3071-The political economy of new slavery

140 Child Labour in Latin America
have to work, as work is considered an adult activity and according to
the ‘universal’ or global view of childhood, it is separate from adulthood.
Since the West maintains the incompatibility of childhood and
work, while LDCs (in practice at least) do not, ‘the assertion that there
is a universal standard prohibiting child labour betrays [an] ethnocentric
inspiration’ (De Feyter, 1996, p. 439). Despite differences in experience,
there should be a ‘minimal standard of decent behaviour’. 6 This means
that certain cultural ideas and practices are simply not acceptable, since
a move towards complete cultural relativism would not allow for a
stance against abuses of children’s rights.
In this sense the CRC should be understood as ’providing a flexible
framework that brings cultures together around children’s welfare rather
than an instrument of censure endorsing a single model of childhood’
(Boyden, 1997, p. 224). The CRC, thus, forms the basis to work from
and to put children’s rights on the agenda, while ensuring a ‘minimal
standard of decent behaviour’ and at the same time taking into account
local factors.
The CRC is important with regard to child labour, as it formalized
the shift in thinking on children and children’s rights in general.
This shift was from the perception of the child as a passive recipient
and object of rights to an active participant and subject of rights 7
(Bartell, 2001).
Child labour
Child labour is by no means a new phenomenon. ‘In different parts of
the world, at different stages of history, the labouring child has been
a part of economic life’ such as was the case during the Industrial
Revolution in Europe and the United States when children were
employed in factories and mines (Basu, 1999, p. 1083). Nowadays child
labour is mainly to be found in LDCs. In more recent years, especially
since the adoption of the CRC, child labour has re-emerged as an issue
of broad public concern and debate, which in turn has lead to ‘a global
campaign to eradicate [its worst forms]’. 8 It is now more encompassing
in that it includes not only children’s work in factories, but also work in
the informal sector and work in illegal activities such as bonded labour,
slavery and prostitution (Bachman, 2000, p. 31).
Defining child labour can be tricky as it involves value judgements,
in that our understanding of childhood will determine how we think
of the relationship of children and work. According to Myers defining
child labour ‘is essentially political [as it poses] an emotionally charged