Last Change:

06/28/2024

The Children Act (cap.59)

Year: 1997

Type: Domestic law

Rights Category: Work & Workplace rights

Description

An Act to reform and consolidate the law relating to children; to provide for the care, protection and maintenance of children; to provide for local authority support for children; to establish a family and children court; to make provision for children charged with offences and for other connected purposes.

Selected provisions
Section 1 - Interpretation

“Child labour” means work that is mentally, physically, socially or morally dangerous and harmful to a child, and the circumstances under which it is performed jeopardizes the health, safety, morals and education of a child.

Section 8 - Harmful Employment

(1) A person shall not employ or engage a child in any activity that may be harmful or hazardous to his or her health, or his or her physical, mental, spiritual, moral or social development.
(2) Subject to subsection (1), the minimum age of employment of a child shall be 16 years.
(3) For the purpose of this section, “harmful or hazardous employment” includes work which exposes a child to physical or psychological torture, sexual abuse, work underground, work at dangerous heights or in confined spaces, work with dangerous machinery, equipment and tools, or manual handling or transportation of heavy loads, work with chemicals and dangerous substances, work under extreme temperatures, high levels of noise, or working for longer hours; or any other form of child labour which includes slavery, trafficking in persons, debt bondage and other forms of forced labour, forced recruitment for use in armed conflict, prostitution, pornography and illicit activities.

Section 42A - Protection of children from all forms of violence

(1) Every child has a right to be protected against all forms of violence including ... child labour,...