Child Labor and Non-state Actors
Leandra Cristina da Silva is a 12-year old girl. She never had a doll or a toy to play. Until recently, she worked very hard to help her family and did not go to school. Instead of playing in her backyard or studying, she labored seven days a week, coated with dust and grime in the filth of the Olinda garbage dump on the outskirts of the coastal town of Recife in northern Brazil. Although she lives close to the sea, Leandra had never seen the Atlantic Ocean. Each day for Leandra was the same: after finishing her chores at home, she left every morning to work for 10 hours or more each day, scavenging for cans and bottles to sell. After an exhausting day at the dump, she returned to a home with no running water and crawled into a bed that she shared with her mother and two siblings. [1]
Reinaldo Silva Novais Pereira is a 9 year-old boy. Every morning, he wakes up before sunrise to trudge off to a quarry. Reinaldo works to help his mother. She needs the income he brings in to support them both. Reinaldo´s work is very hard and dangerous. The dry air in the Bahia region where he lives, mingled with the dust from the rocks, makes breathing difficult. [2]
One of the major social problems in the world is child labor. An estimated 158 million children aged 5-14 are engaged in child labor – one in six children in the world. [3] In China, this is a very serious issue because Chinese children are an abundant source of labor. In some areas of China, children make up ten to twenty percent of the work force. [4] Many companies prefer child labor because children are cheap, obedient and agile enough to maneuver in small machine-cramped work areas.
The Article 32 of the United Nation’s Convention on the Rights of the Child states that every child has the right to be protected from work that impedes his or her education and development. It is almost a consensus that child labor is a very serious problem. The United Nation´s Convention on the Rights of the Child is the world’s most widely ratified treaty. According to UNICEF, Somalia and USA are the only two countries in the world that have not ratified this convention. [5] In fact, USA has signed it but Somalia has neither signed nor ratified it.
Despite the fact that a lot of States agree that child labor is wrong, the reality shows that much more needs to be done. The principal aim of this paper is to demonstrate how non-state actors can help in the fight against child labor. As I will argue, Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and groups in civil society have a fundamental role in this struggle.
In the article Development and the Human Rights Responsibilities of Non-State Actors, Bård A. Andreassen reports that “The global community is moving from a mono-centric world clustered around states, to a poly-centric world with different actors, state and non-state. This shift affects the way human rights and freedoms of individuals and groups are implemented, including the right to development.”[6]
It is impossible to deny the growing importance of actors outside the state in context of the human rights system. It is also complicated to ignore that, over the past years, transnational companies have taken advantage of accelerating economic globalization and conditions in countries with big problems of serious human rights abuses. In China, for example, companies get money with child labor and the State pretends that this situation does not happen often. A lot of places in the world have this type of behavior because they believe that it will be good for their economic development. In fact, only recently, the discourse of development manifested concern with the ethics of corporate behavior and with the human rights impact of TNCs in the global economy.[7]
Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and groups in civil society have a fundamental role in the fight against child labor because they are independent and do not have economic interests. Also they can represent the scream of people against State´s abuse.
In the issue of child labor, it is important to remember some important actuation of the NGOs and groups in civil society. The movement called the Global March Against Child Labor is a very good example. It was an event with marches in many major cities around the world drawing global attention towards the most terrible human rights violation: child labor and child slavery. [8] It is also necessary to remember the huge importance of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the UN International Labor Organization in the struggle against child labor in Brazil.
Ending child labor is a priority for some non-profit organizations and groups in civil society as World Vision, Terre des Hommes, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch. Just because their fight, children can stop working. Just because their actuation, Leandra and Reinaldo can smile again.
.
[1] Available at: http://www.un.org/works/goingon/labor/eleandra_story.html
[2] Available at: http://www.un.org/works/goingon/labor/reina_story.html
[3] Available at: http://www.unicef.org/protection/index_childlabour.html
[4] Available at: http://homeport.tcs.tulane.edu/~rouxbee/kids99/china2.html
[5] Available at: http://www.unicef.org/crc/index_30229.html
[6] Available at: http://isites.harvard.edu/fs/docs/icb.topic435767.files/Andreassen.pdf
[7] Available at: http://isites.harvard.edu/fs/docs/icb.topic435767.files/Andreassen.pdf
[8]Available at: http://www.globalmarch.org/
© 2010, Renata Belmonte. All rights reserved.
Great article, Renata!
Child labor and deprivation of child education is a very serious issue that gained significance relatively recently. In previous centuries it was the norm for children to work in farms and small factories to help their families. But as our times place a stronger emphasis on education for an individual’s future success, it is indeed very important that developing countries, especially, address this issue.