The reference reports, lists, datasets and investigations on child labour, newest first in each group. Each links to the publisher’s own copy.
Measures the extent of child labour in Cameroon’s cocoa supply chain, its root causes, and recommendations to address it.
Machine-readable data from ILAB’s three reports: the Findings, the List of Goods, and the list of products made with forced or indentured child labour.
The fourth joint estimate. It finds nearly 138 million children in child labour in 2024, almost 8 per cent of all children, 54 million of them in hazardous work, and a fall of over 20 million since 2020. It states that the target of ending child labour by 2025 was missed.
The eighth global report on trafficking. UNODC reports child trafficking rising, with children 38 per cent of detected victims.
Estimates the prevalence of modern slavery by country, which it defines to include forced labour, forced marriage, debt bondage and the sale and exploitation of children. It is the source of this index’s modern-slavery column.
Estimates 3.3 million children in forced labour, about 12 per cent of everyone in forced labour.
Found 160 million children in child labour at the beginning of 2020, almost 1 in 10 of all children worldwide.
Funded by the US Department of Labor. It found 1.56 million children in child labour in cocoa production in the two countries. The governments raised methodological concerns, set out in the report’s annex.
The first joint attempt to measure these abuses in supply chains. It finds a significant share of child labour in their lower tiers, in raw-material extraction and agriculture, where due diligence and traceability are hardest.
Sets out the scale, prevalence and key characteristics of child labour as of 2016.
Ranks each government’s response to human trafficking in tiers, and describes forced child labour as forced labour schemes in which traffickers compel children to work. It was released 100 days after its statutory deadline. It is the source of this index’s trafficking-tier column.
Reports the reach of its members’ monitoring and remediation systems to September 2025 and the share of covered children found in child labour. The figures are ICI’s own.
The yearly assessment of each government’s effort against the worst forms of child labour, graded from significant advancement to no advancement. It is the source of this index’s government-effort column.
Finds that between fiscal years 2019 and 2023 the number of minors employed in violation of US child labour law found by the Wage and Hour Division rose by 88 per cent.
The previous edition of the trafficking report, with the same section on forced child labour.
The goods ILAB has reason to believe are produced with child labour or forced labour, by country. ILAB says it keeps the list mainly to raise public awareness. It is the source of this index’s goods column.
Commissioned from Partner Africa to understand how children can safely report concerns and get support.
Reports that the pandemic’s economic impact, school closures and inadequate government assistance pushed children into exploitative and dangerous work.
Adopted at the 6th Global Conference on the Elimination of Child Labour, Marrakech, February 2026. It calls for stronger implementation of conventions C138 and C182, better enforcement and coordinated action to eliminate child labour by 2030.
The report of the Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery. It finds that ending the worst forms of child labour needs stronger enforcement, international cooperation and community-based strategies that involve children, and notes hazardous work in digital and conflict settings.
Adopted at the 5th Global Conference, the first held in Africa and the first in which children took part. It calls for urgent action to end child labour.
Finds that in Ghana, children’s own answers gave child-labour prevalence estimates about 20 per cent higher than answers given for them by adults.
Uses survey data on 3,338 schoolchildren to examine how child labour relates to educational attainment, and how harmful and non-harmful cocoa work differ.