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Child labour has become a subject of growing national and international
concern. Many non-governmental organisations all over the world
concerned with children have paid attention to child labour in recent
years. This is manifested, for instance, in the Global March earlier
this year. The March led to Geneva where the newly proposed convention
on extreme forms of child labour stood high on the agenda of the
ILO annual meeting.
Because of this broad public attention child labour is consequently
being addressed more and more frequently by companies and governments.
Most countries have laws forbidding or restricting child labour.
At the international level, various treaties and conventions refering
to the protection of children, have been adopted. Companies react
by producing codes of conduct that include clauses regarding the
use of child labour. Because child labour is a highly emotive issue
and because companies are very sensitive about their public image,
tackling child labour is often the first step of companies to indicate
their readyness to take responsibility for the working conditions
under which their products are made.
However, the question is whether this should lead to the complete
removal of children from the labour market? Or should efforts be
focussed at improving the conditions under which children work?
Results of initial programmes for the elimination of child labour
were often disastrous. In the experience of Bangladesh, it is clearly
visible that a one-sided approach, i.e. a ban on child labour, does
more harm than good.
Fortunately, a change of perspective is perceptible, and a boycot-strategy
now appears to be outdated. Nevertheless, the debate about proper
measures continues. This publication purports to contribute towards
bringing out the complexities of the child labour issue.
The brochure is divided into 10 chapters. Chapter 1 to 4 provide
an introduction into the problem of child labour with a discussion
on definitions, on causes of the problem, and on approaches &
strategies for policy making. Chapter 5 deals with legislation on
children's rights. In chapter 6 and 7 the garment sector of Bangladesh
and its working conditions are outlined. Chapter 8 and 9 highlight
the experience of Bangladesh regarding the child labour situation
in the garment industry under the Memorandum of Understanding and
discuss the ILO-UNICEF child labour project. The case of Bangladesh
can be viewed as a learning experience. The last chapter concludes
with discussing the Clean Clothes Campaing (CCC) code of conduct
which aims at enforcing company responsibility for practices in
the production chain in the garment sector.
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