Myanmar National Action Plan on Elimination of Child Labour

The Myanmar National Action Plan on Elimination of Child Labour, established with the support of the International Labour Organization (ILO), spans 15 years from 2019-2023. The objective of the plan is to reduce and eliminate child labour, especially in its worst forms, provide protection to children who have the right to work legally and remove child labour from hazardous work.^[1]

The plan is grounded in the Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention, 1999 (No. 182), which Myanmar ratified in 2013. Under Article 3(a) of Convention No. 182, the worst forms of child labour comprise “all forms of slavery or practices similar to slavery, such as the sale and trafficking of children, debt bondage and serfdom and forced or compulsory labour, including forced or compulsory recruitment of  children for use in armed conflict.”^[2]

During Phase I of the National Action Plan (2019 to 2023), the government created a National Committee for the Eradication of Child Labour and a Technical Working Group on Child Labour (TWG-CL). The TWG-CL included 52 representatives from the Office of the Supreme Court of the Union, nine ministries, selected city development committees, trade and industry unions, as well as local and international non-governmental organizations.^[3] Before the 2021 military coup, the government was formalizing its first list of hazardous work, while the TWG-CL conducted consultations to build an extensive national coalition to implement the National Action Plan.^[4]

The National Action Plan acknowledges that “Natural disasters and armed conflict are among the factors that the root causes of child labour,”^[5] Nonetheless, Phase I emphasized and prioritized two key sectors: (1) industry and manufacturing, and (2) commerce and trade; and prioritized five regions and states: Kayin State, Mon State, Bago Region, Yangon Region, and Ayeyarwaddy Region.^[6]

After Phase I of the National Action Plan was launched, the Government established a  national complaints mechanism in February 2020, prohibiting the recruitment and use of children, and ratified the Minimum Age Convention, 1973 (No. 138) in June 2020.^[7] The mechanism was meant to replace the ILO’s forced labour complaints mechanism which was not extended beyond 2018. The ILO’s engagement with the national complaints mechanism has included providing forced labour orientation training, supporting government staff in maintaining a database and managing complaints, and participating as social partner representatives on the national committee of the national complaints mechanism.^[8]

Since the military takeover in February 2021, the implementation of the National Action Plan has not been monitored.^[9] In 2020, the ILO supervising bodies outlined the necessary elements for a credible and effective  national complaints mechanism.^[10] In 2021, the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of Myanmar also called for a credible national mechanism “in line with the comments by ILO supervisory bodies.”^[11]

^[1] Government of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar, Myanmar National Action Plan on Elimination of Child Labour 2019–2023, 2018, p. 17, https://www.dol.gov/sites/dolgov/files/Hachemian.Sara.C%40dol.gov/MM770F~1.PDF.

^[2]International Labour Organization (ILO), C182 – Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention (No. 182), 1999, https://normlex.ilo.org/dyn/nrmlx_en/f?p=NORMLEXPUB:12100:0::NO::P12100_ILO_CODE:C182.

^[3] Government of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar, Myanmar National Action Plan on Elimination of Child Labour 2019–2023, 2018, p. 20, https://www.dol.gov/sites/dolgov/files/Hachemian.Sara.C%40dol.gov/MM770F~1.PDF.

^[4] International Labour Organization (ILO), Myanmar Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour (My-PEC), April 23, 2024, pp. 3-4, https://www.ilo.org/sites/default/files/2024-06/MyPEC-goodpractices-brief-2024-mm.pdf.

^[5]Government of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar, Myanmar National Action Plan on Elimination of Child Labour 2019–2023, 2018, p. 8, https://www.dol.gov/sites/dolgov/files/Hachemian.Sara.C%40dol.gov/MM770F~1.PDF.

^[6] Government of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar, Myanmar National Action Plan on Elimination of Child Labour 2019–2023, 2018, p. 18, https://www.dol.gov/sites/dolgov/files/Hachemian.Sara.C%40dol.gov/MM770F~1.PDF.

^[7] United Nations, Annual Report of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict, A/75/873–S/2021/437, May 6, 2021, p. 18, para. 128, https://undocs.org/en/S/2021/437.

^[8] International Labour Organization (ILO) Governing Body, Progress Report on the Follow-up to the Resolution Concerning Remaining Measures on the Subject of Myanmar Adopted by the Conference at Its 102nd Session (2013), February 17, 2020, https://www.ilo.org/sites/default/files/wcmsp5/groups/public/@ed_norm/@relconf/documents/meetingdocument/wcms_736391.pdf.

^[9] International Labour Organization (ILO), Myanmar Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour (My-PEC), April 23, 2024, p. 4,  https://www.ilo.org/sites/default/files/2024-06/MyPEC-goodpractices-brief-2024-mm.pdf.

^[10] International Labour Organization (ILO) Governing Body, Progress Report on the Follow-up to the Resolution Concerning Remaining Measures on the Subject of Myanmar Adopted by the Conference at Its 102nd Session (2013), February 17, 2020, https://www.ilo.org/sites/default/files/wcmsp5/groups/public/@ed_norm/@relconf/documents/meetingdocument/wcms_736391.pdf.

^[11] Human Rights Council, Report of the Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in Myanmar, Thomas H. Andrews, A/HRC/46/56, September 29, 2021, Annex I, para. 81, https://documents.un.org/doc/undoc/gen/g21/263/86/pdf/g2126386.pdf.