1,843,828 children affected by child labor in Colombia. The alarming gap between official figures and the reality of child labor in Colombia demands urgent attention. When will the Colombian government fulfill its obligations to our children?

The worrying difference between the official figures on child labor published by DANE (2022), which report a total of 369.000 children working in Colombia and the estimate of 1.843.828 children made by Lichand and Wolf scholars (2022), should be a cause of national attention.

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However, this heartbreaking reality is being ignored within the framework of the national plan; it was even left out of the labor reform, one of the main projects of the government.

This is all more alarming considering that it is precisely in the industries most relevant to the Colombian economy that child labor is most prevalent: bricks (clay), coal, coffee, emeralds, gold, fruits and sugar cane according the Child Labor and Forced Labor Reports to the U.S. department of labor.

Likewise, these industries lead exports in Colombia and their main destinations are the European Union and The United States.These countries use those productions as an input in their supply chains, and are therefore equally responsible.

Child labor: the key to the problem

Poor supervision and underreporting on child labor in Colombia hinder the development of appropriate public and private initiatives.

This is a result of the inadequate methodology of official surveys. Since they are parent- based surveys, the presence of biases in the reports is significant, and the organizations have not yet found a way to overcome the inaccuracy.

On the other hand, the study made by Lichand and Wolf, scholars at the University of Zürich (currently at Stanford University) and the University of Pennsylvania respectively, proves that a study with the presence of a neutral third party makes a significant difference.

This is the case of ENVERITAS, a cocoa certifier used in the aforementioned study as novel third-party data, that identified children working in this sector through satellite imagery, artificial intelligence and Machine learning algorithms, thus proving that parents were underreporting child labor by at least 60%.

As the methodology of the Lichand and Wolf study demonstrated, appropriate interventions require accurate monitoring. Otherwise, governments will not be able to guarantee Children’s rights.

Accurate information is crucial to create national public and private initiatives that address the real problem, be it low wages, lack of access to education or social exclusion, among others.

You may also read: Child labor, a growing practice from the past that could be tackled with a simple measure

Who is responsible?

According to Rosa D’Amato, deputy of the European Parliament, “since the signing of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948 and the ratification of the Convention of Children’s Rights in 1989, all member nations… have the legal obligation to protect all minors in their supply chains”.

In this sense, the Colombian government is responsible for guaranteeing the rights of all children within the country and monitoring their welfare, especially when internationally, the G7 countries ignore this issue and allow multinationals to profit from child labor.

The laws that regulate Colombian producers, as well as the large companies that purchase their products nationally and internationally, are insufficient.

Although laws exist on paper for Colombian producers, they are poorly enforced. And in the case of multinationals and large companies, the laws allow them to disregard the origin of their inputs, exempting them from ensuring transparency in their supply chains.

Keep your promises!

Child labor is affecting the lives of over 300 million children around the world, violating their fundamental rights, affecting their development and endangering their physical and psychological integrity(ILO, 2023). NGOs and G7 nations, which have signed multiple commitments to eliminate child labor, acknowledge this.

However, there is a lack of strong actions or clear planning. So far, no government has used the polítical tools at its disposal to end this tragedy.

As society our duty is to have zero tolerance towards child labor and to pressure our governments to take decisive actions.

The Colombian government has an unwavering commitment to the children of our country, including the 1.843.828 of them who are being affected by child labor.

Under no circumstance shall it be permitted that agriculture, the manufacturing industry and mining keep on exploiting our children, nor shall multinationals, corporations and large global economies, such as the European Union and the United States, be allowed to continue profiting from this.

Every child deserves to live in a world where they are free of being just children, to enjoy their rights. It is about time that the Colombian government and the international community fulfill their obligations.

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