The invisible face of child labour in Latin America and the Caribbean. Challenges: Newsletter on progress towards the Millennium Development Goals from a child rights perspective

Child labour has a gender bias related to the dominant stereotypes regarding gender roles. While out-of-home paid work is carried out predominantly by boys, girls bear the greater burden in unpaid domestic tasks, whether in their own homes or the homes of others. The feature article of this issue of Challenges presents convincing information about the sexual distribution of child labour, which attests to the greater presence of girls in domestic work, the predominance of boys in paid work and the greater educational achievement of women in the region. The voice of children and adolescents section contains statements by adolescent girls regarding the harshness of child labour. Child domestic labour in Haiti is dealt with in Viewpoints. In the Learning from experience section, a programme in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, for the eradication of child labour and protection of adolescents in domestic work is described. The publication concludes with a brief review of recent events and key documents on the subject.