International
Labour Organization
Note: Date of coming into force: :07:11:1961.
The General Conference of the International Labour Organisation,
Having been convened at Geneva by the Governing Body of the International Labour Office, and having met in its Forty-third Session on 3 June 1959, and
Having decided upon the adoption of certain proposals with regard to the minimum age for admission to employment as fishermen, which is included in the fifth item on the agenda of the session, and
Having determined that these proposals shall take the form of an international Convention,
adopts the nineteenth day of June of the year one thousand nine hundred and fifty-nine, the following Convention, which may be cited as the Minimum Age (Fishermen) Convention, 1959:
Article 1
1. For the purpose of this Convention the term fishing vessel includes all ships and boats, of any nature whatsoever, whether publicly or privately owned, which are engaged in maritime fishing in salt waters.
2. This Convention shall not apply to fishing in ports and harbours or in estuaries of rivers, or to individuals fishing for sport or recreation.
Article 2
1. Children under the age of fifteen years shall not be employed or work on fishing vessels.
2. Provided that such children may occasionally take part in the activities on board fishing vessels during school holidays, subject to the conditions that the activities in which they are engaged--
(a) are not harmful to their health or normal development;
(b) are not such as to prejudice their attendance at school; and
(c) are not intended for commercial profit.
3. Provided further that national laws or regulations may provide for the issue in respect of children of not less than fourteen years of age of certificates permitting them to be employed in cases in which an educational or other appropriate authority designated by such laws or regulations is satisfied, after having due regard to the health and physical condition of the child and to the prospective as well as to the immediate benefit to the child of the employment proposed, that such employment will be beneficial to the child.
Article 3
Young persons under the age of eighteen years shall not be employed or work on coal-burning fishing vessels as trimmers or stokers.
Article 4
The provisions of Articles 2 and 3 shall not apply to work done by children on school-ships or training-ships, provided that such work is approved and supervised by public authority.
Article 5
The formal ratifications of this Convention shall be communicated to the Director-General of the International Labour Office for registration.
Article 6
1. This Convention shall be binding only upon those Members of the International Labour Organisation whose ratifications have been registered with the Director-General.
2. It shall come into force twelve months after the date on which the ratifications of two Members have been registered with the Director-General.
3. Thereafter, this Convention shall come into force for any Member twelve months after the date on which its ratifications has been registered.
Article 7
1. A Member which has ratified this Convention may denounce it after the expiration of ten years from the date on which the Convention first comes into force, by an Act communicated to the Director-General of the International Labour Office for registration. Such denunciation should not take effect until one year after the date on which it is registered.
2. Each Member which has ratified this Convention and which does not, within the year following the expiration of the period of ten years mentioned in the preceding paragraph, exercise the right of denunciation provided for in this Article, will be bound for another period of ten years and, thereafter, may denounce this Convention at the expiration of each period of ten years under the terms provided for in this Article.
Article 8
1. The Director-General of the International Labour Office shall notify all Members of the International Labour Organisation of the registration of all ratifications and denunciations communicated to him by the Members of the Organisation.
2. When notifying the Members of the Organisation of the registration of the second ratification communicated to him, the Director-General shall draw the attention of the Members of the Organisation to the date upon which the Convention will come into force.
Article 9
The Director-General of the International Labour Office shall communicate to the Secretary-General of the United Nations for registration in accordance with Article 102 of the Charter of the United Nations full particulars of all ratifications and acts of denunciation registered by him in accordance with the provisions of the preceding Articles.
Article 10
At such times as may consider necessary the Governing Body of the International Labour Office shall present to the General Conference a report on the working of this Convention and shall examine the desirability of placing on the agenda of the Conference the question of its revision in whole or in part.
Article 11
1. Should the Conference adopt a new Convention revising this Convention in whole or in part, then, unless the new Convention otherwise provides:
a) the ratification by a Member of the new revising Convention shall ipso jure involve the immediate denunciation of this Convention, notwithstanding the provisions of Article 7 above, if and when the new revising Convention shall have come into force;
b) as from the date when the new revising Convention comes into force this Convention shall cease to be open to ratification by the Members.
2. This Convention shall in any case remain in force in its actual form and content for those Members which have ratified it but have not ratified the revising Convention.
Article 12
The English and French versions of the text of this Convention are equally authoritative.