Child Rights in Mexico

In 2025, Mexico City’s Interinstitutional Commission (CITI-CDMX) launched its first strategy to prevent child labour and support adolescent workers of legal age for the 2025–2026 period. The plan focuses on coordinated action to protect young workers and reduce risks.

Despite this progress, major challenges remain. Mexico is home to around 10 million migrant workers. Of those, around three million work in agriculture and four million in factories and tourism. Of the 3.64 million children estimated to be involved in child labour, about one-third work in agriculture, many of whom are indigenous.

Some children face the worst forms of child labour, including commercial sexual exploitation, sometimes linked to human trafficking, and involvement in drug production and trafficking. Others carry out hazardous work in farming, including in chile, coffee, sugarcane and tomato production.