labour (WFCL) in the growing of cocoa beans and their derivative products in line with ILO Convention No. 182. Known as Harkin-Engel Protocol (after the formulators - Senator Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) and US Representative Eliot L. Engel (D-New York)), it is a public-private agreement that has served as a catalyst for action in Ghana and Cote d'Ivoire over the last decade. In response to Article 5 of the Protocol, the International Cocoa Initiative (See Page 36), a joint foundation by industry was created in 2002 and to date has stimulated remediation activities in a total of 290 communities in both countries, reaching an estimated population of 650,000 individuals. Other positive developments that followed the Protocol include that both Governments of Ghana and Cote d'Ivoire have established specialised agencies to deal with the issue of WFCL in the cocoa sector, developed hazardous child labour frameworks, each issued National Action Plans that comprehensively addresses child labour across various economic sectors, and conducted population-based surveys to determine the nature and extent of WFCL in the production of cocoa. On September 13, 2010, both the Governments along with representatives from U.S. Government and international cocoa/chocolate industry have signed a Declaration of Joint Action to Support Implementation of the Harkin-Engel Protocol with the aim to reduce to reduce the worst forms of child labour by 70 per cent across the cocoa sectors of Ghana and Cote d'Ivoire by 2020. In light of this Declaration and the attainment of the target by 2020 stated therein, the shortfalls in the implementation of the 6 Articles stipulated in the protocol for guiding action will need to be addressed by all stakeholders collectively. These include greater commitment of resources by industry and fully developing and implementing credible, industry-wide standards of public certification for child labour free production of cocoa beans and their derivative products, as required under as required under Article 1 and Article 6, respectively. 88. The Triangular Paradigm, Global March Against Child Labour, 2012 89. Bachpan Bachao Andolan's Bal Mitra Grams (Child Friendly Villages), http://www.bba.org.in. 90. Text of the Protocol - http://harkin.senate.gov/documents/pdf/HarkinEngelProtocol.pdf
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3.8 Multi-stakeholder initiatives in the agricultural sector A recent trend in agriculture has been the emergence of multi-stakeholder initiatives concerning a specific crop and involving stakeholders along the supply chain for that commodity. Generally, these multi-stakeholder initiatives address labour issues including tackling child labour though in varying degrees. Some examples of multi-stakeholder initiatives in agriculture include the following: Ÿ Foundation for the Elimination of Child Labour in Tobacco Ÿ International Cocoa Initiative - specific to child labour Ÿ Fair plants and flowers Ÿ Better Cotton Initiative Ÿ Common Code for the Coffee Community Ÿ Sustainable agricultural initiative platform/Round tables
Foundation for Eliminating Child Labour in Tobacco - Growing (ECLT) ECLT was established in 2002 in response to growing pressure globally to combat child labour in ECLT tobacco production. The industry-funded Foundation has now expanded from the three founding organisations - the International Tobacco Growers Association, British American Tobacco and the IUF - to include most of the major tobacco manufacturers.91 In Kyrgyzstan, the ECLT project, Eliminating Child Labour in Tobacco Growing, was launched in 2005 in Alabuka district of Jalalabad region and in No'okat district of Osh region of the country. The project raised awareness across the local communities about the negative effect of work on children and granted micro credits to raise the level of livelihoods for the families. Since 2005, a total of 2,932 children (of which 47 per cent are girls), aged 6 to 18, representing 956 of the families covered by the micro credits project, were withdrawn from tobacco fields. In 2009, of the 280 families that took part on the project, 109 families finally walked over the poverty line and 171 families improved its economical situation, passing from the category of “extremely poor” to the category of “poor”.92
International Cocoa Initiative A main outcome of the public and international outcry that followed media reports in 2000 of trafficking of children for labour in slavery-like conditions on cocoa plantations in West Africa was the creation of the International Cocoa Initiative (ICI) Foundation in 2002. The industry-funded Initiative is a coalition of the global chocolate industry, international trade unions, and NGOs, including the Global March, whose mission is “to oversee and sustain efforts to eliminate the worst forms of child labour and forced labour in the growing and processing of cocoa beans and their derivative products.”93
3.9 Social labelling and child labour in agriculture A social label/certification relates to a product or service, not to a specific enterprise. The label is provided on the packaging or takes the form of a tag on the product itself. A label related to child labour indicates to the consumer that child labour was not used in the production of that good. Social labelling has been used to good effect for rugs and footballs – sectors which have had a reputation for employing children. Social labels are also used for environmental standards, bio products and fair trade practices (such as paying a just price to small coffee producers). The label is voluntary and usually backed by the credibility of an industrial association or social group
91. 92. 93.
ECLT web page, http://www.eclt.org/ IUF website, 19 Feb 2010; http://www.iuf.org/wdacl/2010/02/ Initiatives to tackle hazardous child labour in agriculture. Guidebook 4, Chapter 5, Section 5.3. Tackling hazardous child labour in agriculture: Guidance on policy and practice. ILO IPEC, Geneva, 2006.
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and a monitoring/certification system. It aims to work through market forces, the premise being that the end consumer will, if properly informed, reward the producer for respecting ethical standards in its work.94
3.9.1 Fair trade and child labour in agriculture One form of social labelling with which Global March and many NGOs as well as many national and international trade unions are involved in terms of raising labour standards, including elimination of child labour, is “fair trade”. Fair trade is a concept and a movement which aims to give poor producers, primarily in the South, greater access to international markets, and better economic returns for their products, thereby increasing their incomes, and ensuring sustainable livelihoods for themselves and their families. In principle, fair trade organisations try to help hired, waged workers to improve their wages and working conditions. The fair trade movement is made up of many organisations and networks. However, the Fair Trade movement has reached great prominence, primarily though the Fairtrade Labelling Organization (FLO)’s Fairtrade Mark (with Fairtrade written as one word). Millions of consumers in Europe, North America and Japan are now regular buyers of "fairtrade" products, i.e. products marketed with a fairtrade label certifying the payment of a "fairtrade premium" to the producers. Consumers buy these products for many reasons: because they are seeking an alternative to transnational brands, because they want to help improve the situation of the people who produce them or because they want to support alternative systems of trade. Fair trade started out as a niche but it is now a rapidly growing significant retail market worth an estimated 2.9 billion euros by the end of 2008.95 Fair trade was initially developed to give small producers access to markets and to ensure a fair price for their produce. The system of guaranteed prices, advance payments, etc. worked with the first fair trade crop, coffee, where 80-85 per cent of production is from small farmers. However, as demand for an increased range of fair trade goods grew, especially for tea, bananas, flowers, etc., the FLO International has moved further into supermarkets and the retail mainstream and therefore sources more goods from plantations to meet the growing demand. In doing this, FLO International has had to deal with relations between workers and employers and this has proved much more problematic than dealing with small producers. For the fair trade movement the key challenge remains how to achieve growth without compromising integrity and a value base. This includes being able to tackle child labour effectively. The FLO International criteria for hired labour are very clear: there must be freedom of association on FLOregistered plantations.96 But according to IUF, which has a long history of involvement with fair trade, there are many FLO plantations registered as suppliers that do not have unions. In some cases (again flowers and bananas), IUF affiliates have tried to raise this with FLO but have not been successful. For example, COLSIBA has repeatedly expressed continuing frustration with FLO over violation of rights and labour agreements by the producers who benefit from the FLO system.97 The Ethical Trading Initiative (ETI) is an alliance of retail companies, trade unions and NGOs in the UK working toward the adoption of acceptable ethical sourcing codes and associated systems for monitoring and external verification. ETI primarily exists to share experience and learning about implementing international labour standards in international supply chains. Defining “ethical trade” as trade where retailers, brands and their 94. 95. 96. 97.
How employers can eliminate child labour. Guide 2, p. 49. In Eliminating child labour: Guides for employers. ILO ACTEMP & IoE, Geneva, 2007. Fairtrade leading the Way: Annual Report for 2008-09. Fairtrade Labelling Organizations International, Bonn, Germany, 2008, p 21. Generic Fairtrade Standards for Hired Labour. Fairtrade Labelling Organisations International, Bonn, Germany; current version 01.12. 2008; www.fairtrade.net/standards.html Recruitment and Union Organizing Issues: Building and rebuilding union strength - Fair trade and plantation workers. IUF Executive Committee, Geneva, April 2005; Item 6, Appendix 2, p 3.
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suppliers take responsibility for improving the working conditions of the people who make the products they sell, ETI’s vision is to ensure that all workers are free from exploitation and discrimination, and work in conditions of freedom, security and equity.98 Global March has been engaged in promoting social labelling of child labour-free rugs, fair play campaign on soccer balls, fair trade in cocoa and agriculture products. Building on the experiences of the members and partners particularly the ITUC, engagements with the multiple stakeholders an important “way forward� for Global March would be to continue active engagements with the different actors in the supply chains to effectively and efficiently end child labour and transform hazardous work of children into decent work for youth. Global March and its partners and members would advocate for decent work conditions, and effective and systemic workplace monitoring that support transparent fair trade standards and measures from the social labelling and fair trade organisations. Decent work conditions and workplace monitoring are the cornerstones of responsible and fair business practices that do not include child labour and provide the consumers with child labour free and fair trade goods and services. (See Message 11)
3.10 Other opportunities to combat child labour in agriculture 3.10.1 Rural education and child labour Child labour is part of the survival strategy in many rural areas. In most cases parents would prefer to send their children to school, but two-thirds of the world's poor people live in rural areas, and many rural parents are too poor to pay school fees. Even if schooling (tuition) is free, costs such as books and other school materials, clothes, shoes, and transportation can be a heavy economic burden.
School Garden program in El Salvador Huertos Escolares, or School Gardens, is a part of the Healthy Schools programme that is run by the Ministry of Education and the Office of the First Lady of El Salvador. In this children grow v e g e t a b l e s o n s c h o o l p r o p e r t y, e i t h e r hydroponically or in regular gardens, and the produce is used to complement the school lunches provided by the Healthy Schools programme. Technicians from the Office of the First Lady, the Ministry of Agriculture and the Salvadoran Army provide technical assistance, seeds and tools for the operation of the gardens. Children also learn practical skills.
In many cultures, girls are even more disadvantaged as there is a preference to invest in the education of boys when money is limited. In 47 out of 54 African countries, girls have a less than 50 per cent chance of going to secondary school; average primary school completion rates for boys in sub-Saharan Africa stand 99 at 56 per cent, but only 46 per cent for girls. The right to education for millions of girls particularly in rural areas and true gender equality in education remains far from being achieved.
School Gardens is seen as a means by which the relevance and attractiveness of school can be increased, promoting interest in schooling among parents and children themselves and thereby contributing to efforts against child labour. ILOIPEC supported the establishment of the programme in some 60 schools in areas with a high incidence of child labour, particularly in fishing and sugar cane harvesting.100
Parents value education. They see it as an avenue for social advancement. They want their children to learn to read and write. When school fees are waived, there is a tremendous increase in the demand for education. It is therefore important that governments make efforts to provide free education and to give encouragement for children to attend school.
98. http://www.ethicaltrade.org/about-eti 99. Make it Right- Ending the Crisis in Girls' Education, GCE and RESULTS Education Fund, 2011 100. Labour Inspection in Agriculture, ILO Discussion Paper 2005, pp. 16-17.
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The frequent shortage of schools in rural areas is an additional disincentive to pulling children out of work and into school. Before steps are taken to move children out of work, it is necessary to make sure they have somewhere to go. If declines in child labour further impoverish poor families or do not go hand-in-hand with high-quality schooling, they could leave children even worse off. To help poor parents, some countries have decided to provide incentives to families to send their children to school. For example, programmes that transfer cash or food directly to households that send their children to school and meet other conditions can help significantly reduce child labour and increase school enrolment, while in other countries general social protection floors are beginning to demonstrate results. Education is an essential prerequisite for reducing poverty, improving agriculture and the living conditions of rural people and building a food-secure world. But rural children generally have poor access to quality education due to lack of schools, lack of or poorly trained teachers, and irrelevant curricula, or because their families cannot afford the school fees. Measures are urgently needed to overcome the urban/rural and gender gap in education and to improve the quality of basic rural education and access to it.
So an important “way forward” for Global March is to build further on its advocacy worldwide with the Global Campaign for Education (GCE) to improve quality of education and directing resources to increasing access to schooling for all children while ensuring that the school environment, particularly, the learning environment, is inclusive and strong enough to persuade children to remain in school. Interventions, therefore, must be accompanied by measures to alleviate poverty and offset the loss of income engendered by children, especially girls, going to school instead of to work (See Message 10).
3.10.2 Bringing child labour concerns into the mainstream of agricultural policy and programme making Any sustainable solutions of the problem of child labour in agriculture require national governments, international organisations, donor agencies and civil society organisations to give priority to agricultural and rural development, so that farmers are able to obtain fair prices for their products and agricultural workers are paid fair wages. Agricultural child labour is rooted in the economic vulnerability of rural families, and so rural development strategies and programmes aimed at improving rural livelihoods and creating additional income-generating activities have a critical role to play in reducing the use of child labour. Another key to reducing agricultural child labour which needs to be at the heart of sustainable agriculture and rural development is building strong rural institutions. This includes strengthening farmers’ organisations and trade unions so that they can freely organise themselves and work to improve adult incomes, wages, and labour standards. Without strong institutions, sustainable change cannot be brought about.
Child labour elimination needs to be an integral part of national, sub-regional and regional agricultural and rural development policies and programmes but at the moment it is so often a missing element here. So an important “way forward” for Global March is to reach out to agricultural policy and decision makers - nationally, sub-regionally and regionally to ensure that child labour elimination is at the core of sustainable agricultural and rural development policies and programmes, and at the heart of the institutions in charge of achieving these goals (See Message 12).
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3.10.3 Agricultural extension officers and child labour Agricultural extension advisory officers of ministries of agriculture work directly with farmers and farmers' groups on all agronomic and administrative matters related to the crop or livestock, and they have authority and engender confidence among farmers. Agricultural extension officers and their networks could be primary vectors of child labour information and prevention messages but they lack training and information on the subject. One ILO study in Kenya on agricultural extension officers and child labour found the following: Ÿ Limited knowledge on national child legislation among agricultural extension officers; Ÿ Limited knowledge on child labour in general among agriculture extension officers, including senior policy
makers in the Ministry of Agriculture; Ÿ Lack of inclusion of child labour issues in the numerous agriculture policies; Ÿ Non-involvement of the Ministry of Agriculture and other organisations in the agriculture sector in anti-child
labour campaigns. The study concluded that agricultural extension officers whilst willing to help were currently “child labour blind.” Furthermore, there is often a dire lack of cooperation, even communication, in many developing countries between the Ministries of Agriculture and Labour, in particular at the operational, field and services level. In such a scenario, a policy or programme for awareness raising and information/training of the agricultural extension officers is bound to have significant impact.101 It could also include orienting agricultural extension programmes towards improving employment prospects for rural youth.102
So an important “way forward” could be for Global March to advocate more systematic involvement of agricultural extension officers and their networks in the elimination of child labour. (See Message 3)
3.10.4 Making workplaces safe and healthy for all workers to combat hazardous child labour In the workplace, the safety and health of adult and youth workers and child labourers are inextricably linked. One cannot adequately protect the safety and health of children employed as young workers unless one adequately protects the safety and health of adult workers in the same workplace. The dust particles or pesticide droplets that may harm the child labourer may also harm the adult/youth worker, and vice versa. Thus, combating hazardous child labour means improving the safety and health conditions for all workers - self-employed or waged, casual or permanent. The various ways in which, safety and health conditions in farms and plantations can be improved for all workers and which would help combat hazardous child labour are discussed in the following paragraphs. a) Farmers using safety and health risk assessment to improve working conditions and combat hazardous child labour Occupational safety and health (OSH) risk assessment is a key self-help tool for employers and enterprises to address the circumstances under which hazardous work is carried out and for coming up with safe and healthy solutions in order to prevent and reduce fatal accidents, injuries and ill health at work. OSH risk assessment allows enterprises – small, medium and large - to take action themselves to prevent and reduce fatal accidents, 101. Labour Inspection in Agriculture, ILO Discussion Paper 2005, pp. 16-17. 102. Employment for rural youth in Asia and the Pacific: Jobs and empowerment on and off the farm. Opportunities for the rural non-farm sector in India. 2002, p 20. Quoted in Youth employment summit campaign 2002-2012.
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injuries, and ill health at work. Employers can use risk assessment to identify where and how hazardous work is carried out (including supply chains), who is at risk of being harmed, including child labourers, and then to come up with and implement practical and cost-effective solutions. OSH risk assessment is also a legal requirement on the employer in certain countries. Commercially, it is also increasingly a factor considered by buyers in determining product contracts, purchases and market access. A safety and health risk assessment is essentially a careful examination by an employer, in cooperation with her/his workforce of any aspect of the business that could cause harm to people. A careful evaluation of the extent of the risks involved then follows, taking into account existing safety and health measures that are already in place, and deciding what more needs to be done to protect those at risk. Using risk assessment to tackle their daily safety and health problems avoids companies, especially small and medium-sized enterprises, from having to rely on external experts, consultants or officials to make their workplaces safer and healthier; and keeps costs down.
Training farmers in Ghana on improving health and safety conditions on farms In Ghana, the ILO and the Ghana Agricultural Workers Union (GAWU) cooperated at field level to train a pilot group of farmers as trainers on elimination of hazardous child labour in agriculture. Training was also given to them on how to improve safety and health conditions on their own farms so young workers (above minimum employment age) could work there. These farmer trainers then ran training sessions, and giving awareness-raising talks, on child labour on their farms, and in their villages and communities for their fellow farmers and villagers, chiefs, district level officials, agricultural producer organisations and so on. GAWU also then recruited many of the smallholder farrmers as trade union members. GAWU's capacity has been increased in both organising activities to combat child labour and recruiting smallholder farmers as members. The support that GAWU is giving to the farmer trainers back in their villages and communities is also helping the union to build links with district officials and child labour child committees, which allows it to participate more effectively in local child labour monitoring programmes. 103
Risk assessment is a five-step process: Step 1.
Identify the hazards, who is at risk, and how
Step 2.
Evaluating the degree of risk, and prioritising risks for action
Step 3.
Identify and decide on the safety and health risk controls in the following order: • Risk Control 1. Elimination or substitution of hazards • Risk Control 2. Tools, equipment, technology and engineering • Risk Control 3. Safe work methods, practices, organisation, information and training • Risk Control 4. Hygiene and welfare • Risk Control 5. Health/medical surveillance • Risk Control 6. Personal protective equipment
Step 4.
Take action: implement the safety and health risk controls following the order in the list in
Step 5.
Record your findings, monitor and review your risk assessment, and update when necessary
Source: Risk assessment for small and medium-sized enterprises. ILO Safework, Geneva. In preparation.
103. Initiatives to tackle hazardous child labour in agriculture. Guidebook 4, Chapter 1, Section 1.6, p. 12. In Tackling hazardous child labour in agriculture: Guidance on policy and practice. ILO International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour (IPEC), Geneva, 2006.
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So, a “way forward” could be for Global March to advocate for systematic training of farmers, and personnel in farmers’ organisations and cooperatives, on basic OSH risk assessment techniques. Using good practice examples, smallholder farmers could then carry out simple risk assessments to improve safety and health standards for themselves and any workers they may employ seasonally, casually, including young workers - and to avoid use of child labour. (See Message 3 and 4) b) Using workplace safety and health committees to tackle child labour in their enterprises’ supply chains A joint employer–worker occupational safety and health (OSH) committee is, “A committee with representation of workers’ safety and health representatives and employers’ representatives established and functioning at organisation level according to national laws, regulations and practice.” Typically, such committees are required by the regulations for enterprises with a certain number of workers (20, 25 or 50), and so in agriculture they are set up on larger farms and plantations. A joint OSH committee is a way for employers and workers to act cooperatively on a problem-solving basis to improve and maintain health and safety conditions, including addressing hazardous child labour both in the enterprise itself and, if relevant, throughout that enterprise’s supply chain. This could include helping smallholder farmers/producers in the enterprise's supply chain to stop the hiring of child labour.104 The employer and worker representatives on these OSH committees could help to raise the awareness of, and train, employers and workers in the small enterprises on elimination of hazardous child labour. In many countries, it is already standard practice for larger enterprises to help small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) with technical issues such as improving safety and health standards. This practice is all the more prevalent if the SMEs are supplying produce or products to the larger enterprise. (e.g. smallholder farmers supplying crops such as sugar and tea under contract to an agricultural plantation for processing in that plantation's mill or factory).105 In practice, OSH committees often fail to function properly or are underused.106 There seems to be little evidence, written or otherwise, that enterprise safety and health committees play any significant role in the elimination of hazardous child labour .107 So, making use of such committees in the future could be an important “way forward” for the Global March and its partners. Indeed, tackling the issue of hazardous child labour could be a means of prompting inactive committees to take a more active role for the benefit of all workers in the enterprise, smallholder suppliers in the product chain and the community as a whole. (See Message 3 and 4)
3.10.5 Right to food and the elimination of child labour One of the new human rights to emerge in recent years is the right to adequate food which is realised “when every man, woman and child, alone or in community with others, has physical and economic access at all times to adequate food or means for its procurement”. The right to adequate food shall therefore not be interpreted in a narrow or restrictive sense, which equates it with a minimum package of calories, proteins and other specific
104. 105. 106. 107.
Health, safety and environment: A series of trade union manuals for agricultural workers. ILO ACTRAV & IUF, Geneva, 2005), Manual 3, pp. 76–78. Employers’ and Workers’ Handbook on hazardous child labour. ILO ACTEMP and ILO ACTRAV, Geneva, 2011, p. 43. ILO: Health, safety and environment: A series of trade union manuals for agricultural workers (Geneva, ACTRAV, IUF, 2005), Manual 3, pp. 76–78. Employers’ and Workers’ Handbook on hazardous child labour. ILO ACTEMP and ILO ACTRAV, Geneva, 2011, p. 44.
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nutrients.108 The right to food also means the right to food produced without child labour. The UN has established a Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food and the present Rapporteur is Olivier De Schutter (See Message 9).
108. Olivier De Schutter. United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, 2009; http://www.srfood.org/index.php/en/right-to-food
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PART 4
KEY MESSAGES: WAY FORWARD
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Message 1: Mainstream trafficking, forced and bonded labour and slavery across actions to eliminate child labour in agriculture While the issue of human trafficking and situations of forced and bonded labour and slavery is addressed generally through efforts to promote and enforce core labour standards, the nature and consequences of these crimes are such that they require more specific and targeted actions to hasten their elimination. There are still many parts of the world where these crimes continue and in some areas are entrenched cultural and traditional practices that may occur within national boundaries as well as across them, reinforcing the need for accelerated and targeted interventions. When they occur in agricultural and rural areas, they are even more hidden from public scrutiny, making it even more difficult and complicated to address. Global March and its partners should advocate for accelerated and targeted interventions to address trafficking, forced and bonded labour and slavery in agricultural and rural areas and for the mainstreaming of these crimes across broader development frameworks. In addition, Global March and its partners should mainstream these issues across their own programmes and activities and contribute to the increased quantity and quality of the knowledge and evidence base through research.
Message 2: Transforming hazardous child labour into decent youth employment The concept of decent work is based on the understanding that employment for young people above the minimum working age can be a source of personal dignity, security and freedom. For young persons above minimum age of employment, safe and healthy working conditions are important avenues of personal dignity, security and freedom, and a way out of poverty and into safe labour market. The age from the minimum age of employment to 18 year is an important age group as it encompasses the transition from school-to-work, or from school-based education to vocational training. It is during these years that the foundation is laid for achieving decent work later in life. Doing hazardous work in adolescence can create huge barriers – educational, physical, psychological, social – that impede a young person from competing successfully for good jobs in the future, and is one of the main ways in which child labour and youth employment are linked. Global March and its partners could help smallholder farmers to improve safety and health conditions on their farms. In tackling hazardous child labour in this manner, the child, who is above the minimum legal age of employment that the farmer currently employs ceases to be a “child labourer” and becomes classed as a “young worker”.
Message 3: Make workplaces safe and healthy for all and increase workplace cooperation Global March could advocate and help promote greater use of joint workplace employer–worker enterprise safety and health committees, and workplace safety and health risk assessments. This will not only combat child labour in an enterprise but the worker and employer representatives could also help smallholder producers in the enterprise's supply chain to stop using child labour. Risk assessment can be a self-help tool for farmers to raise safety and health standards. In doing so, they can both combat hazardous child labour and promote rural youth employment.
Message 4: Ensure labour rights and standards for all agricultural/rural workers To eliminate child labour means ensuring labour rights and good working conditions for all workers - selfemployed and waged, young and adult. Fully and sustainably eliminating child labour means, for example, fully securing the rights of workers to organise and collectively bargain in free, independent trade unions, and of
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farmers to form their own independent organisations; creating decent employment and ensuring fair wages and work for adult workers, promoting gender equality, raising safety and health standards and so on. Global March and its partners should support and advocate the wider application of core labour rights and standards as fundamental human rights.
Message 5: Dialogue and cooperate with farmers’ organisations and their national, regional and international bodies to eliminate child labour, especially in contract farming supply chains In the efforts to combat child labour in agriculture, the constituency with which there has been the least systematic work/involvement is farmers and their organisations. The niche for Global March would be more systematic work with and support for farmers’ organisations, especially smallholder farmer outgrower associations in contract farming arrangements, with a view to helping these farmers to stop using child labour. Global March and its partners can gather information and carry out research on outgrower schemes and their use of child labour. They can also research and advocate good practice to combat this phenomenon. Global March can dialogue with international and regional farmers’ organisations on how they can cooperate to combat child labour.
Message 6: Dialogue and cooperate with agricultural cooperatives and their national, regional and international bodies to eliminate child labour, especially in supply chains Cooperatives and the cooperative movement have an important, but as yet an unharnessed role to play in the elimination of child labour worldwide. Global March can raise awareness of cooperative members and their organisations (primary, secondary and apex) on child labour and help them to combat this phenomenon in their supply chains, as well as in the communities where cooperatives are located. Where cooperatives are not themselves using child labour, Global March can support these cooperatives in working to stop other smallholder farmers from using child labour.
Message 7: Dialogue and cooperate with agricultural trade unions and federations to eliminate child labour, especially in supply chains To complement its existing work with trade unions, Global March would work more closely with global union federations such as the IUF which organises workers in the global food chain and is very active on child labour issues.
Message 8: Increase NGOs’ role in creating and implementing hazardous work lists Whilst the role of employers’ organisations and trade unions in the development, implementation and periodic revision of national hazardous work lists must be strengthened, so must the inputs from civil society and trade union alliances like Global March in creating and implementing these lists. In each country, employers’ organisations, trade unions and NGOs must play an active role in the elaboration of the hazardous work list. They must also widely disseminate the hazardous work list and help to implement its provisions in enterprises and workplaces.
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Message 9: Right to adequate food means ending child labour Global March could advocate that the right to food also means food produced without child labour. It could also support the statement of the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food that a key action to make this right effective is to, “Improve the protection of agricultural workers by ratifying all ILO Conventions relevant for the agrifood sector”; and, “monitor compliance with labour legislation by devoting appropriate resources for an effective functioning of labour inspectorates in agriculture, in order to genuinely meet the requirements of the ILO Labour Inspection Convention.”109
Message 10: Overcome the urban/rural and gender gap in education Access to free, public and good quality education is the right of every child, irrespective of their socio-economic background, religion or gender to realise their full potential as human beings. Global March would advocate for greater investment in education infrastructure in rural areas for greater access to education by all.
Message 11: Multinational enterprises should ensure that their agricultural product supply chains are child labour free Multinational enterprises need to make genuine and greater efforts towards decent working conditions, eliminating child labour and education for all by cleaning their complete supply chains of child labour and other human rights violations. Global March and its partners would continue to engage in various multi-stakeholder dialogues and initiatives for an anti-child labour inclusive corporate social responsibility policies and actions.
Message 12: Promote rural strategies and programmes aimed at improving rural livelihoods, and mainstreaming of child labour concerns into agricultural policy and programme making Global March and its partners can dialogue and work with agricultural policy and decision-makers to ensure that child labour elimination is at the core of national, sub-regional and regional sustainable agricultural and rural development policies and programmes, and at the heart of the institutions charged with achieving these goals.
109. Agribusiness and the right to food. Report of the Special Rapporteur on the right to food. Human Rights Council 13th session Agenda item 3, A/HRC/13/33. Distr.: General 22 December 2009, Para 52; http://www.srfood.org/index.php/en/component/content/article/641-agribusiness-and-the-right-to-food
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Cover photograph courtesy of U Roberto Romano, ŠROMANO