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co-operation with the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR) and with the Mexican Centre for Economic Research in Third World Countries, would cover about 20 countries which were at various stages of development and had adopted different economic and social systems. The report on that survey would be submitted to the General Assembly at its special session to be held in 1980.
EXPLOITATION OF CHILD LABOUR (agenda item 12) (E/CN.4/Sub.2/433)
7. The CHAIRMAN invited the Sub-Commission to consider agenda item 12, entitled "Exploitation of child labour", and requested the representative of the Secretary-General to introduce the subject.
8. Mr. BRAND (Representative of the Secretary-General) said that the present item had been included on the Sub-Commission's agenda as a result of the activities of one of its subsidiary bodies, the Working Group on Slavery, which in 1976 had begun to examine allegations concerning the exploitation of child labour, since in some cases the allegations seemed to relate to practices akin to slavery. The subject was also linked with that of the sale of children, which violated the 1956 Supplementary Convention on the Abolition of Slavery.
9. In 1978, on the recommendation of its Working Group, the Sub-Commission had decided in resolution 6 B (XXXI), to include the question of the exploitation of child labour on the agenda for the thirty-second session in 1979, the International Year of the Child. In the same resolution, the Sub-Commission had also invited the Governments concerned to avail themselves of the International Labour Organisation's technical assistance programme, urged all States which had not yet done so to ratify and implement the ILO Minimum Age Convention, 1973 (No. 138) and the ILO Convention concerning Forced or Compulsory Labour, 1930 (No. 29), appealed to the Governments concerned to press privately-owned industries to improve the conditions of work of children and to seek ways and means of enforcing relevant legislation, and requested the Secretary-General to co-operate with the United Nations agencies concerned and to report to the Working Group at its fifth session.
10.
The Sub-Commission had before it document E/CN.4/Sub.2/433, which was also document E/CN.4/Sub.2/AC.2/29 of the Working Group on Slavery. As indicated in paragraphs 9 and 10 of that report, the Secretary-General reviewed the relevant international instruments and the main aspects of the problem as described in specialist publications, in particular those of the International Labour Organisation, since it was thought that a brief review of that kind might provide the basis for consideration of the possible future role of the Sub-Commission and its Working Group on Slavery.
11.
The CHAIRMAN suggested that the Sub-Commission should hear the views of the representative of the International Labour Organisation before enbarking on its discussion.
12. ir. BRETCH (International Labour Organisation) said that ILO had been concerned with the question of child labour since its foundation, as us evident fron Convention No. 6 concerning Night Work of Young Persons Employed in Industry, which dated back to 1919.
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