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Child rights

Child rights

Globally, one in ten children are subjected to child labour and 90% of these live in Africa or the Asia-Pacific regions. The International Labor Organization (ILO) define child labour as “work that deprives children of their childhood, their potential and their dignity, and that is harmful to physical and mental development”. Child labour exists across a wide range of goods and supply chains but is most prevalent in the agriculture and apparel sectors.

Market-based tools aim to utilise the following strategies to increase awareness of and eliminate child labour: 

  • Clearly defining what does and doesn’t constitute child labour. 
  • Monitoring adherence to that definition. 
  • Conducting family and community awareness programmes focused on the importance of school attendance and the detrimental effects that being tired can have on a child’s ability to learn. 
  • Integration of child labour policies into broader social development policies. 
  • Use of the concept of ‘assess and address’ rather than treating the issue as an isolated issue to be stamped out one intervention at a time.   

Recent resources related to child rights

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Issues :
Child rights and wellbeing
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Webinar
Advancing cocoa sustainability: addressing the sector’s most critical challenges (webinar)

Cocoa, widely consumed as chocolate, stands as one of West Africa’s most crucial exports. Despite numerous private and multi-stakeholder initiatives aimed at enhancing economic prosperity, i…

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Research briefing
Child labour in the cocoa sector: perspectives and approaches

This report focuses on the issue of child labour in the cocoa sector in light of new legislation at the national and European level which will introduce new human rights due diligence obligations…

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Research report
International Cocoa Initiative annual report 2023

The report presents the efforts from the International Cocoa Initiative (ICI) in addressing child labour and forced labour within the cocoa sector. It draws on data from 2023 activities, including…

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Research report
Are we making progress towards eliminating child labour? A root cause analysis in the cocoa sector in Côte d’Ivoire

This white paper examines the status of child labour in the cocoa sector in Côte d’Ivoire, addressing its root causes, intervention strategies, and the ch…

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