FAO.org

Child labour continues to be a great concern around the world. It has been estimated that there are some 215 million child labourers globally and that some 60 percent of them work in the agriculture sector, including in fisheries and aquaculture. Children engage in a wide variety of activities in the fisheries and aquaculture sector, both in the actual harvesting and farming of fish – i.e. in capture fishing and aquaculture – and in all associated operations: processing, marketing and other post-harvest activities, as well as in upstream industries such as net-making and boat building. Work performed by children and child labour are not necessarily the same thing. While child labour impairs children’s well-being or hinders their education, development and future livelihoods and should be abolished, there is work that is not harmful to children and that can even be beneficial to them. A critical first step towards reducing child labour in fisheries and aquaculture is to understand what constitutes hazardous work. FAO-ILO guidance for addressing child labour in fisheries and aquaculture: policy and practice launched at the Global South-South Development Expo 2011 sheds light on this issue, as well as on the nature, scope, causes and consequences of child labour in fisheries and aquaculture. It also provides guidance to governments and development partners to classify child labour in fisheries and aquaculture, to mainstream child labour considerations in relevant development and management policies, strategies and plans, and to take practical action. The document is directed at government officials and their development partners, employers’, workers’ and producers’ organizations and other stakeholder and socio-professional organizations in the formal and informal sector. The current document is a preliminary version and feedback on how to improve it is heartily solicited.