Programme Towards the Elimination of the worst forms of Child Labour
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| Established: | May 1, 2004 |
| Chief Technical Advisor: | Dawie Bosch |
| Contact tel: | +27 12 431 8800 |
| Contact e-mail: | tecl@mighty.co.za |
The Programme Towards the Elimination of the worst forms of Child Labour (TECL) is a programme on child labour and related issues that is run in all the countries of the Southern African Customs Union (SACU): Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia, South Africa and Swaziland.
Funding for the TECL programme was sourced by the International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour (IPEC) of the International Labour Organisation (ILO), from the US Department of Labor. The programme runs from 2004 to April 2007.
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South Africa
In South Africa the TECL programme is essentially an executing agency for key elements of the national Child Labour Action Programme (CLAP), as partner to relevant government Departments, and in collaboration with organised employers, organised labour and NGOs.
Pilot projects
The flagship projects of TECL in South Africa are three pilot projects aimed at addressing work-related activities of children that are likely to affect their development detrimentally.
The pilot projects address the following three issues or groups of issues, one of which is addressed in this report:
- Commercial sexual exploitation of children (CSEC), Child trafficking and educational rehabilitation of children found in Worst Forms of Child Labour (WFCL).
- Children Used By Adults in the Commission of crime (CUBAC).
- Delivery of water to households far from sources of safe water. By delivering water to such households, the extremely long periods spent by some children in collecting water could be reduced, thereby making more time available for schooling and other activities. It should also reduce the hazards they are exposed to.
The intention is that the implementation of these pilot projects will commence by mid-year 2005.
Other projects
Education policy and child labour
Researching child labour in commercial agriculture
BLNS Countries
All the BLNS Countries have policies and programmes in place to help eliminate child labour, but none of them as yet have comprehensive strategies to address these issues specifically. The various governments and social partners have requested the TECL programe to assist them with the drafting of their own national Action Programmes on the Elimination of Child labour (APECs).
The principles underlying the implementation of the TECL programme in the BLNS countries are to ensure ownership of the programme by creating an environment whereby stakeholders can participate in the process of project design, selection and implementation.
TECL’s support to the BLNS countries, in general focus on:
1.)Increasing knowledge and information on the extent, nature and causes of the worst forms of child labour, focusing on priority areas of concern;
2.)Assessing the policy and economic environment as framework for a programme of action against child labour;
3.)Formulating programmes of action or country plans to eliminate the worst forms of child labour and to address child labour;
4.)Sharing of experience and best practice in researching the worst forms of child labour.
The key areas of concern regarding the worst forms of child labour in the BLNS countries are children doing hazardous work (e.g. making and or selling of liquor and charcoal), the use of children by adults to commit crime and child trafficking.
Botswana
In Botswana the TECL programme focusesses on contributing to knowledge on worst forms of child labour, and assists the relevant government ministries and departments, in collaboration with organised employers, organised labour and NGOs, with steps towards an Action Programme on the Elimination of Child labour (APEC) for the country.
Botswana ratified the ILO Minimum Age Convention in 1997 (C138) and the ILO Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention (C182) in 2000. In addition, the country also ratified both the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child in 1995.
Botswana’s Employment Act is the principal law governing employment-related matters in Botswana. It protects children against exploitation and hazardous employment, defined as any work that is dangerous to the child’s health, development and morals. The Act defines a child as a person under the age of 15 years, and a young person as a person who has attained the age of 15 years but is under the age of 18 years.
Lesotho
In Lesotho the aim of the TECL programme is to increase the knowledge on WFCL, assessing the policy framework and in some instances engage in limited project interventions and advocacy with the main objective to assist the country with the formulation of a national child labour action plan that would lay the foundation for concerted action towards the elimination of worst forms of child labour.
Lesotho ratified both the ILO Minimum Age Convention (C138) and the ILO Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention (C182) in 2001. In addition, the country has also ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1992 and the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child (in 1990).
Lesotho’s Labour Code is the principal law governing employment-related matters in Lesotho. This law defines a “child” as a person under the age of 15, and a “young person” as a person over the age of 15 but under the age of 18.
The 1997 Labour Force Survey found that 4.6% of males who were working full-time, 14.1% of males who were working part-time and 1.3% of male job seekers in Lesotho were aged between 10 and 15 years. Many of these would have been involved in herding and those with part-time work were not necessarily earning an income but may well have been working on family land in subsistence agriculture (i.e. they were economically active but not earning an income).
Boys are most likely to be engaged in paid work, usually herding. Girls who are paid are primarily engaged in domestic work. It is likely that both boys and girls are engaged in seasonal agricultural work across the border in South Africa, but no data on the extent of this phenomenon is available.
Swaziland
In Swaziland, the aim of the TECL programme is to increase the knowledge on WFCL, assessing the policy framework with the main objective to assist the country with the formulation of a national child labour action plan that would lay the foundation for concerted action towards the elimination of worst forms of child labour. An action plan should be drafted with the assistance and engagement of the government, the social partners of the ILO (employers and labour organisations) as well as broader civil society.
Swaziland ratified both the ILO Minimum Age Convention (C138) and the ILO Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention (C182) in 2002. In addition, the country also ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1995. It also signed the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child in 1995, but has not ratified it as yet.
Swaziland’s Employment Act is the principal law governing employment-related matters. It defines a child as a person below the age of 15 years and a young person as a person between the ages of 15 and 17 years.
No dedicated child labour survey has been conducted in Swaziland and very little data exist that could illustrate the nature and extent of child labour in Swaziland. However, the 1997 Population and Housing Census found that 2992 children between 12 and 14 were employed in Swaziland at the time. An additional 18,064 children between the ages of 15 - 19 were employed.
Namibia
In Namibia, the aim of the TECL programme is to increase the knowledge on WFCL, assessing the policy framework with the main objective to assist the country with the formulation of a national child labour action plan that would lay the foundation for concerted action towards the elimination of worst forms of child labour.
Namibia ratified both the ILO Minimum Age Convention (C138) and the ILO Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention (C182) in 2000. In addition, the country also ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1990. Namibia signed the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child in 1999, but has not ratified it as yet.
Namibia’s Labour Act (No 6 of 1992) is the principal law governing employment-related matters in Namibia. There is also a proposed Labour Bill (B.32 of 2002) currently being debated before Parliament. This Bill will replace the current Labour Act. Chapter 2 "Fundamental Rights and Protections" specifically introduces additional protections against child labour as well as reinforcing Constitutional protections as well as those covered by the current Labour Act.(section 3).
Internal links
International Labour Organisation
Commercial sexual exploitation of children
