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Childhood is defined by age in international legal documents that guarantee the rights and protection of persons under the age of 18 (UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, ILO Convention No. 182 on the Worst Forms of Child Labor) and consider 15 as the minimum age for employment (ILO Convention No. 138 of 1973 of the year on the minimum employment age).
At the same time, child labor is defined as child labor, the nature and intensity of which interferes with children’s education or harms their health and development. Child labor, by its very nature, is a symptom of a deeper problem of poverty and social inequality.
According to the data of the International Labor Organization, at least 246 million children in different countries of the world, that is, every sixth child between the ages of 5 and 17 are forced to work. Moreover, it is not about household help, but about work at enterprises, in the fields, and in other areas.
The International Labor Organization believes that child labor is most often used in the countries of Asia and the Pacific basin, where there are 127 million working children. Next come African countries, where about 30 percent of all local children have difficulties. Two and a half million children work in industrialized countries, and about the same number work in former communist countries.
Among European countries, the largest number of working children lives in Italy. Experts estimate that there are about 1.5 million working children in Europe. As for Ukraine, there are more than 60,000 such children. The problem of the exploitation of child labor has reached a global scale, due to economic, social and historical reasons, which has become dangerous for the future of humanity and, accordingly, encourages to oppose this shameful phenomenon.
The use of child labor, i.e. involving children to work on a regular basis, is considered a form of exploitation and is illegal. The Convention on the Rights of the Child guarantees the protection of children from economic exploitation and from performing hazardous work or work that is an obstacle to education.
According to Ukrainian legislation, you can get a job from the age of 16 (as an exception – at the age of 14-15, but only with the consent of one of the parents or persons who replace them). According to the ILO Convention, any form of work that can with a high probability harm the physical, mental and moral health of children, their moral safety should not be performed by persons who have not reached the age of 18.
The international community has recognized the following types of child labor as the most terrible: slavery, sexual exploitation, illegal activities and hazardous work. The first three of the above categories of work in most countries constitute a criminal offense, the responsibility for combating which is primarily the responsibility of law enforcement agencies. Labor inspectors, in turn, should focus on the fourth category, although, of course, within the framework of large-scale joint efforts to combat child labor, they play a role in the fight against all the worst forms of child labor.