“Costa Rica Urges The Americas To Become The First Region In The World Free Of Child Labor”, 19 February 2021

...On Thursday, February 11, through a virtual broadcast, Costa Rica encouraged the region to join efforts to end the deprivation of children due to child labor. The message, issued by the Costa Rica Vice President Marvin Rodríguez, was carried out within the framework of the launch of the international year for the elimination of child labor in the Americas, an event promoted by the International Labor Organization (ILO)...Costa Rica is one of the Latin American countries with the lowest employment rate for children and adolescents and best placed to meet the goal of ending child labor in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development...In 2011, according to the National Institute of Statistics and Census (INEC), Costa Rica had 42,571 minors in this condition. By 2020, the number dropped to 6,706. This reduction has been produced thanks to a tripartite national strategy called: “Roadmap to make Costa Rica a Country Free of Child Labor and its Worst Forms 2010-2020”. This national strategy...has favored the country having low employment rates for minors. In addition to this strategy, the country implemented the “Child Labor Risk Indicator Model”, as a statistical tool developed by the ILO and ECLAC...that allows to identify and classify the cantons with the greatest probability of child labor and dangerous adolescent work, made up of various risk indicators. Furthermore, the execution of agreements has benefited this reduction...