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

Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention, 1999 (No. 182) - El Salvador (Ratification: 2000)

Articles 3(a) and 7(1) and (2)(b) of the Convention. Worst forms of child labour. Penalties.Effective and time-bound measures to remove children from the worst forms of child labour and ensure their rehabilitation and social integration. Child trafficking victims. In reply to the Committee’s previous comments, the Government provides information on: (1) the provision of training, with the support of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), to strengthen the capacity of the Attorney General’s Office’s to detect, investigate and prosecute cases of trafficking in persons and migrant smuggling; (2) the conclusion of a cooperation agreement with Canada to improve the investigation and prosecution of human trafficking cases; (3) convictions related to the trafficking of children for sexual and/or labour exploitation (12 in 2021 and 33 in 2023); (4) how the National Council for the Comprehensive Protection of Children and Adolescents (CONAPINA) implemented the strengthening of institutional protection programmes, through which 575 children and young persons were cared for in the last quarter of 2023; and (5) the provision of resources for CONAPINA, which has a shelter providing specialist care for young persons and women who are victims of trafficking, where psychological care, healthcare and educational and legal assistance are available; the shelter provided care for 10 girl victims in 2021, 11 in 2022 and 13 in 2023.

The Committee also notes that the United Nations Committee on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families, in its concluding observations of 24 May 2023, expressed concern about existing gaps, particularly with regard to the identification and protection of trafficking victims and victims’ access to the justice system (CMW/C/SLV/CO/3, para. 47). The Committee requests the Government to continue to provide detailed and updated information on: (i) its ongoing efforts to prevent, investigate and punish the trafficking of children and young persons for labour and sexual exploitation; (ii) the number of investigations, prosecutions and convictions in cases of trafficking of children and young persons under the Special Act against trafficking in persons; (iii) the steps taken to remove children from this worst form of child labour and ensure their rehabilitation and social integration, as well as the results achieved, indicating the number of child victims who have been identified, rehabilitated and integrated into society.

Article 7(2). Effective and time-bound measures. Clause (d). Identifying and reaching out to children at special risk. Child domestic workers. The Committee notes that the Government has implemented the Denuncia Ciudadana digital platform for reporting violations of children’s rights, including the employment of young persons under 18 years of age in hazardous domestic work. The Committee also welcomes the new Crecer Juntos (growing together) Act of 2022 for the comprehensive protection of children and adolescents, section 94 of which introduces protection for children engaged in domestic work. Children aged 16 years and over are thus authorized to perform domestic work or tasks as employees and are granted all the labour rights established in the Constitution and international treaties in force, including the prohibition of overtime, observance of mealtimes, the right to rest during the working day, and the right to education.

However, the Committee emphasizes that the Government should also take measures to identify children under 18 years of age who perform hazardous domestic work, remove them from such work and integrate them into society. The Committee therefore once again requests the Government to provide information on: (i) effective and time-bound measures to identify children who perform hazardous domestic work, provide the necessary and appropriate direct assistance to remove them from such work, and ensure their rehabilitation and social integration; and (ii) the results achieved in this regard.

Article 8. International cooperation. The Committee notes that, in the context of the “Regional Initiative Latin America and the Caribbean Free of Child Labour”, the “Fast-track national plan of action 2023–25” for ending child labour was adopted. The Committee requests the Government to provide information on the measures taken to implement the “Fast-track national plan of action 2023–25”, as well as on the results achieved.