Observation (CEACR) - adopted 2017, published 107th ILC session (2018)

Minimum Age Convention, 1973 (No. 138) - Syrian Arab Republic (Ratification: 2001)

Application of the Convention in practice. The Committee previously noted that the ongoing conflict in the Syrian Arab Republic has had an alarming impact on children. It noted that the number of children affected by armed conflict in the Syrian Arab Republic has more than doubled, going from 2.3 million to 5.5 million, and the number of children displaced inside the Syrian Arab Republic has exceeded 3 million.

The Committee takes note of the Government’s information in its report on the provisions of national legislation that give effect to the provisions of the Convention. However, the Committee notes that, according to the 2015 UNICEF report entitled “Small Hands, Heavy Burden: How the Syria Conflict is Driving More Children into the Workforce”, four and a half years into the crisis, as a result of the war, many children are involved in economic activities that are mentally, physically or socially dangerous and which limit or deny their basic right to education. The report indicates that there is no shortage of evidence that the crisis is pushing an ever-increasing number of children towards exploitation in the labour market. Some 2.7 million Syrian children are currently out of school, a figure swollen by children who are forced to work instead. Children in the Syrian Arab Republic were contributing to the family income in more than three quarters of households surveyed. According to the report, the Syria crisis has created obstacles to the enforcement of national laws and policies to protect children from child labour, one of the reasons being that there are too few labour inspectors. In addition, there is often a lack of coherence between national authorities, international agencies and civil society organizations over the role of each, leading to a failure in national mechanisms to address child labour.

The Committee notes the Government’s information in its 5th periodic report submitted to the Committee on the Rights of the Child published on 10 August 2017 (CRC/C/SYR/5, para. 203), that the Ministry of Social Affairs and Labour (MoSAL), in collaboration with the Syrian Authority for Family and Population Affairs (SAFPA) and in cooperation with other stakeholders, developed a National Plan of Action for the Elimination of the Worst Forms of Child Labour (NPA-WFCL). The Government also indicates that, in collaboration with UNICEF, the SAFPA conducted a survey on the worst forms of child labour in two industrial towns, Hassia in Homs and Haouch el Blas in Damascus.

While acknowledging the complexity of the situation prevailing on the ground and the presence of armed groups and armed conflict in the country, the Committee must once again express its deep concern at the situation of children in the Syrian Arab Republic who are affected by the armed conflict and driven into child labour, including its worst forms. The Committee urges the Government to take immediate and effective measures in the framework of the implementation of the NPA-WFCL to improve the situation of children in the Syrian Arab Republic and to protect and prevent them from child labour. It requests the Government to provide information on the results achieved, as well as the results of the surveys conducted in Hassia and Haouch el Blas.