Ending Child Labour: From Mills to Global Supply Chains

Child labour has long been one of the clearest tests of children's rights. Industrializing countries gradually limited it: Britain's Factory Act of 1833 banned children under nine from textile mills, and in the United States photographer Lewis Hine's images for the National Child Labor Committee helped build support for the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938.

Internationally, the International Labour Organization adopted a Minimum Age Convention in 1973 and, in 1999, the Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention, targeting slavery-like practices, the use of children in armed conflict and hazardous work. In 2020 the 1999 convention became the first ILO convention ratified by every member state.

Yet a 2021 ILO and UNICEF report estimated about 160 million children in child labour, the first rise in two decades. Experts debate the best responses, from bans and enforcement to anti-poverty programs and free schooling, since many families depend on children's earnings to survive.