The Role of Economic Law in Protecting the Labor Rights of Children

Economic law is one of the rights enshrined in the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (1966), first enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948. International labor law is also enshrined in the International Labor Organization (ILO) Convention as a specialized agency of the United Nations. In relation to children, the Convention on the Rights of the Child at the international level and the Law on the Protection of Children and Adolescents at the domestic level have provided specific protections. This study aims to examine the role of economic rights in protecting children's labor rights and analyze the main problems of protecting children's economic and labor rights in national and international laws.

The present study has been done using descriptive-analytical method and using library resources.

Protecting the rights of the child against economic exploitation and doing any harmful work is emphasized in the Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989). Unfortunately, international documents do not pay attention to the factors that create child labor and provide enforcement guarantees or mechanisms to solve this problem. Following the international instruments, the Law on the Protection of Children and Adolescents (1399) of the Islamic Republic of Iran not only defines economic exploitation but it also considers forcing a child or teenager to engage in activities such as begging and trafficking, and any activity that causes damage to his physical, mental, social and moral health and security, or educational status, as a risky situation which will cause immediate intervention and legal support.

Protection of children in the work environment and protection against economic exploitation will reach their high objectives if the other rights specified in the convention, including the right to benefit from social security (Article 26), the right to have a standard of living suitable for growth physical, mental, spiritual, moral and social rights (Article 27) and the right to protection against actions that threaten the child's health, education or development (Article 32), should be realized equally for all children with all age conditions.