A/HRC/27/22 D. Child labour 25. Birth registration also plays a vital role in the protection of children from child labour. The International Labour Organization estimates that more than 168 million children are in child labour, of which 85 million are in hazardous work or work that is likely to harm their health, safety or morals, and which should be prohibited for anyone under the age of 18.27 While legislation setting legal minimum age for employment is important, it will have little effect if the means to prove the age of the child are not available. As such, birth registration and the accessibility of a birth certificate are prerequisite conditions for the effective prevention and elimination of child labour, including in its worst forms. 26. In some countries, a birth certificate is required to obtain a social security number necessary for working in the formal sector, meaning that all individuals – whether adults or children – without birth registration or access to a birth certificate are marginalized to the informal sector, where there is less scrutiny and a greater risk of exploitation and hazardous work.28 Furthermore, in some States, employers exploit the lack of birth registration to hire children as cheap labourers, knowing that they will have little recourse before the law.29 E. Children in conflict with the law 27. Birth registration is particularly important for children in conflict with the law. Article 40 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child provides these children with special protection, including the protection against prosecution as an adult, while article 37, paragraph c includes the right not to be detained with adults. Neither of these rights can be effectively safeguarded without proof of age. 28. The importance of birth registration was set out by the Committee on the Rights of the Child in its general comment No. 10 (juvenile justice), which clarified that a child without a provable date of birth is extremely vulnerable to all kinds of abuse and injustice in relation to the juvenile justice and penal system.30 The need to ensure birth registration to secure children’s rights and safeguards to prevent and protect children from violence within the juvenile justice system was also established by OHCHR, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime and the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Violence against Children in their joint report on the prevention of and responses to violence against children within the juvenile justice system.31 F. Early and forced marriage 29. Birth registration can also contribute to the elimination and prevention of the practice of early and forced marriage. The Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women and other treaty bodies require States to register births and marriages as a means to facilitate monitoring of the age of marriage and to support the effective implementation and enforcement of laws on the minimum age of marriage.32 27 28 29 30 31 32 8 See ILO, “Child Labour”, at www.ilo.org/global/topics/child-labour/lang--en/index.htm. Plan International, Count Every Child (see footnote 19), p. 20. Ibid., p. 21. CRC/C/GC/10, para. 39. A/HRC/21/25, para. 67. See A/HRC/26/22.