Child labor: Stop exploitation, strengthen children

The United Nations Child Rights Convention stipulates in Article 32: Every child has the right to be protected against economic exploitation. The International Working Organization IAO determines exactly what is common with it:

Exploitial child labor according to the IAO convention 182 from 1999:

• Slavery and bondage and all forms of forced labor
• Work of children under the age of 13
• Children's prostitution and pornography
• Use of children as soldiers
• Illegal activities, such as drug smuggling
• Work that endangers health, security or morality, for example working in quarries, wearing heavy loads or very long working hours and night work.

Work that endangers the health, security or morality of a child is defined in Article 3 of the IAO recommendation 190

• Work that exposes children from physical, mental or sexual abuse
• Work underground, under water, in dangerous heights or tight rooms
• Working with dangerous machines, with equipment or tools, as well as wearing heavy loads
• Working in an unhealthy environment, the children's dangerous substances, excessive temperatures, noise or vibrations
• Work under difficult conditions, such as long working hours, night work or isolated work, in which the child is exposed to the employer.

Further information:
Ilo Convention on Child Labor (IPEC)

The International Labor Organization (IAO) and Unicef ​​presented a report on the situation of child workers in June 2025 in June 2025. According to the IAO, 138 million children work in the age group between five and 17 years.

Among them are 54 million girls and boys in dangerous work: 

• They worked in dangerous places such as quarries or commercial plantations, they do night work or have far too long working hours.
• 10.3 million children between five and eleven years work under dangerous conditions.
• They do forced labor, for example in households or in agriculture. They are sold and traded. They are sexually exploited, for example for prostitution or the production of pornography. The international work organization also belongs to slavery and thus to exploitative child labor.

8 percent of all children work worldwide - on average, about thirteen children. Almost every fourth child works in the poorest countries in the world, in war and crisis areas it is even over 20 percent of the children. Here is also one of the reasons from which many children have to work in Africa south of the Sahara: on the African continent there are most fragile states and conflicts, a total of 86.6 million children work in Africa south of the Sahara. North Africa and the Middle East with 12.2 million child workers follow a wide distance, around 8.3 percent of children. In Latin America and Caribbean it is 5.5 percent (7.3 million children), 3.4 percent (17 million children) in Central and South Asia, 3.1 percent (12.3 million children) in East and Southeast Asia.
 

Is there child labor in Germany?

Minors also work in Germany, with a minimum age of 15 years. Light work on a few hours a week can also perform 13 -year -olds, such as playing newspapers or baby finishes ( JarbSchG - law to protect the working youth ).

Nevertheless, there are always cases of child labor in Germany that clearly violate legal standards. Among other things, the Terre Des Hommes Kinder Labor Report 2024 »Child labor? In Germany?"

Child labor is in many products: cars, cosmetics, cell phones and computers, fashion and home textiles, coffee, chocolate, tea and juices, hazelnuts and chillies. Children often work at the beginning of the supply chain in the promotion or cultivation of raw materials: they mine mica, which is used in cars, cosmetics and electronics. You harvest cotton for the fashion industry. They pick cocoa, coffee or oranges for food companies. Around ten percent of child workers work for goods that are exported to the world markets.

Many are not employed, but work on the side of their parents or self -organized: they sell to middlemen, for example, what they have taken during the day. Or they move on plantations with their parents at harvest time.

Even children who did not work for the world markets mostly work in the family association or self -organized in the so -called informal sector: they guard the cattle in the pastures, work on the field, look after smaller siblings, get water or sell snacks or other little things on the street. 61 percent of children work in agriculture, followed by services (27 percent) and (31.4 million) and industry (13 percent).

Executive child labor damages the physical and mental health of children and takes the chance of education. Child labor is also harmful to all society because it causes poverty. Non-exploitial work can also have positive consequences.
 

Negative consequences of exploitative child labor:

• Children ruin their health at work: in quarries they breathe in dusts that damage the airways sustainably. On plantations, they are exposed to harmful pesticides that trigger head and abdominal pain and cause cancer in the long term. Children who wear too heavy loads or carry out monotonous movements all day are causing posture damage. Children who work hard are chronically tired and can hardly concentrate.
• Many children even lose their lives: According to the IAO, around 22,000 children and adolescents die in work accidents every year.
• The mental health of children is at risk from difficult work and endless placking. In addition, a lot of violence suffers: they are shouted at, beaten and kicked, food is withheld from them or they are locked up. Again and again children are sexually harassed and raped at work. Children who are completely subject to the will of other people can hardly develop a healthy self -confidence. Girls and boys suffer from fear and feelings of inferiority, do not dare or fall silent. Some children commit suicide.
• 31 percent of working children between the ages of five and 14 do not attend school. If you don't learn anything, you have little chance of better paid work and will have to get through as a day laborer and unskilled workforce. This is how exploitial child labor holds girls and boys and their families in poverty.
• The exploitation of children damages the economy of a country and inhibits development: because of child workers who have no or poor school qualifications, unskilled workers become workers. In order to increase productivity and take more taxes, economies need well -trained workers.

Especially in the illegal economy, individuals or groups are rich: billion -dollar sales are made every year with children's prostitution and child pornography. Children dig in Congo to Coltan, the business is controlled by Warlords, the regulation of mining prevents the regulation. The international IT industry benefits because Coltan is used to manufacture laptops and cell phones. 
 

Positive consequences of non-exploitative child labor:

No child should have to work. But especially in poorer, structurally weak regions, a flat -rate ban does not always help: not every child labor is one of the worst forms, not all children work in dangerous places. If children from twelve years of age work instead about a few hours a day in his parents' company or do easy work, such as the interacting of newspapers, neighborly help or selling food or small things on the street, this can be an important component of a self -determined life. Thanks to your earnings, you can go to school and buy booklets, pens and books or something to eat. For working children, it is often a matter of sharing their time so that they do not neglect the school and still generate enough income. 

For these children, priority is that exploitative forms of child labor are fought as well as structural poverty. They need perspectives: Terre Des Hommes supports working children in these cases, for example, to complete the school and organize themselves so that they can stand up for their interests and do not slip into exploitative work.

Material poverty is a cause of exploitative child labor: if adults generate too little income and are not socially secured, the risk that children will have to work increases. Other causes are discrimination, rightlessness and poor education systems. As a result of displacement and flight, war and armed conflicts and the destruction of the livelihoods through environmental degradation and climate change, a consequence is a result.

• Bad education systems: 263 million children do not go to school worldwide - because there is no school near them or the family cannot afford a school. Many more children hardly learn anything at school, because they sit in crowded classes and are taught by poorly trained teachers. In many countries, the beating is still part of everyday life. School fees or costs for booklets, books or internet access exclude children from poor families. Girls or children who belong to minorities are bullied and excluded.
   
• Hunger wages, lack of social security and no union organization: adults are unemployed or only earn hunger wages. At the same time, there is no social security, such as unemployment benefit, social assistance or health and short-time work allowance: families are then dependent on the cooperation of the children. During the global lockdowns in Corona pandemic, day laborers and workers lost their income from one day to the other worldwide. Millions of school children had to work everywhere to compensate for their parents' loss of earnings. It is unclear whether you can return to school. Because many have lost the connection or have to work through the family. In some industries there is a real demand for child workers: Employers hire children both in the informal and formal sector because they can then pay even lower wages and children do not organize themselves. Many families cannot expect help from government agencies. In many countries, authorities and police are weak or corrupt and benefit from exploitative work themselves.
   
• Discrimination: In many companies, certain groups are discriminated against and fundamental rights are robbed. Children rarely have a lobby and are not considered too little in many companies. Women and girls are considered inferior. As a result, there is no value to the school attendance of girls, they are considered a workforce without rights and without voice from an early age. Such discrimination also experiences children from poor families, children from refugee families, migrant children, indigenous people or children of other skin color, ethnic or religious belonging.
   
• War and armed conflicts destroy a country and drive people to escape. Half of the refugees are children worldwide. They often work to improve family income and because they cannot go to school.
   
• In many areas of the world, climate change to weather extremes: harvesting traps and small farmers can no longer live on their yields. Children often work with or the whole family moves to the nearest city and works there.

Terre Des Hommes helps children to escape exploitial employment relationships and to get school and vocational training. In order to sustainably end exploitative child labor and prevent children from slipping into such employment relationships, changes are necessary on many levels: in families, school and neighborhood, in companies and authorities. Terre Des Hommes therefore includes everyone who can improve the situation of children - both on site and internationally: mothers, fathers and siblings, neighbors, teachers and school management, employers, trading companies and consumers. We can all help to go to school instead of working.

The children themselves are particularly important. They have the right to be asked and have a say. Terre Des Hommes includes girls and boys and supports them in representing their concerns. For example, in the South Indian Tamil Nadu girl groups, for example, they are committed together to ensure that they can go to school and neither have to work in a cotton mill, nor are married early. In order for you to be able to represent your concerns and make politicians or officials aware of problems, Terre Des Hommes children's workers in 15 countries in the "Dialogue Works" (Dialogue works)

Terre Des Hommes calls for children and with our partner organizations:

• Better education systems: All children have the right to education. 263 million girls and boys cannot go to school worldwide. Governments and the international community have to invest more and more effectively in education. The goal should be to enable children from poor families and discriminated groups to attend school. It takes more schools, more and well -trained teachers. Curricula must be aligned with the reality of the students and teaching methods must be child -friendly. The beating must be abolished. Free school meals, good school libraries, are particularly important, for example. Schools in regions where many children work must address the topic with children and parents and, for example, track when students cancel school. For example, schools that open again after the Lockdowns in Corona pandemic should actively bring their students back.
• Listing wages and social security for adults: Terre Des Hommes , for example, is involved in the textile alliance so that employers pay existing wages: workers have to earn so much that no child of the family has to earned and everyone can attend school. Social security for adult workers, such as health and unemployment insurance, are also important.
• Act fairly: Employers on site and international companies are not allowed to hire children or tolerate them in their supply chain. Terre Des Hommes partner projects therefore ensure that work and trade supervision are active on site and ensure that no children are exploited. In order for manufacturers and trading companies to operate responsible, child and human rights organizations have already developed fair trade and social seals in the 90s of the last century: today fair-traded foods or sustainable fashion can be bought everywhere. We ask you: Grab them as often as possible from fair trade or with a reputable seal . Motivate your club, school kiosk or the canteen to switch to products without child labor at your workplace. Ask in your city whether there is a guideline for fair procurement, so that, for example, the pedestrian zone is not paved with stones that were obtained by children. We present you products in which child labor can be stuck and recommend serious alternatives.

However, the responsibility should not be burdened only consumers: Therefore, Terre Des Hommes together with the initiative supply chain law, demands that the Federal Government and the European Union oblige companies to respect supply chains

Exercising child labor is in food, cosmetics, cars, household appliances or fashion and home textiles. Terre Des Hommes asks them: Wherever possible, use fair trade products or with a reputable social seal. On our side "Consumption without child labor- tips for consumers" we give you an overview of which products of fair trade are available and which seals stand for certain product groups.