THE DURBAN CALL TO ACTION ON CHILD LABOUR
PREAMBLE
We, the representatives of governments, employers’ organizations and workers’ organizations,
together with United Nations Agencies, international and civil society organizations, businesses,
children and academic institutions, the participants of the 5th Global Conference on the Elimination
of Child Labour, gathered in Durban, South Africa and around the world, stand together in our
commitment to prevent and eliminate child labour and forced labour;
Welcoming the universal ratification of the Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention, 1999 (No. 182)
by all ILO Member States, an historic first, which is also the most rapidly ratified Convention in the
history of the ILO, and the decisive strides made by governments, employers’ organizations, and
workers’ organizations resulting in a decline in child labour of some 86 million since 2000;
Alarmed that, according to the 2020 Global Estimates of Child Labour, 160 million girls and boys
remain in child labour, half of whom are in hazardous work; 112 million are in agriculture; and the
recruitment of child soldiers continues; and that in the 2016-2020 period, child labour increased by
8.9 million, entirely among children aged 5-11;
Noting with grave concern the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic, armed conflicts, and
humanitarian and environmental crises, which threaten to reverse years of progress against child
labour;
Convinced that meeting target 8.7 of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, to end
child labour in all its forms by 2025, requires immediate, intensified, gender-responsive, wellcoordinated,
multi-sectoral, multi-stakeholder, rights-based action to scale up efforts to eliminate
child labour and forced labour;
Recalling target 8.7, the Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention, 1999 (No. 182), the Minimum
Age Convention, 1973 (No. 138), the Forced Labour Convention, 1930 (No. 29) and the Protocol
of 2014 to the Forced Labour Convention, 1930, the Abolition of Forced Labour Convention,
1957 (No. 105); the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child and its first and second
Optional Protocols; the United Nations Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in
Persons, Especially Women and Children, supplementing the United Nations Convention against
Transnational Organized Crime, SDG target 1.31 and the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare
of the Child; Read more