PROTECTION FOR CHILD LABOUR

IN INDONESIA

Presented by
ISMAIL HASAN (113174004)
DITA ANJARINI (113174038)
2011A

STATE UNIVERSITY OF SURABAYA

FACULTY OF MATHEMATICS AND NATURAL SCIENCES
DEPARTMENT OF MATHEMATICS
2011

PROTECTION FOR CHILD LABOUR IN INDONESIA

Child Labours Issues has seized worlds attention since few decades ago.
International Labour Organization (ILO) as an international organizations concern on
labour issues has issued a number of convention and recommendation related with rights and
protection for child labour.
Child labour has a different meaning with child work (in bahasa Indonesia these terms
give the same meanings). UNICEF defines Child Work as:Childrens participation in
economic activity that does not negatively effect their health and development or interfere
with education can be positive. Work that does not interfer with education (light work) is
permitted from the age of 12 years under the International Labour Organization (ILO)
Convention 138.
While the definition of Child Labour:This is more narrowly defined and refers to
children working in contravention of the above standards. This means all children below 12
years of age working in any economic activities, those age 12 to 14 years engaged in harmful
work, and all children engged in the worst forms of child labour.
ILO defines Child Labour as:Children who lost their childhood and future,
prematurely leading adult lives, working long hours for low wages under conditions
damaging to their health and their physical and mental development.
In the terms of child work, children are doing light works which are not endangered
their health. Such work is permitted by ILO Convention No.138 for children over the age of
12, for example are children in USA who are doing part time job as servant, babysitter, etc, to
get some extra money. Whereas, the term of child labour refers to children under the age of
12 year or in the age of 12-14 year who engaged in various economic activity and doing
dangerous work that can be harmful for their safety and health.
Several factors urge the existences of child labour among other are poverty, serious
economic crisis, natural disaster, armed conflict, and HIV/AIDS Epidemic (which cause the
death of adult person in the family which force the children to take adults role to earn
money).

As ILOs member, Indonesia has ratified this Convention by Law No.1 of 2000. The
aforementioned Law requires the ratifying state to draft an action plan to implement concrete
actions. Then the President issued a Presidential Decree No.59 of 2002 on National Action
Plan on the Elimination of Worst form of Child Labour, which mention various works that
can be classified as the worst forms of child labour as follows:
J Child Prostitution;
J Child work in the Mining Sector;
J Child work as Pearl Diver;
J Child work in Construction;
J Child work in offshore fishery;
J Child work as trash collector;
J Child involved in the production an activity using explosive materials;
J Child work in the street;
J Child work as domestic servant;
J Child work in home industry;
J Child work in the plantation area;
J Child work in a woodcutting, wood processing and wood transportation industry;
J Child work in an industry and activity using dangerous chemical material.
Based on human right law,every child is entitled to be protected from economic
exploitation and protected form every works that can be harmful for him/her and may
interfere their education, moral, social and spiritual life.
At glance, Indonesia has provided sufficient Laws and Regulations to handle Child
Labours issues. In cooperation with ILO-IPEC and Non-Governmental Organization,
numbers of efforts has been made. The problem is the implementation of sanction, where the
sanction for employer who engaged children in the worst forms of child labour has not been

strictly imposed, since the society itself is not enough ready to receive such sanction. In many
place, childs decision to work is fully supported by their parents and family in order the
release them from poverty and to reach a better life. However, a strict legal process and
sanction has been rendered to Employer who has engaged children in an offshore fishery,
while in other field like manufacturing industry such sanction has not been imposed yet.