State Duma ratifies convention on the prohibition of child labor

The Russian State Duma ratified on Wednesday a convention concerning the prohibition and immediate action for the elimination of the worst forms of child labor, adopted by the International Labor Organization /ILO/ in June 1999. This document is included among 8 fundamental ILO conventions.

As many as 366 deputies of the lower house of the Russian parliament voted unanimously for the ratification of the convention.

Among the worst forms of child labor the convention includes both work whose character or conditions may impair health, safety or morals of children, and traffic in children, their involvement in prostitution, production of pornographic materials and production and sales of narcotics, as well as recruitment of children for employment in armed conflicts.

Galina Karelova, First Deputy Labor and Social Development Minister of Russia, emphasized at a house session that ratification of the convention would increase the protection of Russian children against economic and sexual exploitation, and against their involvement in illegal activities.