ILO Türkiye calls for renewed commitment and accelerated action to end child labour

Today is 12 June 2025, the World Day Against Child Labour.

In 2002, the ILO has launched it to focus attention on the global extent of child labour and the action and efforts needed to eliminate it. 

Ten years ago, in 2015, the Sustainable Development Goals have been adopted. Under Goal 8, Target 8.7 calls on the international community to: "Take immediate and effective measures to eradicate forced labour, end modern slavery and human trafficking and secure the prohibition and elimination of the worst forms of child labour, including recruitment and use of child soldiers, and by 2025 end child labour in all its forms". 

Has the international community achieved the target? The answer is no.

According to ILO-UNICEF report titled Child Labour: Global estimates 2024, trends and the road forward, there are nearly 138 million children engaged in child labour in 2024, including 54 million in hazardous work.

The good news in the Report is that the data show a reduction of over 22 million children since 2020, reversing an alarming spike between 2016 and 2020. 

This means that over the last four years, the world has returned to a path of progress to end child labour.

But there are other important messages we cannot miss from the Report:

Agriculture remains the largest sector for child labour, accounting for 61 per cent of all cases, followed by services (27 per cent), like domestic work and selling goods in markets, and industry (13 per cent), including construction, mining and manufacturing.

Progress against child labour has been slower and more uneven among younger children (5-11 years old).

Hazardous work occurs among children of all ages.

Without rapidly accelerating progress, the fight against child labour will continue for decades into the future. In other words, if international community is to end child labour within the next five years, current rates of progress would need to be 11 times faster.

Acceleration is the key word. 

Türkiye has been making effort for reducing child labour over the past three decades, equipped by good legal framework, sound policies, coordinated efforts and international support. 

The legal framework rests on solid grounds. 

In 1990, Türkiye ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child;

In 1992, it joined the ILO’s International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour (IPEC); 

In 1998, Türkiye ratified the ILO Convention 138 on Minimum Age; and 

In 2001, it ratified the ILO Convention 182 on the Worst Forms of Child Labour.

Guided by International Labour Standards, Türkiye has successfully and tangibly concluded two consecutive National Programmes on the Elimination of Child Labour, covering the periods 2005–2015 and 2017–2023, each setting policy priorities, institutional coordination, and focusing on vulnerable sectors.

In 2024, building on longstanding commitment and achievements, Türkiye was recognized as a Pathfinder Country under Alliance 8.7, the global partnership aimed at accelerating efforts to achieve SDG Target 8.7. It was another affirmation by Türkiye to go further and faster within the global efforts to end child labour.

This year, 2025, was intended to mark a defining milestone in the global effort to eliminate child labour. 

ILO follows a multilateral approach in the global fight against child labour. 

Alliance 8.7 Platform, run by ILO, is a global coalition , which currently has 31 countries, including Türkiye, as members, as well as 403 workers’ and employers’ organisations, regional and international organizations, academic institutions, civil society organisations as partners.

The message of the ILO-UNICEF Report is clear: Success lies in policy imperatives that, if sustained and scaled-up, could bring about an end to child labour. Free and high-quality schooling, school-to-work transition, legal protections to children, prevention and effective enforcement of laws, and universalizing social protection are amongst them. In addition, combating child labour requires work with business for their operations, and with the supply chains. 

Thanks to the partnerships we have with the EU Delegation in Türkiye, CAOBISCO (Association of Chocolate, Biscuit and Confectionery Industries of Europe) and FERRERO, the ILO Office for Türkiye is currently implementing projects in cooperation with the Ministry of Labour and Social Security, prioritising elimination of child labour in seasonal agricultural work carried out in 21 provinces receiving and originating seasonal agricultural workers in close cooperation with relevant ministries, public institutions, municipalitities, private sector, and NGOs.

We aim to eradicate child labour in seasonal agriculture through advocating policies, strengthening coordination and cooperation among all stakeholders, developing capacities at national and local levels, raising awareness and through direct intervention. 

To accelerate efforts and drive meaningful change, Türkiye must tackle the root causes of child labour by expanding decent work opportunities, strengthening social protection systems, and ensuring access to quality education for all children. It must challenge any harmful gender norms and other forms of discrimination that heighten children’s vulnerability. 

ILO remains a partner to Türkiye in all of that and we are fully committed to continue supporting its tripartite constituents. The Ministry of Labour and  Social Security is our primary strategic partner. Social partners, the workers’ and employers’ organizations, have fundamental roles to play with their technical capacities and the enhanced engagement through tripartite social dialogue mechansisms, commitments translate more effectively into context-specific action.

In addition, we have similar commitment to working with the private sector actors, civil society, academia, international partners to design and implement the right policies and programmes so that the root causes of child labour in Türkiye are successfully addressed. 

And as the 2025 report made it clear: Targeted policies to end child labour must go hand in hand with broader development strategies. And to be fully effective, child labour concerns must be systematically mainstreamed into economic and social policy planning – from macroeconomic frameworks to labour market reforms and sectoral strategies.

In parallel to the renewed commitment by the international community to continue fighting child labour, we see a renewed commitment at national level in Türkiye made through the promise of Alliance 8.7 The Pathfinder Country Roadmap of Türkiye, the 12th National Development Plan as well as that of the National Employment Strategy 2025-2028, which clearly stated that “The effectiveness of protective and preventive mechanisms to prevent child labour will be enhanced”.

As the Strategy stipulates, the "Child Labour Survey" is planned in 2026 alongside the Household Labour Force Survey. We look forward to that to update the national data of 2019 and get to know better the social, economic, and demographic characteristics of working children so that we design the right policy interventions ahead. 

Legal frameworks play an extremely important role in combating child labour, when enforced. 

Informality is a common concern and remains critical in addressing child labour. 

Poverty, which is a primary factor leading to child labour, is another concern. And social protection is fundamental in the fight against child labour if they manage to break the cycle of poverty and enhance family resilience.

Quality education, and access to it, always remains part of the solution.

In all of that, here too, acceleration is the key word.

On this World Day Against Child Labour, the ILO Office for Türkiye calls on all stakeholders to renew their commitment, raise their voices, and strengthen their partnerships.