In the past activists have tried to encourage

consumers to boycott companies using child labour

by means of negative publicity about the conditions
under which children work. The debate is partly,
therefore, about whether such action (which may be
ignored) is sufficient to force companies themselves
to act, or whether it is more effective to use sanctions
to pressurise governments into setting up national
legal regulations (which might be avoided or
repealed). However, there is a second issue: whilst it
is normally deemed a truism that child labour is
inherently bad, a subtler reasoning is sometimes
illuminating. It is hard to see how child labour on
family farms can be avoided, when countries do not
have the resources to set up schools and to pay
families a minimum income. Ultimately child labour
ends up more as a question of solving poverty than a
simple moral or emotional issue.A model for a
sanctions regime would need to take several details
into account: both general ones regarding sanctions
cases (by whom will sanctions be imposed? And to
what extent will they be enforced?) and questions
particular to this topic: what age is a child? Is child
labour inherently a issue, or is the debate really about
minimum labour standards for any employee?

pros

cons

Whilst codes of human

rights are effective bases for
enforcing political and legal
standards, they are less
There is an international
effective in dealing with
duty on governments to
social and economic ones. It
uphold the dignity of man. is realistic to use sanctions to
This can only be done with enforce rights to free
the independence gained
expression and the rule of
from education, a good
law; impossible to force an
quality of life and
impoverished state to
independent income. Child maintain Western standards
labour destroys the creativity of education and labour
and innocence of the young, laws, which did not exist
and must be stopped.
when the West developed.
This use of sanctions merely
lessens their impact when
used for the correct
purposes.

Sanctions provide the only

means of forcing states to
take action. Consumer

Consumer power has proven

highly effective in the past in
forcing trans-national

pressure is too weak to do so

companies to institute ethical
- whilst opinion pollsters are
practices. Boycotts of one
told their interviewees are
producer lead others to act
willing to pay more for
out of fear of negative
ethical products, very few
publicity - the market takes
people put this into daily
care of the problem itself.
practice.

Pressure on trans-national
companies is not enough. It Quite true - this is why
is a fallacy to believe that all sanctions, an inherently
child labour equals
blunt instrument, will always
sweatshop work for
fail. Imposing sanctions on
multinationals in poor
whole states is unfair as they
countries. There is a
are not wholly responsible
difference between this,
for the actions of individuals
family labour on farms (in within them. Should we
both developed and less
impose sanctions on the
developed countries), the use USA because illegal
and trade of child prostitutes sweatshops have been found
and countries who force
to exist there?
children into their armies.

Ending child labour will

allow the young to have
greater chances of education
and development. This will A utopian vision of all
increase the human
previously labouring
resources of a country for children entering school is
the future, thus encouraging belied by evidence showing
economic growth. Their
many either cannot afford to
labour will be replaced by pay school fees or continue
drawing from the large pool to work at the same time. In
of underemployed adults in fact, many TNCs have now
most developing countries; set up after-work schools
often these will be the
within the very factories that
parents of current child
activists criticise.
workers, so there will be
little or no overall impact on
family income.

It is true that alternatives

Placing sanctions on some
will need to be found to
companies will merely hide
previous employment - but child labour underground.
raising liquidity by loans
Moving children, who have
secured on future earnings or to work from poverty, into
micro-banking are both
unregulated and criminal

possible scenarios. The

areas of the economy will
international community was
only worsen the situation. Is
able to place human rights
it really likely that the WTO,
over the cause of free trade
a bastion of free trade,
in the cases of South Africa
would accept the restrictions
and Burma - so why not
that sanctions entail?
here?

This is an argument for a

Sanctions harm the poorest
targeted and more
in society - companies will
sophisticated use of
simply move to areas where
sanctions, not against them the restrictions do not apply.
in any form. Sometimes free Past experience has shown
market economics is simply that government interference
an excuse for a denial of
with the market does more
responsibility.
harm than good.