Ariticle32Protection from harmful work
- States Parties recognize the right of the child to be protected from economic exploitation and from performing any work that is likely to be hazardous or to interfere with the child's education, or to be harmful to the child's health or physical, mental, spiritual, moral or social development.
- States Parties shall take legislative, administrative, social and educational measures to ensure the implementation of the present article. To this end, and having regard to the relevant provisions of other international instruments, States Parties shall in particular:
- Provide for a minimum age or minimum ages for admission to employment;
- Provide for appropriate regulation of the hours and conditions of employment;
- Provide for appropriate penalties or other sanctions to ensure the effective enforcement of the present article.
Economic exploitation of children is not a familiar issue in Japan, but worldwide, there are many forced labor problems that can be cited as economic exploitation of children, and this article was enacted as a countermeasure against such problems. The phrase “having regard to the relevant provisions of other international instruments” refers mainly to ILO Conventions on child labor, such as the “Minimum Age Convention” adopted by the International Labor Organization (ILO) in 1973, and the “Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention” adopted in 1999.
Regarding a, b, and c in Paragraph 2, each country has its laws. To take Japan as an example, Article 60, Paragraph 2 of the Japanese Labor Standards Act stipulates that the legal working hours for children are 40 hours per week, including school hours, but not exceeding 7 hours per day, and Article 56 stipulates that children may not be employed until the first March 31 after they reach the age of 15 years.