Preambule
We, the representatives of governments, employers' organizations and workers' organizations, in collaboration with United Nations agencies, international and civil society organizations, businesses, children and academic institutions, gathered in Marrakech from February 11 to 13, 2026 on the occasion of the 6th Global Conference on the Elimination of Child Labour;
Recalling target 8.7 of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, to end child labour in all its forms by 2025; the ILO Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention, 1999 (No. 182) and the ILO Minimum Age Convention, 1973 (No. 138); the ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work, 1998, as amended in 2022; and the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, in particular Articles 32 and 12;
Reaffirming the importance to the elimination of child labour of the fundamental principles and rights at work, which are universal human rights and immutable, inseparable, interrelated and mutually reinforcing;
Reaffirming the importance of employers' organizations and workers' organizations and the central role of social dialogue in the elimination of child labour;
Recognizing that solutions to combat child labour require a human rights-based and survivor-centered approach – one anchored in the core principles of accountability, participation, empowerment and transparency in policy and programmatic responses;
Building upon the commitments and outcomes of the Second World Summit for Social Development, 2025, and of previous Global Child Labour Conferences, in particular the 5th Global Conference on the Elimination of Child Labour, 2022, and the Durban Call to Action on the Elimination of Child Labour, which remain highly relevant and which have not been fully implemented;
Recognizing that situations of armed conflict heighten the risk of child labour and that peace and stability are essential conditions for the elimination of child labour;
Recognizing the emerging challenge posed by online exploitation of children, a phenomenon that requires the formulation and implementation of specialized regulatory and intervention strategies capable of ensuring its effective prevention and response;
Recognizing that the African region is a source of innovation and globally-relevant good practices against child labour, but that the prevalence and absolute numbers of children in child labour are highest there and a particular focus on Africa is urgently needed;
Alarmed that target 8.7 of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) has not been met and there are still 138 million children in child labour, 54 million of whom are in hazardous work, and 79 million of whom are aged between 5 and 11;
Stressing the importance of prioritizing the elimination of child labour in international sustainable development frameworks, including in the post-2030 Agenda;
Encouraging enhanced international cooperation based on solidarity and shared responsibility to support the efforts of countries in the global South to advance towards the elimination of child labour in a fair, inclusive and sustainable manner.
I. A renewed commitment
Despite significant progress in the fight against child labour, including a recent downward trend, increased international mobilisation, universal ratification of Convention No. 182, and the consolidation of innovative partnerships against child labour, SDG target 8.7 remains out of reach.
The efforts made are not sufficient to meet the scale of the challenge and gradual change is no longer enough to guarantee a sustainable reduction in child labour. Faced with this intolerable situation, there is an urgent need to strengthen the effectiveness of our action.
In an environment marked by demographic and digital transitions, climate change, growing inequalities, overlapping political, economic and humanitarian crises, and increasing instability, the 6th Global Conference is a pivotal moment for partners to commit to a transition towards a dynamic focused on transformative action. This represents a paradigm shift that builds on recent achievements and aims to strengthen the coherence, effectiveness and scope of existing commitments, including by establishing clear indicators and regularly monitoring progress.
At the same time, we are committed to initiating an inclusive consultation process, bringing together all relevant stakeholders, in order to agree on realistic deadlines for the elimination of child labour and intervention approaches tailored to national and regional contexts, enabling us to close the gaps identified in terms of targets and move towards the elimination of child labour as soon as possible.
II. A roadmap to 2030 (1)
We all commit, by 2030, taking into consideration the demonstrated, essential role of social dialogue and multi-sectoral cooperation, to developing solutions to eliminate child labour, to scale up action to:
1. Achieve universal ratification of Convention No. 138 by:
(a) encouraging all Member States of the ILO to consider ratifying Convention No. 138 and, as appropriate, support the efforts of the International Labour Office in the promotion of its ratification; and
(b) providing technical assistance, as appropriate, to Member States which have not yet ratified Convention No. 138 to overcome any obstacles to ratification.
2. Align domestic legal frameworks with the provisions of Conventions Nos 138 and 182, particularly to ensure that:(2)
(a) the minimum age for admission to employment or work is not less than the age of completion of compulsory schooling with the exception of “light work” in accordance with Convention No. 138, and in any case not less than 15, or 14 as a transitional measure, which should be progressively raised; and
(b) all worst forms of child labour are prohibited, including by prohibiting hazardous work for anyone under the age of 18, and a list of hazardous work prohibited for children, developed and implemented through full and genuine consultation with social partners, is adopted and regularly reviewed, placing special emphasis on the worst forms of child labour associated with the use of technologies.
3. Ensure implementation of Conventions Nos 138 and 182, including by:
(a) adopting and implementing comprehensive, gender-responsive, multi-sectoral national policies on child labour, taking into consideration ILO Minimum Age Recommendation, 1973 (No. 146) and ILO Worst Forms of Child Labour Recommendation, 1999 (No. 190) and the importance of enhanced international cooperation and assistance to developing countries;
(b) promoting integrated area-based approaches, which effectively prevent entry into, and withdraw children from, all forms of child labour and prevent their displacement from one form of child labour to another;
(c) taking immediate, effective and time-bound measures to eliminate the worst forms of child labour, including by adopting preventive and protective measures, enforcing sanctions against perpetrators, taking into account the views of children currently and formerly in child labour, facilitating access
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(1) This document is non-binding.
(2) As per the Annex, information on national legal frameworks, including links to national hazardous work lists in countries that have adopted them, will be available and updated regularly in the Child Labour Observatory (CLO).
to appropriate care, mental health services and psychological support, taking into account the special situation of girls and addressing genderbased violence;
(d) strengthening the capacities of judicial systems and of a well-resourced, adequately staffed and independent labour inspection through the continuous training of inspectors, the establishment of specialized teams, coordinated action with other social actors, including community-based child labour monitoring systems and the implementation of inspection protocols adapted to new labour modalities and informal work, with priority given to combating the worst forms of child labour;
(e) accelerating efforts to address child labour in domestic work and other sectors where girls are disproportionately at risk, carrying out awarenessraising and advocacy to transform social attitudes and to address the widespread acceptance of child labour in domestic work and prohibiting hazardous work in the sector, including long hours and night work;
(f) developing and implementing through robust social dialogue, with the involvement of social partners, including teachers and their organizations and trade unions, specific strategies for sectors with major incidence of child labour;
(g) tackling all forms of commercial sexual exploitation of children (CSEC), including technology-facilitated CSEC, by strengthening global cooperation, advancing victim-centred and gender-responsive protection measures in accordance with national legislation, and promoting the responsible design and use of digital technologies;
(h) reinvigorating efforts to end other worst forms of child labour, including trafficking of children and forced criminality, which can include forced begging and illicit activities (including by criminal organizations) and their exploitation in situations of armed conflict, including by taking preventive measures against their forced recruitment by armed forces and armed groups by any means, in accordance with Convention No. 182, Article 3 (a) and (d);
(i) emphasizing the central and indispensable nature of the universal birth registration of all children, particularly those in vulnerable situations, as an essential measure that formalizes their vital existence, allowing them to access fundamental rights, including the rights to education and health, as well as to be protected from violations of their rights including refoulement, forced labour, or forced recruitment by armed forces or armed groups;
(j) improving governance structures for the elimination of child labour, in accordance with national law, by strengthening State capacity to develop, coordinate, and monitor integrated policies and actions, including the formulation and implementation of national strategies with clear guidelines and targets, the establishment of tripartite national bodies responsible for coordinating and overseeing related initiatives, and the enhancement of systems for collecting, analysing, and disseminating data on child labour, in order to support evidence-based public policy development, by focusing on the horizontal and vertical articulation of the different levels of government and strengthening tripartism, and by ensuring that children have the right to express their views freely in all matters affecting them;
(k) integrating the goal of preventing and eliminating child labour into broader policy frameworks, including those concerning poverty reduction, trade, child protection, just transition to environmentally sustainable economies, and migration governance;
(l) designing and implementing targeted strategies to address child labour among children aged 5 to 11, who represent the largest share of child labour globally and are mostly engaged in child labour in agriculture as unpaid family labour, and among whom progress has been the slowest, including ensuring universal birth registration and strengthening integrated child protection systems;
(m) recognizing that child labour is often caused by household poverty and informal and family-based livelihoods, particularly in developing and Least Developed Countries, priority action should focus on efforts to reduce poverty to create income security to secure access to essential public services and to protect children from hazardous work;
(n) decentralizing child labour elimination efforts, including by allocating resources for development and bringing essential services closer to communities affected by child labour; enhancing engagement with civil society organizations and representative organizations of smallholder producers, including cooperatives; supporting communities to develop local solutions, in particular to identify children in child labour and refer them to appropriate services; linking labour inspection to community-based child labour monitoring systems; investing in water, sanitation and hygiene, electrification and other infrastructure, the lack of which are important drivers of child labour, particularly in rural and remote areas;
(o) promoting South-South and triangular cooperation, multistakeholder, multilateral, global and regional cooperation mechanisms, such as the Alliance 8.7, the Regional Initiative Latin America and the Caribbean Free of Child Labour, regional cooperation processes under the aegis of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), the South Asia Initiative to End Violence Against Children (SAIEVAC), the Ten Year Action Plan on the Eradication of Child Labour, Forced Labour, Human Trafficking and Modern Slavery of the African Union, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and the implementation and monitoring of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Code of Conduct on Child Labour;
(p) respecting, promoting and realizing a safe and healthy working environment for all, including through public policies to support the creation of formal employment, occupational safety and health, and the professional training of adolescents of working age, ensuring the school-to-work transition, as well as by promoting sharing of knowledge and best practices, on voluntary and mutually agreed terms, in particular from developed to developing countries;
(q) eliminating child labour in humanitarian situations by taking decisive measures to combat and prevent forced recruitment of children for use in armed conflict, in accordance with national law, and by ensuring practical coordination and collaboration amongst humanitarian responders and development actors at all levels to strengthen child labour prevention and response actions in emergencies; and
(r) eliminating child labour among migrant children, including those exposed to trafficking networks that exploit them as domestic workers, in commercial sexual exploitation of children, drug trafficking, and other transnational criminal activities.
4. End child labour in agriculture by:
(a) providing resources to the International Partnership for Cooperation on Child Labour in Agriculture (IPCCLA) for the development of an inclusive global strategy to end child labour in agriculture, including in hard-to-reach subsectors such as fisheries and aquaculture and enhancing cooperation among agricultural and other rural economy stakeholders at all levels, by promoting the ILO Policy guidelines for the promotion of decent work in the agri-food sector and the ILO Right of Association (Agriculture) Convention, 1921 (No. 11), ILO Labour Inspection (Agriculture) Convention, 1969 (No. 129) and ILO Safety and Health in Agriculture Convention, 2001 (No. 184);
(b) supporting rural economies and increased productivity in order to reduce poverty, including by investing in infrastructure and services, logistics and technology to enhance efficiency, climate-smart and safer agricultural practices, promoting the proper use of agricultural inputs and attracting agricultural workers; and
(c) promoting the access of rural populations to labour inspection, education, health, social protection services, support for formalization and supporting rural workers' organizing, cooperatives, and associations that enable communities to build collective power and secure alternative livelihoods.
5. Secure increased resources from diverse sources for the elimination of child labour and enhance coordination and international cooperation, including by:
(a) promoting cooperation to address child labour within the framework of international trade;
(b) promoting collaboration with international financial institutions, such as the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and other relevant UN institutions to systematically mainstream child labour elimination into their programming and policy dialogues; and
(c) promoting collaboration between initiatives, programmes and projects that focus on the elimination of child labour, including by ensuring sustained financial support for initiatives supporting the capacity of developing and Least Developed Countries to effectively scale and implement these efforts.
6. Promote decent work for adults and youth and tackle informality, including by:
(a) strengthening efforts to promote, respect and realize the fundamental principles and rights at work and ensuring decent working conditions through an integrated approach, including respect for freedom of association and the effective recognition of the right to collective bargaining for all workers, as critical means of addressing the root causes of child labour;
(b) strengthening social dialogue and collective bargaining, empowering wagesetting institutions, promoting an adequate minimum wage, statutory or negotiated, and incremental progression from minimum wages to living wages, taking into account the national circumstances and economic factors, in line with the conclusions of the ILO Meeting of experts on wage policies, including living wages, in accordance with national law;
(c) promoting the implementation of the ILO Transition from the Informal to the Formal Economy Recommendation, 2015 (No. 204), taking into account the ILO 2025 Resolution concerning the general discussion on addressing informality and promoting the transition to formality for decent work and the ILO Promotion of Cooperatives Recommendation, 2002 (No. 193);
(d) supporting access to decent youth employment opportunities through participation in apprenticeships, skills development and vocational training programmes as key drivers of productivity, employability and enterprise development; and
(e) creating an enabling environment for sustainable enterprises, in particular micro, small and medium-sized enterprises to prosper, invest and create decent work opportunities.
7. Ensure universal access to free, compulsory, inclusive and equitable quality basic education up to the minimum age for admission to employment or work, and encourage the continued provision of lifelong learning opportunities beyond that age, including by:
(a) recognizing teachers as the most influential factor in learning outcomes and investing in policies that guarantee every child is taught by a qualified, supported, and motivated teacher, including by striving for teacher salaries that are competitive with other professions requiring similar qualifications and that continuous professional development is provided; and
(b) involving teachers and their representative organizations in the design, implementation, and monitoring of policies to eradicate child labour through meaningful social dialogue, including collective bargaining.
8. Promote universal access to social protection by:
(a) providing social protection floors in line with ILO Social Security (Minimum Standards) Convention, 1952 (No. 102) and ILO Social Protection Floors Recommendation, 2012 (No. 202), and with the UN 2025 Doha Political Declaration, paying attention to rural areas and the inclusion of all workers, including in the informal economy;
(b) establishing and strengthening access to comprehensive, adequate, universal and financially sustainable social protection systems, including universal child benefits and other measures such as universal health coverage, social insurance, school feeding programmes or other forms of support based on specific national circumstances and capacities and adapted to diverse needs; and
(c) strengthening the role of social workers in promoting access to social welfare and social protection for vulnerable groups, especially children at risk of or currently or formerly in child labour, their families and communities.
9. End child labour in domestic and global supply chains, including by:
(a) supporting enterprises to conduct human rights due diligence, in line with the ILO Tripartite Declaration of Principles concerning Multinational Enterprises and Social Policy and the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights;
(b) promoting responsible purchasing and sourcing practices that enable decent work, and respect fundamental principles and rights at work;
(c) complementing supply chain due diligence efforts by promoting and supporting integrated area-based approaches that address the root causes of child labour, strengthen local child protection systems, and reach the deepest tiers of supply chains, including informal and unregulated sectors, through collaboration among governments, business, employers' and workers' organizations and civil society;
(d) creating national and international legislation and policies that encourage a business culture committed to human rights for the prevention and elimination of child labour in supply chains;
(e) creating an enabling environment for sustainable enterprises, including micro-, small and medium enterprises; and
(f) promoting the sharing of due diligence best practices, and multi-stakeholder and/or sectoral collaboration.
III. Measuring progress This roadmap complements, and should be implemented together with, the Durban Call to Action. We will monitor progress and report on its implementation:
1. as applicable, to the ILO supervisory bodies on the implementation of ILO Convention Nos 138 and 182 and on progress made relevant to the Annual Review procedures of the ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work, 1998, as amended in 2022;
2. on progress toward achieving SDG target 8.7 as well as targets 1.3 and 4.1, including in the context of the Pathfinder Country Accountability Framework of the Alliance 8.7; the Regional Initiative Latin America and the Caribbean Free of Child Labour and other regional and subregional initiatives including those established by ASEAN, SAIEVAC, the African Union, ECOWAS and SADC;
3. by supporting the implementation of child labour monitoring and remediation systems in affected communities; and
4. by providing information to the ILO Child Labour Observatory (CLO). In addition, we will ensure that the ILO continues to monitor global and national progress, including through its global estimates, country-level reporting and analytical work, by using the indicators in the Annex.
Annex
The indicators below will be used by the ILO to monitor implementation of the commitments made in this framework for action. The sources of verification are:
- the ILO Child Labour Observatory (CLO), established as an outcome of the Durban Call to Action, which includes country profiles of all ILO Member States derived from information publicly available on ILO and Member State websites and which have been submitted to Member States for review and validation;
- other ILO databases (NORMLEX, ILOSTAT)
- ILO field offices; and
- the UN Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) Indicators Database.