Declaration on Fundamental Principles
and Rights at Work
WORK IN FREEDOM
International
Labour Office
Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention, 1999 (No. 182)
The General Conference of the International Labour Organization,
Considering the need to adopt new instruments for the prohibition and elimination of the
worst forms of child labour, as the main priority for national and international action, including
international cooperation and assistance, to complement the Convention and the
Recommendation concerning Minimum Age for Admission to Employment, 1973, which
remain fundamental instruments on child labour, and
Considering that the effective elimination of the worst forms of child labour requires immediate and comprehensive action, taking into account the importance of free basic education and
the need to remove the children concerned from all such work and to provide for their rehabilitation and social integration while addressing the needs of their families, and
Recalling the resolution concerning the elimination of child labour adopted by the International
Labour Conference at its 83rd Session in 1996, and
Recognizing that child labour is to a great extent caused by poverty and that the long-term
solution lies in sustained economic growth leading to social progress, in particular poverty alleviation and universal education, and
Recalling the Convention on the Rights of the Child adopted by the United Nations General
Assembly on 20 November 1989, and
Recalling the ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work and its Follow-up,
adopted by the International Labour Conference at its 86th Session in 1998, and
Recalling that some of the worst forms of child labour are covered by other international
instruments, in particular the Forced Labour Convention, 1930, and the United Nations
Supplementary Convention on the Abolition of Slavery, the Slave Trade, and Institutions and
Practices Similar to Slavery, 1956, and
Having decided upon the adoption of certain proposals with regard to child labour, which is the
fourth item on the agenda of the session, and
Having determined that these proposals shall take the form of an international Convention;
adopts this seventeenth day of June of the year one thousand nine hundred and ninety-nine the
following Convention, which may be cited as the Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention,
1999.
Convention No. 182
Having been convened at Geneva by the Governing Body of the International Labour Office,
and having met in its 87th Session on 1 June 1999, and