Observation (CEACR) - adopted 2025, published 114th ILC session (2026)

Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention, 1999 (No. 182) - Bolivia (Plurinational State of) (Ratification: 2003)

Articles 3(a), 7(1) and 7(2)(a) and (b) of the Convention. Debt bondage and forced and compulsory labour, penalties and effective and time-bound measures. Preventing the engagement of children in the worst forms of child labour and providing direct assistance for their removal and for their rehabilitation and social integration. Sugar cane and brazil nut harvesting industries. The Committee notes the Government’s information in its report that: (1) the Offices of the Ombudsperson for children and young persons (DNAS) are responsible for ensuring children’s rights, including protection from forced labour and labour exploitation; and (2) the Sectoral and Intersectoral Coordination Council for children and young persons is the body mandated to coordinate the design, implementation and monitoring of policies, plans, strategies, programmes, projects and regulations.

The Committee notes that, according to the ILO’s Harmonized Microdata, in 2023, 126,600 children aged 12 to 14 worked in the agricultural sector, and 133,700 children aged 15 to 17 years. The Committee does not have updated information on: (1) the activities of the DNAS or the Sectoral and Intersectoral Coordination Council for children and young persons to protect children from exploitation in the sugar cane and brazil nut harvesting industries; and (2) the number of offences detected relating to debt bondage and forced labour in the sugar cane and brazil nut harvesting industries, and the penalties imposed. The Committee requests the Government to provide information in this respect and urges it to ensure that persons using the labour of children under 18 years of age in the sugar cane and brazil nut harvesting industries, under conditions of debt bondage or forced labour, are prosecuted and that sufficiently effective and dissuasive sanctions are applied.

Articles 3(d) and 7(2)(a) and (b). Hazardous types of work and effective and time-bound measures for prevention, assistance and removal. Children working in mines. With reference to its previous comments, the Committee notes that the Government: (1) indicates that the number of Integrated Mobile Offices increased from three in 2020 to eight in 2023; and (2) refers to the legislative provisions that provide for the role and objective of the Integrated Mobile Offices. The Committee requests the Government to provide detailed information on the effectiveness of the action undertaken by the Integrated Mobile Offices to prevent children from being engaged in hazardous work in mines, remove them from such work and ensure that they receive assistance for their rehabilitation and social integration.

Article 7(2)(d). Identifying and reaching out to children at special risk. Indigenous and Afro-Bolivian children. The Committee notes the Government’s indication that one of the measures taken by the Ministry of Education to address the education gap in rural areas and areas that are difficult to access is the distribution of educational books. The Committee also notes that the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD), in its concluding observations, expressed its concern about the high drop-out rates in secondary schools, especially in rural and outlying areas, affecting mostly indigenous and Afro-Bolivian students (CERD/C/BOL/CO/21-24, 4 January 2024, para. 41). The Committee requests the Government to take effective and time-bound measures to ensure that indigenous and Afro-Bolivianchildren have access to and remain in free basic education, with a view to protecting them from the worst forms of child labour. It requests the Government to provide information on the measures taken in this respect, as well as on the results achieved.

The Committee is raising other matters in a request addressed directly to the Government.