According to ILO estimates (Global child labour trends 2000 to 2004, Geneva, ILO, April 2006) there are some 317.4 million children aged 5 to 17 engaged in some form of economic activity in the world (2004), including 190.7 million in the age group from 5 to 14 years. "Economic activity" encompasses most productive activities of children: it includes both work that is permissible under the ILO Child Labour Conventions and that is not. "Child labour", however, is a narrower concept: it excludes the activities of children 12 years and older who are working only a few hours a week in permitted light work and those of children 15 years and above whose work is not classified as "hazardous". ILO action targets the elimination of child labour as defined in the ILO Minimum Age Convention, 1973 (No. 138) and the ILO Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention, 1999 (No. 182) and not all economic activities of children. The same ILO-IPEC's research identified an estimated: 217.7 million children in child labour aged 5 to 17 years, of which 165.8 million were below the age of 15 and 107.6 million below the age of 12; and 126.3 million child labourers working in hazardous situations or conditions of which 74.3 million children were below 15 years of age.

The problem of child labour is immense. Its elimination requires the concerted effort of a number of key players (governments, international organizations, employers and their organizations, trade unions, NGOs, local communities, the children themselves and their parents). In the most successful instances, these "actors" collaborate together in designing and/or carrying out sustained, long-term and comprehensive approaches to combating the problem.

With its broad mandate to promote social justice and decent work, the ILO has the unique competence to combat Child Labour. Since its creation, throughout its standards-related work, the ILO has dealt with the issue of Child Labour first through the setting up a minimum age for work, this process culminated in 1973 with the adoption of C.138. Since 1999, the combat against child labour has been reinforced with the adoption of C.182 on the worst forms of child labour, which calls for countries to take immediate action to secure the prohibition and elimination of all worst forms of child labour.

Article 22 of the ILO Constitution requires Member States to make regular reports on the measures which they have taken to give effect to the conventions that they have ratified. A first report should be submitted during the year after the entry into force in a given country. Subsequent reports are requested periodically on one of the following bases: two-yearly reports for the twelve fundamental and priority conventions (among which the Minimum Age Convention C. 138 and the Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention C. 182) and five-yearly reports for all the other ILO Conventions. Reports can also be requested more often if needed. Each detailed report on a ratified Convention has to be supplied on the basis of a report form which is approved by the Governing Body, and which contains the substantive provisions of the Convention and a number of questions on how it is applied, both in law and in practice. Under article 23 (2) of the Constitution, copies of all reports on the application of ratified Conventions should be communicated to representative organizations of employers and workers. Workers and employers may send their comments on the report either prior to finalization of the report to the Government for consideration, or directly to the ILO. Where a country has ratified the Tripartite Consultation (International Labour Standards) Convention, 1976 (No. 144), governments should consult workers' and employers' organizations when preparing reports.