Child Labour - Promoting the Best Interests of Working Children

FOREWORD

There is a fast growing intemational consensus that the most
hazardous and exploitative forms of child labour should be the
top priority for action. Most recently, the ILO has proposed a new
convention designed specifically to focus more forceful attention
on child slavery, exposure to great physical hazard and other
extreme forms of child labour. International conventions of this
type set a legal framework for addressing priority problems. Their
effective implementation depends on several factors, including:
political will; adequate resources; accurate criteria for identifying
abusive situations; and effective action to address both causes
and consequences of child labour. This paper addresses the
latter two issues, arguing that a child-centred approach, focusing
on the needs and capacities of working children, will promote
their best interests in a way that conventional approaches,
aiming primarily to keep children out of the workplace do not.

The paper is intended to contribute to the development and
mainstreaming of a child-centred approach in policy and action on
child labour. The authors, William Myers and Jo Boyden, explore
what promoting the best interests of the child, a key principle of
the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, means for working
children. They draws on recent research in social psychology to
examine the different ways in which work can contribute to, as
well as harm children's development. By focusing on the
implications of work for children's development, the paper aims to
provide a conceptual framework for assessing whether work is
helpful or harmful to children, and thus for designing
interventions accordingly. A key aspect of this is to analyse
specific situations carefully, rather than assuming that particular
forms of work are detrimental or beneficial to children's
development.

This paper explains how involving working children themselves in
policy and action to address their problems not only results in
more effective action that is sensitive to local context, but also
can contribute to children's development itself. By treating
working children as intelligent, resourceful people, rather than as
deviants and victims, and by developing solutions to their
problems in conjunction with them, their psychological
development and ability to cope with difficulties may be
strengthened.

Child-centred action on child labour will not happen in a vacuum.
It requires concerted action by governments
- to address poverty, provide good quality education and to
implement laws protecting children from abuse. It also requires
public awareness-raising and changing attitudes throughout
societies, so that employers and parents match children's
responsibilities with their capacities; so that policy-maker,
practitioners and consumers differentiate between
developmental and harmful work; and so that working children's
views are solicited and used to inform action along with those of
other stakeholders, rather than ignored.

The paper concludes with a range of practical ways to ensure
that any work that children do is safe and healthy for them, and
promotes their development. These include: specific measures
that employers can take; an enhanced role for trade unions in
ensuring that children of legal working age are protected in the
workplace; and suggestions for changes in education to increase
its effectiveness for and relevance to working children.

It is intended that this paper will stimulate discussion and provide
a tool for policy-makers and practitioners in developing effective
child-centred programmes which protect children from hazardous
and exploitative forms of child labour, and enable other forms of
work to contribute to their development and well-being.

Owner: William Myers and Jo Boyden

Countries

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