Agencies to Labor Ministers: Combat Child Labor Abuse

Leading humanitarian organizations have called on ministers of labor around the globe to ensure greater protections for child domestic laborers.

In a letter to ministers, 10 organizations including World Vision urged governments to ratify the International Labour Organization (ILO) Convention No. 189 known as the “Domestic Workers Convention.”

The ILO estimates that children make up nearly 30 percent of the world’s domestic workers. They often work 12 or more hours a day, seven days a week — cooking, cleaning, washing clothes, and caring for their employer’s children for little or no pay. 

Jesse Eaves, World Vision senior policy advisor for child protection, says because they work in private homes, the plight of child domestic workers is often hidden from view.  

“Domestic servants, especially children, toil in obscurity, are invisible to the outside world, and are often victims of physical, emotional, and even sexual abuse,” he says.

The letter to labor ministers describes the convention as a “critical new tool for child protection” with the potential to improve the lives of an estimated 15 million children engaged in domestic work.

The convention protects children and adults by providing domestic workers with the basic labor rights long enjoyed by workers in other sectors. These include weekly days off, limits to hours of work, a minimum wage, and paid overtime.

The convention also requires governments to ensure that child domestic laborers are not deprived of schooling or opportunities to engage in vocational training.

In addition to World Vision, the following organizations signed the letter to ministers: Amnesty International, Anti-Slavery International, Defense for Children International, Child Rights International Network, Global March Against Child Labour, Human Rights Watch, the International Domestic Worker Network, International Labor Rights Forum, and Plan International.