Child Labor
child slave mining gold
Child labor is any form of work, that is likely to be hazardous to the health and/or physical, mental, spiritual, moral or social development of children and can interfere with their education. The International Labor Organization estimates worldwide that there are 246 million exploited children aged between 5 and 17 involved in debt bondage, forced recruitment for armed conflict, prostitution, pornography, the illegal drug trade, the illegal arms trade and other illicit activities around the world. This staggering number is almost ten times the largest accepted reckoning of the total number of slaves worldwide. The discrepancy is explained by the thin line between exploitation, abuse, and slavery, along with the difficulty of amassing reliable numbers for such nefarious businesses on a global scale. Bear in mind that the often touted number of 27 million people currently enslaved, is considered to be a conservative estimate, and that more than half of that number are children. The incontestable fact is that children are overwhelmingly the most exploited population for all forms of human trafficking.
Domestic servitude is an especially large area where we find children being exploited, especially in poorer countries. In western Nepal, according to the Nepalese Youth Opportunity Foundation , around 25,000 girls as young as six years old, are bonded away each year into a life of indentured servitude. In Haiti, the tradition of sending children off to live with families who can at least feed them, has grown to encompass hundreds of thousands of children. Known as Restaveks, their plight is little known outside of Haiti. According to the Jean Cadet Restavek Fooundation many of these children are subject to beatings and to sexual abuse.
Children’s vulnerability stems from apparent weaknesses. They are smaller and more easily physically controlled. They are less experienced, more trusting and gullible. They are easier to transport and feed. They may be beaten in public, in many cultures, without arousing concern. They have a longer projected useful working life before they become worn out. As sexual commodities they command a greater price the younger they are. They are cheaper to buy and are frequently sold by their own families who are unable to care for them. Sadly, these are the cold calculations that drive this activity.
Ever since the beginning of the 20th century, there have been statements condemning human rights violations of children such as the Declaration of the Rights of the Child 1924 and 1959, both of which state that children have the right, among other important ones, to be protected from exploitation (UNICEF). However, none of them were legally binding. Presently though, some children’s rights conventions have emerged that do carry the weight of international law. Two of the most prominent are the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the International Labor Organization’s (ILO) Convention 138 and 182.
Convention on the Rights of the Child
One of the most comprehensive conventions to address human rights violations of children is the United Nations’ Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC). The CRC names certain principles and standards that are aimed at protecting children in the social, political, and economic arenas. The nations who ratify the Convention are obligated to undertake concrete legislative action in order to comply with the standards. To ensure that the member countries comply, they must submit reports to show the progress of their efforts. Meanwhile, there is also an independent committee that monitors their actions. The Convention emphasizes that cooperation from these nations and civil society are important in order for action to be effective. Article 1 defines a child is a person who is below eighteen years of age. Article 32 declares that nations must “recognize the right of the child to be protected from economic exploitation and from performing any work that is likely to be hazardous…or be harmful to the child’s health or physical, mental, spiritual, moral or social development.” Article 35 explicitly states that countries must stop child trafficking; that they must “take all appropriate national, bilateral and multilateral measure to prevent the abduction of, the sale of or traffic in children for any purpose or in any form (UNICEF).”
ILO Convention 138 and 182
The International Labor Organization, whose aim it is to create plans that encourage respect for human rights at work, is composed of national governments, worker’s groups, and employers’ organizations. Nations that ratify ILO Conventions must ascribe to the legally-binding standards of the document. The ILO has also set up monitoring committees to check up and report on countries’ progress. The ILO Conventions 138 and 182 are especially pertinent as they specifically address child labor (ILO).
Convention 138 was adopted in 1973 and established the minimum age for a child to be able to work. The age was set to fifteen or the age in which the children fulfill the minimum educational requirements of their countries. It calls for the absolute eradication of any form of child labor. Article 1 states that, “Each member…undertakes to pursue a national policy designed to ensure the effective abolition of child labor and to raise progressively the minimum age for admission to employment …to a level consistent with the fullest physical and mental development of young persons (ILO).”
Since the ILO recognizes that child labor is often times a function of underdevelopment-an issue that realistically cannot be resolved quickly-Convention 138’s goals are oriented towards the long-term. However, the cessation of certain types of child labor cannot be postponed no matter what development status a nation occupies. Therefore in 1999 the ILO adopted Convention 182 to swiftly combat “the worst forms of child labor.” This category of labor as stated in Article 3 includes ”all forms of slavery or practices similar to slavery, such as the sale and trafficking of children, debt bondage and serfdom and forced or compulsory labor…” The Convention requires governments to employ every instrument in their power to end the worse forms of child labor, with the collaboration of workers’ and employers’ groups, and NGOs as mandated by Article 6. The Convention actually spells out a set of programs that the governments should follow, (including identifying the violations, educating society about the harmfulness of child labor, and effectively punishing the violators) and also how to go about taking those actions using data collection, regional coordination, and cooperation with civil society.
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