Child Labor in the 21 st Century

1. Child Labor in the 21st Century The Well-Being of Children in The Contemporary Global System

2. Labor & Well-Being • Rapid change in the contemporary global system clearly has its benefits • Material well-being • Human rights • Just as clearly, it has heavy costs • Traditional means of sustenance are not available to billions • Jeopardy within the global economy is a serious problem

3. Re-emergence of Slavery • Because some people are powerless and others are willing to exploit them, a new slavery has emerged • Bonded workers • Trafficking in women and children • Illegal immigrants

4. Chattel Slavery Legal People held deeds to other people Slaves were investments, therefore the slave owner had an incentive to keep the slave healthy The New Slavery Illegal People controlled rather than owned Slaves are disposable Continuing supply of desperate people to take advantage of or parents to pay off Slavery Distinctions

5. Examples of Child Slavery • Boys as soldiers, girls as “wives” • Bonded workers who never leave the work site • Sex slaves, mainly but not only girls • Domestic workers

6. International Labor OrganizationConvention 182 • Addresses the worst forms of child labor • Slavery • Sex work • Child soldiers • Dangerous work • Work that prevents the proper development of children

7. International ApproachTo Eliminating Child Labor • Problem cannot be overcome with policies that are limited to domestic economies • Global trade creates income opportunities for people able to exploit the labor of children • Allowing the worst forms of child labor is unfair competition for legitimate workers • Only a global attack has a chance of succeeding

8. Culture, Childhood & Child Labor • In all cultures, children work • The issue: the types of work and conditions of work • Clearly in poorer countries, some families need the income of children • Clearly in poorer countries, some education is a waste of time

9. Cultural Issues • Who is a child? • What should a child be allowed (be forced?) to do? • How much education should be required for all children, and how should it be funded? • Who decides, and when is it decided, who gets further education?

10. International Protection • The general instruments • Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Covenant on Economic, Social & Cultural Rights, Covenant on Civil & Political Rights • Child specific instruments • Convention on the Rights of the Child • Convention on Women’s Rights • ILO instruments • Conventions 138 and 182

11. US Participation in the Elimination Of Child Labor • Thanks to Iowa’s Senator Harkin, the US in many ways is in the vanguard of the attack on inappropriate child labor • But … the US has still ratified neither the Convention on the Rights of the Child nor the Convention on Economic, Social & Cultural Rights • How about the country you are studying? • UICHR’s Child Labor Rights Initiative