<P> As in many other countries, child labour in Switzerland affected among the so - called Kaminfegerkinder ("chimney sweep children") and children working p.e. in spinning mills, factories and in agriculture in 19th - century Switzerland, but also to the 1960s so - called Verdingkinder (literally: "contract children" or "indentured child laborers") were children who were taken from their parents, often due to poverty or moral reasons--usually mothers being unmarried, very poor citizens, of Gypsy--Yeniche origin, so - called Kinder der Landstrasse, etc.--and sent to live with new families, often poor farmers who needed cheap labour . </P> <P> There were even Verdingkinder auctions where children were handed over to the farmer asking the least amount of money from the authorities, thus securing cheap labour for his farm and relieving the authority from the financial burden of looking after the children . In the 1930s 20% of all agricultural labourers in the Canton of Bern were children below the age of 15 . Swiss municipality guardianship authorities acted so, commonly tolerated by federal authorities, to the 1960s, not all of them of course, but usually communities affected of low taxes in some Swiss cantons Swiss historian Marco Leuenberger investigated, that in 1930 there were some 35,000 indentured children, and between 1920 and 1970 more than 100,000 are believed to have been placed with families or homes . 10,000 Verdingkinder are still alive . Therefore, the so - called Wiedergutmachungsinitiative was started in April 2014 . In April 2014 the collection of targeted at least authenticated 100,000 signatures of Swiss citizens has started, and still have to be collected to October 2015 . </P> <P> Almost every country in the world has laws relating to and aimed at preventing child labour . International Labour Organisation has helped set international law, which most countries have signed on and ratified . According to ILO minimum age convention (C138) of 1973, child labour refers to any work performed by children under the age of 12, non-light work done by children aged 12--14, and hazardous work done by children aged 15--17 . Light work was defined, under this Convention, as any work that does not harm a child's health and development, and that does not interfere with his or her attendance at school . This convention has been ratified by 135 countries . </P> <P> The United Nations adopted the Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1990, which was subsequently ratified by 193 countries . Article 32 of the convention addressed child labour, as follows: </P>

Who led the movement for child labor reform