3071-The political economy of new slavery

8
Child Labour in Latin America:
Issues and Policies in Honduras
Rachel Nizan
Introduction
Child labour is a topic worth studying as for many children and their
families in Latin America and elsewhere it is a day-to-day reality and
a means of survival. 1 Child labour can have a detrimental impact on
various aspects of children’s health and can deny them the right to
education. 2 In this way, child labour sets a pattern for the reproduction
of poverty in that it stunts the physical and intellectual development of
a whole generation of workers, who as adults will be forced to work in
low-paid and low-skilled jobs. At the same time, there is the inherent
possibility of child labour being exploitative, as economic necessity forces
children to work and lets employers take advantage of their situation.
The worst forms of child labour are often carried out under slave-like
conditions, under the threat of violence and for no or little pay, with
long hours and heavy and hazardous duties. This puts the worst forms
of child labour in the realm of contemporary slavery. It is important to
see that child labour and other forms of contemporary slavery – as
pointed out throughout this book – are related through common causal
factors, such as poverty and the negative effects of globalization. Yet, in
order to combat successfully different forms of slavery, different sets of
actions are required.
The aim of this chapter is to identify the specificities of the worst
forms of child labour as a form of contemporary slavery by giving an
overview of child labour issues and policies at both the global and the
local level.
The first part of the chapter will evaluate whether the present international
human rights regime on children’s rights is biased towards
a Western conception of childhood. This is particularly important, since
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