Protection of Children from Child Labour

Improved Protection of Children from Child Labour in the Republic of Serbia

ILO commemorates World Day Against Child Labour

Press release | 12 June 2017
ILO-Budapest: This year, the World Day Against Child Labour highlights the effects of conflicts and disasters on child labour. In times of crisis, basic services may be disrupted which entails additional risk for entire families, and children are most often the ones to bear the heaviest burden of such situations.    On 12 June, ILO held a press conference to present the results that the Republic of Serbia has achieved in the previous period in improving protection of children from child labour.  At the  conference, addresses were delivered by Mr. Jovan Protić, ILO National Coordinator for Serbia and Mr. Aleksandar Vulin, Minister of Labour, Employment, Veteran and Social Affairs.

Press conference

At the event, the recently adopted Regulation on hazardous labour of children was discussed, whereby the Republic of Serbia has fulfilled the obligation it had assumed by ratifying the ILO Convention on Worst Forms of Child Labour. Furthermore, emphasis was also placed on the Special protocol of labour inspection for protecting children from child labour, which presents an integral part of an already established system of protection of children from violence in the Republic of Serbia. The Protocol clearly ensures a more efficient coordination between the labour inspection, centers for social work and police, with the aim of protecting children from child labour.

The event also presented the activities undertaken so far by the “Country-Level Engagement and Assistance to Reduce Child Labour” project, supported by the US Department of Labour. The project is carried out within the Decent Work Country Program of the Republic of Serbia, implemented by the International Labour Organization in cooperation with the Ministry of Labour, Employment, Veteran and Social Affairs of the Republic of Serbia.

The overall goal of this two-year project is to reduce the presence of child labour, including its worst forms such as slavery, trafficking of children, procuring or offering of a child for prostitution, for the production of pornography, use of children for illicit activities and work which is harmful for the health, safety or morals of children. One part of the project’s activities was directed at improving specific aspects of the national legislation with the aim of harmonizing Serbia’s normative framework with international standards, recommendations of ILO supervisory bodies and Government of Serbia priorities. In addition to the normative framework, the project’s aim is to improve the capacities of the labour inspection in ensuring efficient oversight over child labour.

For the following period, trainings were announced to be conducted for representatives of labour inspection, centers for social work and the police on the identification and protection of children from child labour, as well as Rapid Assessment in agriculture in terms of child labour, and the development of the Roadmap for the elimination of child labour for the period of the next four years.

Contact: Jovan Protic at Office of the International Labour Organization in Belgrade at +00381 113345113 or at protic@ilo.org (Serbian, English).