GC: n

S: ILO – http://www.unicef.org/protection/57929_child_labour.html (last access: 2 September 2015).

N: 1. Child labour is often defined as work that deprives children of their childhood, their potential and their dignity, and that is harmful to physical and mental development. It refers to work that is mentally, physically, socially or morally dangerous and harmful to children, that interferes with their schooling by depriving them of the opportunity to attend school; obliging them to leave school prematurely; or requiring them to attempt to combine school attendance with excessively long and heavy work.
2. There are many forms of child labour worldwide. Children are engaged in agricultural labour, in mining, in manufacturing, in domestic service, types of construction, scavenging and begging on the streets. Others are trapped in forms of slavery in armed conflicts, forced labour and debt bondage (to pay off debts incurred by parents and grandparents) as well as in commercial sexual exploitation and illicit activities, such as drug trafficking and organized begging and in many other forms of labour. Many of these are “worst forms” of child labour as they are especially harmful, morally reprehensible, and they violate the child’s freedom and human rights. Child labour tends to be concentrated in the informal sector of the economy. For some work, children receive no payment, only food and a place to sleep. Children in informal sector work receive no payment if they are injured or become ill, and can seek no protection if they suffer violence or are maltreated by their employer.
3. child labour, employment of children of less than a legally specified age. In Europe, North America, Australia, and New Zealand, children under age 15 rarely work except in commercial agriculture, because of the effective enforcement of laws passed in the first half of the 20th century. In the United States, for example, the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 set the minimum age at 14 for employment outside of school hours in nonmanufacturing jobs, at 16 for employment during school hours in interstate commerce, and at 18 for occupations deemed hazardous.
4. Child labour is far more prevalent in developing countries, where millions of children —some as young as seven— still toil in quarries, mines, factories, fields, and service enterprises.

S: 1. ILO – http://www.un.org/en/globalissues/briefingpapers/childlabour/ (last access: 21 November 2013). 3. EncBrit – http://global.britannica.com/topic/child-labour (last access: 2 September 2015).

GV: child labor

S: TERMIUMPLUS

SYN:
S:

CR: humanitarian aid