ILO and UNICEF count 138 million children in labour worldwide
The International Labour Organization and UNICEF estimate that 138 million children were in child labour in 2024, including 54 million in hazardous work, after the world missed the UN target to eliminate child labour by 2025. The ILO-UNICEF figures show a fall from the 160 million children counted in 2020, but the report states that progress is still too slow and concentrated unevenly across regions. Agriculture remains the largest sector, with the ILO-UNICEF figures putting 61 percent of cases in farms, fisheries, forestry and livestock. Services account for 27 percent and industry for 13 percent. For Belgium Pulse readers, the main link is not domestic child labour but supply-chain responsibility: EU rules on forced-labour products and corporate due diligence are moving the issue from aid policy into customs, procurement and business compliance.
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About this story
The International Labour Organization (UN agency founded in 1919 to set labour standards) and UNICEF (UN children's agency created in 1946) produce the global child-labour estimates used by governments and campaigners. World Day Against Child Labour (ILO awareness day observed annually on 12 June since 2002) is the hook for the new figures. UN Sustainable Development Goal Target 8.7 (the 2015 target on forced labour, modern slavery and child labour) set 2025 as the deadline for ending child labour in all forms. Sub-Saharan Africa (the region south of the Sahara, excluding North Africa) remains the largest regional burden in the ILO-UNICEF account. Ghana and Nigeria are West African economies cited in the lead item as examples of agricultural, mining, fishing and domestic-work exposure. The EU Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (Directive 2024/1760, in force since 2024 and later amended) and the EU Forced Labour Regulation (Regulation 2024/3015, applying fully from December 2027) are the main EU policy channels relevant to Belgian companies and consumers.
How to read this story
The history
ILO Convention No. 138 on minimum age was adopted in 1973, and ILO Convention No. 182 on the worst forms of child labour was adopted in 1999 and reached universal ratification in 2020. The UN's 2015 Sustainable Development Goals made 2025 the deadline for ending child labour in all forms. ILO-UNICEF figures recorded a reversal in 2020, when child labour rose to 160 million for the first time in two decades. The latest ILO-UNICEF figures indicate improvement since then, but not fast enough to meet the missed 2025 deadline.
The geopolitics
Child labour risk is tied to global supply chains for food, textiles, minerals and consumer goods, where production often sits in poorer, climate-exposed or conflict-affected regions while consumption happens in richer markets. EU rules can raise labour standards through market access, but they also test relations with exporting countries that may view compliance demands as costly or unevenly shared.
Why now
World Day Against Child Labour on 12 June brought renewed attention to the latest ILO-UNICEF estimates and to the missed UN 2025 deadline for eliminating child labour. The timing also matters because EU supply-chain rules are moving from adoption into implementation planning.
What to watch
Watch for the European Commission's CSDDD guidance due by July 2027, national implementation work by EU member states, and the full application of the EU forced-labour product ban in December 2027. The next ILO-UNICEF global estimates will indicate whether the decline from 2020 has accelerated or stalled.
Local impact
The most concrete Belgian effect falls on sectors with international sourcing rather than one commune: chocolate and cocoa buyers, food importers, apparel retailers, diamond and mineral-linked businesses, supermarkets and public purchasers. Belgian SMEs outside the direct CSDDD scope may still receive questionnaires, contractual clauses or audit requests from larger customers that need to document supply-chain risks.
International angle
The figures matter because child labour sits at the intersection of development policy, trade and corporate regulation. The ILO-UNICEF estimates identify the burden mainly outside Europe, while EU laws increasingly ask European markets to police products and value chains connected to forced labour or human-rights harm. Belgium is involved through the EU single market, customs, procurement and company reporting expectations.
What this means for you
For Belgian readers, nothing changes at the checkout immediately. The practical shift is upstream: larger companies and public buyers will need stronger supply-chain risk mapping, while smaller suppliers may face more documentation requests. Consumers and investors should expect more claims about traceability, but the key test will be whether those claims are backed by credible audits, complaints channels and remediation.
What happens next
The next practical phase is regulatory rather than statistical. The European Commission says CSDDD guidance is due by July 2027, while Regulation 2024/3015 is scheduled to apply fully from December 2027. Companies selling into Belgium and the wider EU are expected to keep strengthening supplier mapping, complaints channels and risk controls. The next ILO-UNICEF global estimate will show whether the post-2020 decline continued.
Potential consequences
If the ILO-UNICEF decline continues slowly, child labour could remain embedded in agricultural and informal supply chains even as headline numbers improve. Belgian and EU companies may face stronger compliance expectations, especially in food, textiles, minerals and retail. The risk is a split outcome: large firms improve documentation and supplier oversight, while smaller producers in poorer regions face higher compliance pressure without enough development support. Better-designed rules could also reward cleaner supply chains and more resilient sourcing.
Opposing perspectives
- ILO and UNICEF
The ILO-UNICEF report frames the latest figures as proof that policy can reduce child labour, but only if governments protect education, social protection and decent work for adults. Its strongest argument is that the fall from 2020 shows progress is possible, while the missed 2025 deadline shows voluntary momentum is insufficient.
- European Commission
The European Commission's due-diligence framing argues that large companies operating in the EU should identify and address human-rights harms in global value chains while avoiding disproportionate burdens on smaller suppliers. In that view, child-labour prevention is partly a market-governance problem, not only a development-aid issue.
- Supply-chain researchers (Hurt et al.)
A 2023 network study by Jan Hurt and co-authors estimates that indirect supply-chain links make child and forced-labour exposure difficult to isolate firm by firm. Their strongest caution is that due-diligence regimes focused only on individual buyer-supplier links may miss how dense global production networks actually transmit risk.
Timeline
- 1973-06-26·The ILO adopted Convention No. 138 on minimum age for admission to employment.
- 1999-06-17·The ILO adopted Convention No. 182 on the worst forms of child labour.
- 2002-06-12·The ILO launched World Day Against Child Labour.
- 2015-09-25·UN member states adopted the Sustainable Development Goals, including Target 8.7.
- 2020-08-04·ILO Convention No. 182 reached universal ratification by ILO member states.
- 2024-07-05·Directive (EU) 2024/1760 on corporate sustainability due diligence was published in the Official Journal.
- 2024-12-12·Regulation (EU) 2024/3015 on forced-labour products was published in the Official Journal.
- 2026-06-12·World Day Against Child Labour renewed attention on the latest ILO-UNICEF estimates.
Glossary
- CSDDD
- The EU Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive, a law requiring very large companies to address human-rights and environmental impacts in operations and value chains.
- Regulation 2024/3015
- The EU Forced Labour Regulation, which prohibits products made with forced labour from being placed on, made available on or exported from the EU market.
- SDG Target 8.7
- A UN Sustainable Development Goal target calling for action against forced labour, modern slavery, human trafficking and child labour.
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This briefing was prepared with AI assistance and reviewed by a Belgium Impulse editor before publication. methodology.