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

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

Article 4(1) of the Convention. Determination of types of hazardous work. As regards the determination of types of hazardous work, the Committee refers to its comments under the Minimum Age Convention, 1973 (No. 138).

Article 7(2) of the Convention. Effective and time-bound measures. Clause (d). Identifying and reaching out to children at special risk. Street children and other children in situations of vulnerability. The Committee previously took note of the thousands of children living on the streets in Sudan, who constituted the largest group of separated and unaccompanied children in the country. The Committee notes, from the 2024 report of the United Nations Secretary-General on children and armed conflict in the Sudan (S/2024/443), that due to the resurgence of the conflict, at the end of 2023, over 5.9 million people, including 4 million children, were internally displaced and 1.5 million people, half of whom are children, had fled to neighbouring countries.

The Committee notes the Government’s information regarding the approval of the National Strategy for Child Welfare, Development and Protection in Sudan for 2023–2030. This strategy is compatible with the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Sustainable Development Goals, which address all child related issues. The Government indicates that several factors are to be taken into account, such as the need to enable children to have access to education, their social care and protection, the provision of health services, and their right to protection from forms of exploitation, abuse, neglect, violence and harmful practices.

Given that children in street situations, as well as displaced and unaccompanied children are at an increased risk of being engaged in the worst forms of child labour, the Committee requests the Government to intensify its efforts to protect these children from these worst forms of labour. It requests the Government to provide information on the measures taken in this regard, including in the framework of the National Strategy for Child Welfare, Development and Protection in Sudan for 2023–2030, and on the results achieved.