It is C today in our A – Z Guide to a Fair Trade Christmas.

C is for Children and Child Labour. Over 158 million children aged 5-14 years are engaged in child labour in developing countries. (Source UNICEF). According to the United Nations, 126 million of them are occupied in the worst forms of labour affecting their health or education, e.g. in mines, with chemicals and pesticides in agriculture, or with dangerous machinery. Of these, 50 million work in Sub-Saharan Africa alone. There is an important distinction to be made between a child being forced into labour and a child's willing participation in work. Helping with the housework or in the family business, or earning pocket money during school holidays are all positive steps in a child's development. These forms of work provide children with valuable skills and experience. The work done by a child is not considered labour if it doesn't harm their health, interrupt their education or hinder their personal development.

Most of us are consumers of some products tainted by child labour. It could be the cotton in your table linen or clothes, chocolate with origins in the Ivory Coast, jewellery, hand-knotted carpets from India, your iPod, footballs from Pakistan, that cup of coffee in your local cafe....

If we do not care whether or not the products we purchase are made by child labour, governments will continue to avert their eyes from the plight of these children. So how are we to avoid the trap of benefiting from the labour of children? One answer to this problem is to buy fair trade products this Christmas.

Organizations accredited by the World Fair Trade Organisation who buy Fair Trade products from producer groups either directly or through intermediaries ensure that no forced labour is used in production and the producer complies with the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, and national / local law on the employment of children.