Child labour in agriculture in Lebanon: A guide for practitioners

Worldwide, almost 60 percent of working children aged 5–17 years can be found working in agriculture (including farming, fishing, aquaculture, forestry, and livestock). This amounts to more than 98 million girls and boys.

In Arab countries such as Lebanon, child labour in agriculture has often occurred within the context of family farming, where participation in some agricultural activities is not considered “child labour.” However, this does not mean that children’s working conditions meet national or international labour standards, including standards on working age. Thus, it is important to distinguish between the kind of work involvement that is characterized by light duties and the kind of child labour that interferes with compulsory schooling and damages the health and personal development of children.