A Yemeni boy waters plants and cleans tombstones at a cemetery in the capital Sanaa on Monday. Yemen has the highest level of child labor in the Arab world, both as a percentage and in sheer numbers, according to the International Labor Organization. Photo: AFP

Every member state has ratified a United Nations (UN) convention banning the worst forms of child labor, the UN announced Tuesday, in a historic first.

The Pacific island nation of Tonga formally lodged its ratification with the International Labour Organization (ILO) on Tuesday, meaning all 187 ILO member states have done so - the first convention ever to be universally ratified in the UN agency's 100-year history.

"Universal ratification of Convention 182 is an historic first that means that all children now have legal protection against the worst forms of child labor," said ILO Director-General Guy Ryder.

"It reflects a global commitment that the worst forms of child labor, such as slavery, sexual exploitation, the use of children in armed conflict or other illicit or hazardous work that compromises children's health, morals or psychological well-being, have no place in our society."

However, he was under no illusions that ratification equated to implementation.

The ILO estimates that there are 152 million youngsters under the age of 18 around the world in child labor, with around half in the worst forms, and 73 million doing work considered as hazardous.

Some 70 percent of all child labor takes place in agriculture and is mostly poverty-related. 

Nearly one in five African youngsters are in child labor.

The convention was unanimously adopted in 1999, but has now been unanimously ratified.

It calls for the prohibition and elimination of child slavery, forced labor and trafficking and bans the use of children in warfare, prostitution, pornography, illegal activities, and in hazardous work.

The ILO said the incidence of child labor and its worst forms dropped by almost 40 percent between 2000 and 2016, as ratification spread.

The sustainable development goals adopted by all UN member states in 2015 call for the end of child labor in all its forms by 2025.

However, progress has slowed in recent years, particularly for children aged five to 11, and in some geographical areas.

And the COVID-19 pandemic is threatening to reverse progress and result in an increase in child labor for the first time in 20 years.

AFP