Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  The ILO hasn't come up with a policy one way or the other, in favour or against such legislation, so I wouldn't be able to give an institutional perspective. Just in our experience, transparency is critical. I would agree with Mr. Evans that the conversation has really evolved i

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Is this directed to me?

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Exploitation isn't a term that's defined in ILO conventions, so it's a slippery one. I would be happy to follow up with a more fully fleshed response to that.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  We have just come out with an analysis of that, which points to some key policy levers that have contributed. In Latin America we've seen a sharp decline. The reason is that it has put in place very strong social protection mechanisms that are targeted at child labour, so thing

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  I think demographic trends have a lot to do with it. We've seen in Africa particularly that it's moving in the wrong direction. It may be that we've reached the low-hanging fruit, in a sense, and now we're dealing with child labour that is really entrenched and rooted in systemic

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Yes, absolutely, it is complex, certainly. Supply chains are getting longer, and they're getting more complex. Thinking of particular subsectors, just to give you an example, cocoa has been one that's received a lot of attention for forced labour and child labour, and the cocoa

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Sure. It's a great question because the majority, two thirds, of child labour is in that family context, so it's a big part of the challenge. It's a tough one, because you're talking about private households. You're not talking about the stereotypical big, bad employer who's abus

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  I think that companies whose supply chains dip into the informal economy are at particular risk. Those that are in agricultural-based products have particular risks, and I think that in terms of accountability, there's a soft law, but increasingly, it's a movement towards hard la

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  I would say that child labour exists in all regions in all countries. The numbers are particularly bad in the global south, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa, where we've seen the highest rates of child labour. About 20% of all children in sub-Saharan Africa are in child labour.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Absolutely. I'll wind it up. For cotton production there is less visibility. There are some 100 million cotton farms, and in developing countries, these tend to be small plots of land of 0.5 hectares to one hectare. It's often family labour, and that brings with it the risk of c

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  First of all, thank you very much. It's an honour to have this opportunity to address the subcommittee. I'd like to briefly provide information on recently published ILO global estimates of child labour and child forced labour, what we know about child labour in supply chains, a