Out of work and into school

Action plan for companies
to combat child labour

This Action Plan by Stop Child Labour builds on the varied experience of companies, trade unions, non-governmental organisations (NGOs), multistakeholder initiatives, governments and international organisations. But it also builds on our own experience and firm conviction that all forms of child labour should be eliminated so all children can enjoy their right to education.

The approach outlined in this document has an added value by combining a focus on:
- all forms of child labour (under the two ILO child labour conventions) and its link with the right to education, as the basis for corporate policies on child labour;
- the area-based approach leading to the creation of Child Labour Free Zones based on the experience of organisations in India and several African and Latin American countries;
- due diligence and active engagement of companies in the supply chain aimed at a systematic, planned improvement, instead of immediately withdrawing orders in case of problems;
- explicitly combating child labour as part of the broader goal of realising labour rights, using the experience from the field of corporate responsibility and accountability;
- engagement of companies with other stakeholders such as communities, unions, NGOs, governments, multi-stakeholder initiatives etc.

This document is primarily written for companies as well as multi-stakeholder initiatives that are working or intend to work on the elimination of child labour. However, we think this document is also useful for governments to (re)consider their policies and regulations, for NGOs to guide their action and engagement regarding company or sector-related activities and for international organisations to further specify their policies on the subject of child labour.


download here [, 1185 kB]

Voor een (oudere) Nederlandstalige versie van het actieplan tegen kinderarbeid ("Van Werk naar School - Handleiding voor bedrijven om kinderarbeid te bestrijden"), zie hier [, 1200 kB, nov 2009].