Under this section are documents providing a regional or country-specific overview and assessment of the social, economic and juridical dimensions of the phenomenon of child domestic labour. Based on qualitative and quantitative research, they provide descriptions of child domestic labour, its social and cultural causes, its possible physical and psychological impact on the child and socio-economic impact on the community and the society at large. Some examine such subjects as its links with the rights to education and health, the hazards it often involves, the possible juridical and policy responses to it, etc. Their objectives, in general, are to build the knowledge base on the subject and support national strategies to eliminate and prevent child domestic labour and its worst forms. Their intended audiences are national and international stakeholders, such as policy makers, representatives of trade unions and employer organizations, educators, community leaders, civil society organizations, researchers and practitioners at large. For easier reference this section is divided into three broad categories: rapid assessments, national thematic reports, sub-regional and regional reports.
RAPID ASSESSMENTS
Using the ILO/UNICEF rapid assessment methodology as described in the manual below, these studies and research aim at providing a quantitative and qualitative description of child domestic labour in a specific area.
IPEC: Manual on child labour rapid assessment methodology. ILO/UNICEF, Geneva, 2005. The rapid assessment methodology has been tested and refined on the experience and lessons learned from the numerous pilot studies carried out by the ILO and UNICEF in many parts of the world for over more than a decade. It is a qualitative, adaptable and usually locally or regionally-focused methodology that employs a variety of research techniques and has proved very useful to better understand various categories of worst forms of child labour, including child domestic labour, which, because of their hidden nature, are still largely unknown or ignored. (English, French, Spanish)
IPEC: Lessons learned when investigating the worst forms of child labour using the rapid assessment methodology. ILO, Geneva, 2004. Publication based on experiences from selected rapid assessments carried out between 2000-2002. (Trilingual - English, French and Spanish)
IPEC: Perfil del trabajo infantil doméstico en Brasil, Colombia, Paraguay y Perú: Análisis de las metodologías de evaluaciones rápidas de situaciones (RAS). ILO, Lima, 2004. This document builds on the experience of a research team in charge of a number of rapid assessments on child domestic labour in selected South American countries. (Spanish)
Click here to have a list of rapid assessments carried out so far.
NATIONAL THEMATIC REPORTS
To support project activities, and expand and deepen the knowledge base on child domestic labour in all its complexity, thematic research has been carried out on some specific dimension of the phenomenon.
Reports focusing on the identification, description and analysis of existing policies and institutional settings
Focusing on the identification, description and analysis of policies and institutional settings relevant to preventing and eliminating child domestic labour, these reports cover the situation in Brazil, Colombia, Paraguay and Peru, and include as well a relevant policy document (the national plan of action) from Guatemala.
Brazil (Portuguese) Colombia (Spanish) Guatemala (Spanish) Paraguay (Spanish) Peru (Spanish)
Reports focusing on the country-specific beliefs, traditional practices and behaviours
Focusing on the country-specific and usually gender-biased beliefs, traditional practices and behaviours that characterise the society and therefore underline and legitimise the existence and perpetuation of child domestic labour, these reports cover the situation in Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Paraguay and Peru.
Brazil (Portuguese) Colombia (Spanish) Costa Rica (Spanish) Paraguay (Spanish) Peru (Spanish)
REGIONAL OR SUB-REGIONAL REPORTS
Asia: IPEC: An overview of child domestic workers in Asia. ILO, Bangkok, 2002. This report contains an overview of child domestic labour in Asia as drawn from available literature as well as from field visits to Thailand, Indonesia and Nepal where information was gathered for the country-specific case studies that can be found at the end of the paper. It contains a situation analysis of child domestic labour, examining its causes and identifying knowledge gaps. (English)
Central America and Dominican Republic: IPEC: Trabajo infantil doméstico en América Central y República Dominicana: Síntesis subregional. ILO, San Jose, 2002. This document is a sub-regional synthesis of national studies carried out in each Central American country and in the Dominican Republic under a project aimed at preventing and eliminating the worst forms of child domestic labour in the sub-region. (English and Spanish)
South America: IPEC: Perfil del trabajo infantil doméstico en Brasil, Colombia, Paraguay y Perú: Contexto, estudios y resultados. Working Paper No. 4. Vol. I. ILO, Lima, 2004. This report is based on the studies carried out under the IPEC project on the prevention and elimination of child domestic labour in South America. It provides for a comparative analysis of disaggregated data (sex, age and race) obtained from baseline surveys carried out in the 4 selected countries. (Spanish)
REPORTS OF REGIONAL PLANNING AND KNOWLEDGE SHARING WORKSHOPS
IPEC/ECPAT: Foro regional de especialistas en trabajo infantil doméstico, explotación sexual comercial y trata de niños, niñas y adolescentes: Informe y sistematización de resultados. ILO, Lima, 2006. Report of a Regional experts meeting co-organized with ECPAT international aimed at developing planning and coordination intervention strategies to prevent and combat trafficking of children, commercial sexual exploitation of children and child domestic labour. (Spanish)
IPEC/Save the Children/UNICEF: Catar ventos de liberdade: aprendizagens e propostas do i encontro nacional de crianças e adolescentes trabalhadores domésticos. ILO, Brasilia, 2004. Report of the national meeting of child domestic workers held in Brasilia, Brazil, on 8-9 September 2003. It responded to the objective of promoting working children and adolescent participation into decision-making and policy development and was an important forum for dialogue between child domestic workers on the problem and its possible policy responses. (Portuguese)