ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the International Labour Organization (ILO) minimum age Conventions and the main contents of Convention, trying in particular to answer the question, if the latter really is a Western-centric tool. It also examines the role of the Committee of Experts on the Application of Conventions and Recommendations (CEACR) in interpreting Convention 138 (C138), because of the importance of the ILO's 'jurisprudence' for the national implementation of the ILO standards. The C138 Minimum Age Convention of 1973, alongside the R146 Minimum Age Recommendation of the same year, represents the latest and most advanced ILO tool for the limitation of the minimum age for the admission to employment or work. The chapter assesses the impact of the new ILO approach to the fight against child labour and Convention 182 of 1999 on the traditional minimum age instruments, taking into account the fundamental status recognized to both tools on child labour by the Declaration of Geneva of 1998.
