Observation (CEACR) - adopted 2008, published 98th ILC session (2009)

Medical Examination of Young Persons (Non-Industrial Occupations) Convention, 1946 (No. 78) - Peru (Ratification: 1962)

With regard to Article 6 of the Convention and Part V of the report form, the Committee requests the Government to refer to the comments made under Convention No. 77.

Article 7, paragraph 2. Supervision of the enforcement of the system of medical examination for fitness for employment of children engaged either on their own account or on account of their parents. In its previous comments, the Committee noted that the Code of Children and Young Persons does not contain provisions respecting the identification measures necessary to supervise the implementation of the system of medical examinations for fitness for employment of young persons who, either on their own account or on account of their parents, are engaged in itinerant trading or any other occupation carried on in the streets or in places to which the public have access. It requested the Government to indicate the provisions of the national legislation envisaging the identification measures necessary to supervise the application of the system of medical examinations for young persons, and thereby guaranteeing the application of the Convention.

The Committee notes that, in its concluding observations of March 2006 (CRC/C/PER/CO/3, paragraph 65), the Committee on the Rights of the Child expressed appreciation of the programme Educadores de Calle, a programme which seeks to save children and young persons who live and work in the streets and who are exposed to exploitation, especially of an economic nature. The Committee on the Rights of the Child however expressed concern at the high number of street children, mostly due to socio-economic factors, as well as at abuse and violence in the family. The Committee once again reminds the Government that, under Article 7, paragraph 2(a), of the Convention, measures of identification have to be adopted to ensure the application of the system of medical examination for fitness for employment to children and young persons engaged either on their own account or account of their parents in itinerant trading or in any other occupation carried on in the streets or in places to which the public have access (for example, the person concerned should be in possession of a document referring to the medical examination). The Committee accordingly requests the Government to take the necessary measures in the very near future to ensure supervision of the application of the system of medical examination for fitness to children and young persons engaged either on their own account or on account of their parents in itinerant trading or in any other occupation carried on in the streets or in places to which the public have access, in accordance with Article 7, paragraph 2(a), of the Convention.