Child Labour on Beyond Trafficking and Slavery (openDemocracy)
The Beyond Trafficking and Slavery (BTS) section of the openDemocracy.net was founded in 2014 to bring the best of contemporary critical scholarship on issues such as ‘child labour’ into the public domain. Edited by a team of scholars from Africa, Asia, Latin America, Europe, and Australia, it aims to serve as an ally for those - including working children - too often ignored by the policy-making establishment. The following articles and edited volumes on child labour and children’s work were published over the last years.
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Childhood and Youth. Beyond Trafficking and Slavery Short Course (2015)
Howard, Neil and Sam Okyere, Eds. (2015), Open Democracy.
Section 2 (39-69), "Child labour or child work?", has six short essays published in Open democracy, in the section "Beyond Trafficking and Slavery". They cover: rights and wrongs of children’s work (Bourdillon); a criticism of the policy of protecting children from working (Myers); relationships between work, school and mobility (Boyden and Crivelo); child rights in the chocolate industry (Berlan); historical origins of the policy of eliminating child labour (Cunningham); and an innovative child labour law in Bolivia (Howard). We also recommend the editors’ introduction to the volume entitled, “Are we really saving the children?”
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Can campaigns to stop child labour be stopped? (2016)
van Daalen, Edward and Karl Hanson, Open Democracy, Beyond Trafficking and Slavery, 26 February 2016.
Working children’s organisations have had limited success in challenging dominant abolitionist perspectives on child labour. Working children’s realities and conceptions of rights need to be taken more seriously in international debates.
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Open letter: On the lives of street children (2016)
Open Democracy, Beyond Trafficking and Slavery, 21 April 206.
As a UN committee continues to draft a 'general comment on the rights of adolescents', academics working with street children weigh in on what it should (and should not) include.
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Response to Human Rights Watch's letter on minimum-age standards with respect to child labour (2016)
Open Democracy, Beyond Trafficking and Slavery, 16 May 2016.
As the UN considers its position on child labour, a group of academics and practitioners have engaged in open debate with Human Rights Watch over the utility of minimum age rules. This is the third letter in a series.
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What’s wrong with the World Day Against Child Labour? (2016)
Howard , Neil, Open Democracy, Beyond Trafficking and Slavery, 13 June 2016.
Working children everywhere reject the mainstream anti-child labour paradigm. A major new video campaign tells us why.
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Open essay: A better approach to child work (2016)
Open Democracy, Beyond Trafficking and Slavery, 13 August 2016.
As the UN considers its position on child labour, a global group of experts lay out the case against a universal minimum age for work. Blanket bans cannot prevent exploitation, only more nuanced approaches do that.
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Bizarre bureaucratic dysfunction in child labour (2017)
Myers, William, Open Democracy, Beyond Trafficking and Slavery, 14 November 2017.
The ILO, UNICEF, and the Committee on the Rights of the Child promote policies known to harm children. What will make them engage with their critics?
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Ignoring the benefits of children’s work (2017)
Bourdillon, Michael, (2017), Open Democracy, Beyond Trafficking and Slavery, 14 November 2017.
Work can have many benefits for children. Policy responses need to understand and foster those benefits, not succumb to biases that assume all work is bad.
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A tale of two conferences: exploring the politics of global child labour policies (2017)
van Daalen, Edward, and Nicolas Mabillard, Open Democracy, Beyond Trafficking and Slavery, 14 December 2017.
Two international conferences on child labour were held in South America this fall. In one, working children participated, in the other they not. The results couldn't have been more different.
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Child workers need rights, not policing, to weather the pandemic (2020)
Maconachie, Roy, Sam Okyere, and Neil Howard, Open Democracy, Beyond Trafficking and Slavery, 12 June 2020.
The development community wants to help child workers during and after the COVID-19 pandemic, but unless it rethinks its programming its attempts themselves could cause harm.
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Empower and protect, rather than prohibit: a better approach to child work (2021)
van Daalen, Edward, and Mohammed Al-Rozzi, Open Democracy, Beyond Trafficking and Slavery, 11 October 2021.
Child labour isn’t going anywhere, so children’s safety in work must become the priority.
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To be an Afghan child worker in Iran (2021)
Bozorgmeh, Ghazal, and Sahar Mousavi, Open Democracy, Beyond Trafficking and Slavery, 11 October 2021.
More than a million Afghan children are trying to make their way in Iran. What could smooth the path for them?
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Child labour: A shock absorber for economic precarity (2021)
Abebe, Tatek, Open Democracy, Beyond Trafficking and Slavery, 13 October 2021.
The only way to reduce child labour in low-income countries is to make it easier for households to survive without it.
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My childhood as a child worker in Malawi (2021)
Banda, Mavuto, Open Democracy, Beyond Trafficking and Slavery, 20 October 2021.
The author wouldn’t be where he is today if bans on child labour had prevented him from working when he needed to.
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Banning child labour jeopardises working children’s right to survive (2021)
Ratna, Kavita, Open Democracy, Beyond Trafficking and Slavery, 22 October 2021.
Trying to ‘eliminate’ child labour only pushes working children into the shadows
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Where is the solidarity for working girls? (2021)
Stiglich, Janice, Open Democracy, Beyond Trafficking and Slavery, 22 October 2021.
Working girls in Peru are doing their best to look after themselves. Will adults support them?
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Are adults willing to listen to children on child labour? (2021)
O’Kane, Claire, and Ornella Barros (2021) “ Open Democracy, Beyond Trafficking and Slavery, 25 October 2021.
Working children have the right to policies informed by their views and best interests.
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Working children claim their rights in Cameroon (2021)
Wilfried Essomba Onguene, Open Democracy, Beyond Trafficking and Slavery, 27 October 2021.
Society rarely respects child workers, but what happens when they demand respect?
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Is school the solution to child labour? Not everywhere, and not for all children (2021)
Jacquemin, Mélanie , Open Democracy, Beyond Trafficking and Slavery, 19 November 2021.
Ask children in West Africa why they work, and many will say ‘to get an education’. That should make you pause.
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What’s wrong with the Global Estimates on Child Labour?
van Daalen, Edward, Open Democracy, Beyond Trafficking and Slavery, 25 November 2021.
Big numbers make headlines, but they must also be treated with extreme caution