Considering Child Labour

Abstract

Expanding international attention to child labour issues has in recent years brought new values, actors and ideas to the fore, thereby enhancing the diversity of thinking and action in regards to child work. There has been a notable broadening of the terms of debate, including new appreciation of the variety of child work situations and contexts and their differentiated effects on the children involved. Increased interest by economists and social scientists and new empirical insights yielded by their research approaches are illuminating the nature and social ecology of child work. A rights orientation deriving from nearly universal adoption of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child is placing more focus on what happens to children, and children's own ideas about their work are becoming more available and influential. Traditional modes of action against child labour have been discredited as ineffective, but successfully tested alternatives are not yet available to replace them. In the interim, a focus on ending the worst forms of child labour is likely to be the most logical strategy.