UICHR Human Rights Index
#2 — Child Labor
| 32 | Percentage of world's children aged 5-14 working in Africa (2 of every 5 African children) (ILO, 1998) |
| 61 | Percentage of the world's children aged 5-14 working in Asia (1 of every 5 Asian children) (ILO, 1998) |
| 60-70 | Percentage of children aged 5-14 forced into the sex trade who become infected with HIV/AIDS each year (Free A Child) |
| 100 | Number of states that, as of September 2001, have ratified the International Labour Organization's 1999 Convention (No. 182) on the Worst Forms of Child Labour (ILO, 2001) |
| 8,000 | Number of children (ages unspecified) abducted and forced to become child soldiers and slaves in northern Uganda in 1997 (Amnesty International) |
| 10,000 | Estimated number of children aged 6-14 enslaved in brothels in Sri Lanka (Global March Against Child Labour, 1997) |
| 25,455 | Number of children under 18 working in prostitution in the Dominican Republic (UNICEF, 1999) |
| 200,000 | Number of children (ages unspecified) trafficked every year in West and Central Africa, employed on fishing vessels and farms, in prostitution, and in sweatshops (UNICEF, 2001) |
| 300,000 | Number of children under the age of 18 actively fighting in 41 countries (Human Rights Watch, 2001) |
| 500,000 | Number of children (ages unspecified) recruited into governmental forces and armed groups in more than 87 countries (Human Rights Watch, 2001) |
| 866,000 | Number of children under the age of 18 currently participating in armed conflicts in more than 30 countries |
| 926,038 | Number of children aged 5-17 engaged in some form of economic activity in Sri Lanka (ILO, 1999) |
| 1,000,000 | Number of children (ages unspecified) forced into the sex trade each year (Free the Children, 2001) |
| 1,000,000-2,000,000 | Estimated number of American children under age 18 employed under unlawful, often exploitative conditions (American Academy of Pediatrics, 1995) |
| 2,000,000 | Number of children (ages unspecified) killed in conflict in the last decade, another 6 million having been injured or disabled and 12 million made homeless (UNICEF, 2001) |
| 3,600,000 | Number of children aged 5-14 working in the Phillippines in 1995, 216,000 of whom were aged 5-9 (Global March Against Child Labour, 2000) |
| 20,000,000 | Estimated number of children under age 15 working in Latin America and the Caribbean (UNICEF, 1995) |
| 120,000,000 | Number of children aged 5-14 estimated to be working full time in the world (ILO, 1998) |
| 250,000,000 | Number of children aged 5-14 working in developing countries who combine work with school or other activities (ILO, 1998) |
First published in The Iowa Review (Volume 31, Number 3) Winter 2001-02.
Copyright © 2001 by The University of Iowa Center for Human Rights. For source details, please e-mail The University of Iowa Center for Human Rights (uichr@uiowa.edu)