Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2004, published 93rd ILC session (2005)

Minimum Age Convention, 1973 (No. 138) - Bolivia (Plurinational State of) (Ratification: 1997)

The Committee notes with interest that on 6 June 2003 Bolivia ratified the Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention, 1999 (No. 182), and that on 22 July 2002 it renewed its Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with ILO/IPEC until 2005. It requests the Government to provide information on the following points.

Article 1 of the Convention. National policy. The Committee notes that, according to the Government, the three strategic objectives of the National Plan for the gradual elimination of child labour (2000-10) are: (1) to reduce labour performed by boys and girls under 14 years of age; (2) to protect adolescent workers over 14 years of age; and (3) to abolish the worst forms of labour performed by boys, girls and adolescents. In order to meet these strategic objectives, three types of activities in which children work have been selected: sugarcane harvesting, mine work and urban work. With regard to work done by children in mines, the Committee notes that in 2001 a subcommittee was created to implement programmes of action on child labour in this sector. The Committee notes that Bolivia is one of the countries participating in the programme to eliminate child labour in small-scale mining in South America. With regard to sugarcane harvesting, a subcommittee to eliminate child labour in this sector has been established in the Department of Santa Cruz de la Sierra. The Committee requests the Government to provide information on the implementation of the National Plan for the gradual elimination of child labour and the programme to eliminate child labour in small-scale mining in South America, and to report on the results obtained.

Article 2, paragraph 1. Scope of application. The Committee notes the information supplied by the Government to the effect that children working on their own account in commercial activities, shoe shining, car cleaning and selling on public transport are excluded from the scope of application of the Convention. The Committee reminds the Government that according to Article 2, paragraph 1, of the Convention, no one under the specified minimum age - 14 years in Bolivia’s case - may be admitted to employment or work in any occupation, subject to the exceptions allowed by the Convention. One such exception is provided for in Article 4 of the Convention, under which the competent authority may, after consultation with the organizations of employers and workers concerned, exclude from application of the Convention limited categories of employment or work in respect of which special and substantial problems of application arise. Governments must avail themselves of the possibility of excluding such limited categories in their first report on the application of the Convention. However, the Committee observes that the Government did not indicate in its first report that it intended to exclude from the provisions on the minimum age for admission to employment, work done by children on their own account. It accordingly asks the Government to take the necessary steps to ensure that the protection provided by the Convention is applied to self-employed children under 14 years of age.

Article 9, paragraph 3. Keeping of registers. With reference to its previous comments, the Committee notes from the information supplied by the Government that the Ministry of Labour is having difficulty in fulfilling its duty of keeping a register of persons who work and who are less than 18 years of age. The Government indicates in this connection that, the programme on institutional reinforcement and the programme on the application of international labour standards, implemented with cooperation from the Office, will help to overcome this difficulty. The Committee therefore requests the Government to provide information on the provisions that give effect to the requirement for employers to keep registers, and to provide a copy of them.