More than 20 child rights activists from Africa, Latin America, South and South East Asia are in London attending Anti-Slavery's conference/workshop from 4 to 6 April for developing methods to fight one of the worst forms of child labour - child domestic work. Key representatives from the ILO/IPEC and UNICEF are also participating.

Millions of children - girls and boys - as young as five years old are forced to work as domestics violating their right to education, rest and play.

Domestic work is probably the largest source of employment for girls worldwide. Tasks include cleaning, cooking, washing, ironing, looking after children, fetching and delivering. Although hard and tiring, it is not the tasks themselves that can make child domestic work slavery, but the conditions in which some work.

Typically they are the first to get up in the morning and the last to go to bed at night. Because this type of work is conducted behind closed doors, the child is vulnerable to physical and sexual abuse.

Despite working long hours some receive no pay and are only given food and shelter in return for their work, often this means only eating leftovers and sleeping on the kitchen floor.

For more see child labour