Observation (CEACR) - adopted 2024, published 113rd ILC session (2025)

Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention, 1999 (No. 182) - Montenegro (Ratification: 2006)

Article 4(1) of the Convention. Determination of hazardous types of work. The Committee notes that the Government’s report refers to the ILO project “Measuring, raising awareness and engaging policies to improve the fight against the abuse of child labour and forced labour” (MAP 16). The Government indicates that the implementation of the MAP 16 project began at the end of 2019, at the initiative of the Ministry of Labour and Social Welfare, and that its goals are to improve the policies and capacities of Governments, national authorities, and other relevant bodies to combat child labour, including its worst forms. The Committee notes that one of the planned results of the MAP 16 Project in Montenegro includes drafting the first list of hazardous types of work prohibited to children. The Committee welcomes this initiative and requests the Government to ensure that a list of hazardous types of work prohibited to children under the age of 18 years is adopted without delay.

Article 7(2). Effective and time-bound measures. Clause (d). Identifying and reaching out to children at special risk. Children in street situations. Begging. The Committee notes the Government’s indication that, in June 2019, the Protocol on the treatment of authorities, institutions and organizations in Montenegro of children involved in life and work on the street was adopted and agreed upon by the Ministries of Interior, Justice, Labour and Social Welfare, Education, Health and the Police Directorate. The Protocol aims to: (1) improve the well-being of children by creating safe conditions and by preventing circumstances and situations that expose children to unsafe and other potentially harmful aspects of life and work on the street; and (2) implement a quick and coordinated procedure that protects children from abuse and violence and provides them with appropriate protection and rehabilitation. The Government further indicates that, in 2021, the Protocol was revised to set out action guidelines for all actors who deal with children, as well as for families, to protect children involved in life and work on the street. A Coordinating Body for monitoring the Protocol was formed, consisting of representatives of the institutions that signed the Protocol and the Office of the Protector of Human Rights and Freedoms. The Committee further notes the Government’s indication that one of the planned results of the MAP 16 Project, is to strengthen the national framework to monitor the prevalence of child labour abuse, by conducting a rapid assessment of the prevalence of child begging.

The Committee further notes the Government’s information that, between 2019 and 2021, the Police Directorate continued to implement the “Prosjak” (Beggar) project and undertook a total of 66 actions in which 213 persons were monitored, 94 persons were found begging, including 50 minors, and 53 requests for misdemeanour proceedings against the parents/guardians of children were initiated. While taking note of the information provided by the Government, the Committee also notes, from the 2021 Evaluation Report of the Group of Experts on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings (GRETA Report), that street begging is the form of child exploitation that is most prevalent in Montenegro. Recalling that children in street situations are particularly exposed to the worst forms of child labour, the Committee requests the Government to continue to take effective and time-bound measures to: (i) protect children in street situations from the worst forms of child labour; and (ii) provide for their rehabilitation and social integration. It also requests the Government to: (i) share the results of the rapid assessment of the prevalence of child begging undertaken under the MAP 16 Project; and (ii) provide information on the number of children who have benefited from direct assistance measures, to the extent possible disaggregated by sex, age and ethnicity.

The Committee is raising other matters in a request addressed directly to the Government.