Stabroek News
March 15, 2001

Employers are being warned not to employ anyone under 15 years of age following the Guyana government's committment to prohibit the worst forms of child labour in accordance with an International Labour Organisation (ILO) convention it has ratified.

A release from Chief Labour Officer Mohamed Akeel said that such forms of child labour include slavery or practices such as sale and trafficking of children, forced or compulsory labour, including forced recruitment of children for use in armed conflict; the use, procuring or offering of a child for prostitution, production of pornography or such performances; and the use, procuring or offering of a child for the production and trafficking of drugs.

The government has forwarded to the Director General of the ILO the instrument of ratification for ILO convention, No.182, concerning the worst forms of child labour, the release said.

The release said also that the Director of the ILO Caribbean Office Willi Mommo has congratulated Minister of Health and Labour Dr Henry Jeffrey on the country's accession to the convention.

The ILO official remarked too, the release noted, that Guyana successfully complied with a recommendation made at an ILO Child Labour Seminar in Jamaica that Caribbean governments ratify the convention by the end of 2000, and in addition it has now ratified all the fundamental ILO conventions, reconfirming its committment to applying fundamental principles and rights at work.