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

Minimum Age Convention, 1973 (No. 138) - El Salvador (Ratification: 1996)

Article 1 of the Convention. National policy for the elimination of child labour, labour inspection and application of the Convention in practice. The Committee notes the Government’s indication in its report that various strategies, plans and policies have been implemented in the sugar agro-industry to ensure the prevention and elimination of child labour in cane cultivation and cutting, including partnerships between the public and private sectors. The Committee notes with interest the Government’s indication that, through the measures taken, child labour in the sugar cane production chain has been eradicated. During the 2021–23 period, a total of 116 inspections were carried out in the sugar sector, and no children were found during these inspections.

The Committee also notes a number of measures adopted by the Government to prevent and ensure the progressive elimination of child labour, in particular: (1) the implementation of the “National Policy for the comprehensive protection of children and young persons in El Salvador 2013–2023”, strategy 2.4 of which covers the implementation of programmes for the progressive elimination of the worst forms of child labour and institutional and social monitoring machinery to detect, report and activate protection mechanisms against child labour; (2) the adoption of the “Crecer Juntos (growing together) early childhood development support policy 2020–2030”, which seeks to eradicate child labour among children between 5 and 7 years of age by 2030; (3) the adoption in 2023 of the “Crecer Juntos Act for the comprehensive protection of early childhood, childhood and adolescence”, which aims to guarantee for all children the full exercise and enjoyment of their rights, regardless of their nationality; to this end, a “National system for the comprehensive protection of early childhood, childhood and adolescence” is being established (section 1); and (4) the amendment of section 627 of the Labour Code to take into account the economic capacity of the offender or the size of the company in the context of penalties for child labour.

With regard to the inspections carried out, the Government indicates that the Labour Inspection Department is implementing the “Child labour verification plan”, which deals with identifying and verifying violations that threaten the physical, mental and moral development of children and young persons. In this regard, the Committee notes that the number of scheduled inspections has decreased, from 635 inspections in 2021 and 693 in 2022 to 501 in 2023. On the other hand, the Committee takes due note of the publication of the “Multi-purpose household surveys” for 2022 and 2023. According to these surveys, the Committee observes that: (1) the number of children in child labour decreased from 93,283 in 2019 to 66,353 in 2022, but increased to 70,171 in 2023; (2) for children in the 5–17 age group, the child labour rate was 5.1 per cent in 2022 and 5.4 per cent in 2023; (3) the rate for children in hazardous child labour increased from 1 per cent in 2019 to 3.8 per cent in 2023; (4) the rate for children working below the minimum age fell from 2 per cent in 2019 to 1.5 per cent in 2023; and (4) in 2023, regarding children in child labour, 65.8 per cent of live in rural areas, 76.5 per cent areas are boys, 37.9 per cent do not attend school, 2.7 per cent are between 5 and 9 years of age, 23.9 per cent are between 10 and 13 years of age and 73.4 per cent are aged between 14 and 17 years. The Committee requests the Government to continue its efforts to prevent and ensure the progressive elimination of child labour, in particular with respect to children and young persons engaged in hazardous activities, and to continue providing information on all the measures taken and the results achieved. Noting that the number of labour inspections has decreased, the Committee also requests the Government to provide information on: (i) its efforts to strengthen labour inspection capacities in order to effectively monitor and detect cases of child labour in all sectors, including the informal economy and rural areas; and (ii) the number and nature of violations detected, as well as the penalties imposed.

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