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IS CHILD LABOUR ALWAYS WRONG?Dr Dorte Thorsen,
Gender and Qualitative Research Theme LeaderMigrating out of Poverty Research Consortium, University of Sussex
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Chatham House Forum, London, 20 July 2017
CHILD LABOUR DEBATE
• Emotive & deeply moral
• Children as dependants
• free of responsibilities
• in school
• leisure time spent playing
European, middleclass childhood
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Photo: Make Chocolate Fair UK
WHAT IS CHILD LABOUR?
• Paid work that deprives children of:
• their childhood
• their potential
• their dignity
• Work that is harmful to physical and mental development
But how can we assess these deprivations?
Photo: Dorte Thorsen
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FAD FOR STATS
CONTRASTING VIEWS
Abolition of child labour
• Universal labour standards banning child labour with the aim of preventing harm, exploitation and trafficking
• To increase participation in formal schooling (EFA/UPE)
CONTRASTING VIEWS
• Academic critiques rooted in child-centred research
• Children may need and choose to work because of social and economic rewards
• Labour standards to protect working children, not criminalise them
➢ Uncertain link between work and trafficking
➢ Challenging universalism - need to know more about the context of children’s lives
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RENEWED FOCUS ON CHILD LABOUR
• UK government focus on combatting modern slavery, trafficking and child labour
• Inclusion of minimum age standards for work (ILO Convention No. 138) in the UN Convention of the Rights of the Child
TROUBLES WITH THE ‘CHILD LABOUR’ LABEL
• Assumption that keeping children out of work up to a certain age will keep them safe and in school
• Minimum standards incorporated in legislation
➢ Younger children barred from formal employment and pushed into invisible and harmful work
➢ Older children may be exposed to exploitation and harm as legislation is tied to age not the work conditions
Photo: Jaaay Nguyen, Emaze
WORST FORMS OF CHILD LABOUR
• Instruments like the ILO Convention No. 182 designed to address exploitation and harm are useful
• But only if we understand the nature of the work children are doing
➢ Age-appropriate work
➢How labels are used locally
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CHILD LABOUR & CHILDREN’S POTENTIAL
• Causal link in child labour definition between paid work and deprivation of potential
• Ignores that
• Adolescents work to finance their own schooling or vocational training
• Adolescents learn through work – specific occupations and navigating the (informal) labour market
Photo: Dorte Thorsen
EFFECTIVE POLICIES
• Preventing the exploitation of working children best done through
➢ Enforcing children’s rights as workers
➢ Enforcing protection through the ILO Convention No. 182 but based on detailed knowledge about working conditions
• Enable education through
➢ Increasing quality of education
➢ Reducing formal and informal costs of schooling
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For further information
Dorte Thorsen, Email: [email protected]
Co-author of Child Migrants in Africa, Zed Books, 2011
Author of:
Weaving in and out of employment and self-employment: young rural migrants in the informal economy of Ouagadougou. International Development Planning Review, 2013.
Jeans, bicycles and mobile phones. Adolescent migrants' material consumption in Burkina Faso. In: Child and youth migration. Mobility-in-migration in an era of globalization Palgrave MacMillan, 2014.
