Cambodia labour experts mobilize for children

Cambodias decision-makers gather in Phnom Penh for a series of meetings on international child labour law organized by the ILO Asia-Pacific office.

Press release | PHNOM PENH | 09 November 1999

PHNOM PENH (ILO News) — To ensure that the children of Cambodia can all go to school, rather than to work, the country’s decision-makers, including members of the Royal Government and parliament, employers, workers, academics, jurists and journalists, will gather in Phnom Penh between 10 and 16 November for a series of meetings on international child labour law organized by the Asia-Pacific office of the International Labour Organization (ILO).

Though exact figures on child labour are rare, a 1996 ILO survey found that nearly 10 per cent of Cambodian children between 5 and 14 years of age were working children. Three-quarters of them were unable to attend school. The percentage of child workers not going to school was highest in the provinces of Banteay Meanchey (88%), Rattanakiri (86%), Siem Reap (82.6%), Battambang (76.5%) and Kampong Thom (73.2%).

The study noted that more girls than boys were working children. The agricultural sector accounted for nine out of every ten child labourers in the 5-14 age group.

At least a third of the country’s working children put in more than 40 hours a week. Work-related illness and injury are not uncommon. Many, for want of education, are not conscious of the health hazards they face on the job.

Last June Cambodia’s Minister of Social Affairs, Labour, Vocational Training and Youth Rehabilitation, Mr Ith Sam Heng, joined with delegates from the ILO’s 173 other member States to adopt, unanimously, the Organization’s Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention, No. 182. Countries that go on to ratify the Convention must take immediate action to prohibit and eliminate the worst forms of child labour where they persist. The Convention describes these as all forms of slavery or similar practices, such as the sale and trafficking of children, debt bondage, forced or compulsory labour (including recruitment for use of children in armed conflict); using, procuring or offering children for prostitution or pornography; using them for such illicit activities as the production or trafficking of drugs; and any work which is likely to harm the health, safety or morals of children.

The Cambodia meetings are part of a worldwide ILO initiative to promote the ratification of Convention 182. They begin with a two-day national workshop on child labour which opens on Wednesday 10 November in Phnom Penh. Representatives of government, employers and workers will focus on the ILO’s Minimum Age Convention, No. 138, which Cambodia is about to ratify, as well as the Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention. Participants are expected to set an agenda for action in the light of information on the legislative and monitoring aspects of the Conventions and the range of international cooperation on offer.

The following week, the Honourable Ith Sam Heng will address three ILO meetings that target specific groups:

  • 12 November: a special workshop for journalists and the media on Convention 182 (correspondents welcome);
  • 15 November: a promotional workshop for the Cambodia Bar Association and professors of law;
  • 16 November: a high-level workshop for senators, members of parliament and senior officials from concerned ministries.

A particular concern of these meetings is the growing number of young sex workers. The ILO regards child prostitution as a violation of the child’s rights. Apart from the obvious moral damage associated with child prostitution (which is always imposed on the child), the risk of HIV infection alone makes this form of child labour utterly intolerable.

In January 1996, the National Assembly passed a law on the abduction and sale of people. The law imposes a 15 to 20 year prison sentence on those who lure and kidnap children under the age of 15 for trafficking or sale into prostitution.

In January 1997, the National Assembly enacted a new labour Code which sets the minimum age for admission to employment at 15 (Article 177). It allows children aged 12 to 15 to be engaged in light work provided i) the work is not hazardous to their health and psychological development; and ii) it does not affect their school attendance or participation in approved vocational training programmes.