Waltop Human Development Initiative

d States Department of Labor has identified over 130 products produced by children, with the top products including bricks, to***co, cotton, coffee, sugarcane, cattle, rice, po*******hy, diamonds, stones, cocoa and fish. The two most important international provisions protecting the rights of children are the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) and the ILO Convention on the Worst Forms of Child Labor (ILO Convention Number 182.) The CRC, adopted in 1989, “is the first legally binding international instrument to incorporate the full range of human rights” specifically dedicated to children’s rights. It is the most widely ratified human rights treaty in history, holding national governments accountable for protecting and ensuring children’s rights and interests. The purpose of ILO Convention Number 182, adopted in 1999, was to help strengthen existing provisions on child labor and bring more international attention to the matter. The Convention “helped to focus the international spotlight on the urgency of action to eliminate as a priority, the worst forms of child labor without losing the long term goal of the effective elimination of all child labor.”

International efforts throughout the past decade have reduced child labor by one-third. For girls, the numbers fell by 40 percent; by comparison, child labor for boys decreased by 25 percent. Department of Labor 2012 statistics, divided by region, indicate:

Asia & Pacific: 77.8 million children
Sub-Saharan Africa: 59 million children (28.8 million of which are engaged in the worst forms of child labor)
Latin America & the Caribbean: 12.5 million children
Middle East & North Africa: 9.2 million children
In spite of the steady progress made in reducing child labor, significant challenges remain for legal protection efforts, as “many countries have good laws that protect children from exploitation, but they lack enforcement.”