Child workers

Context

The fight for the rights of children is historically associated to the issue of work. Today, international regulations trace a clear line between the types of work that are acceptable for children and the ones that seriously harm the health, security or morality of the child and that must be eradicated.

To this date, 115 million children in the world are still engaged in the worst work conditions. If globally the number of girls performing dangerous work decreased by 15 % between 2004 and 2008, over this same period of time, it increased by 7% for boys. The gap increases with age. Boys between 15 and 17 years old are twice as many as the girls engaged in risky forms of work.