3071-The political economy of new slavery

Rachel Nizan 153
thinking from the first to the second view, which made a categorization
of acceptable and harmful and exploitative work necessary.
This was reflected in the launching of the process of Convention 182,
which focuses on the eradication of the worst forms of child labour
as a priority for action.
Although the CRC is based on a Western concept of childhood there
is a need for a ‘minimal standard of decent behaviour’ (Alston, 1994)
which ensures against abuse of children’s rights. This view is reflected in
the near universal ratification of the CRC.
Several problems pertaining to implementation policies on child
labour and the relevant legislation have been pointed out. Child labour
has only fairly recently evolved as a topic that is broadly being engaged
with. It will, therefore, take time for measures adopted at international
level to translate to the national and local level. In this context, it
has been shown that awareness-raising on all levels of civil society and
government is important. This will help to create a sense of ownership
of the policies, as well as a sense of urgency to take action on the worst
forms of child labour and their most intolerable forms. Furthermore, cuts
in budgets impose practical limitations. This is particularly problematic
in the case of labour inspectors, who were already lacking funds prior
to the budget cuts. Consequently, they focus their monitoring activities
mainly on urban and formal sector employment, as it is more easily
accessible, at the detriment of the informal sector, where the majority
of child labour takes place. The question then arises: why does child
labour persist? Child labour is not a new phenomenon, but concrete
actions to manage it are fairly recent. With the increase of globalization
and the changes this triggered in the trade and labour environment,
the rates of poverty, and as a consequence thereof also of child labour,
have increased. Furthermore, the complexity of the issues involved in
child labour – and the fact that most of them need to be addressed
by solutions that will bear fruit only in the long term – unfortunately
indicates that child labour will persist in the short and the medium
term. Therefore, it is important to make sure that Honduras concentrates
on action to eradicate the worst forms of child labour through
the implementation of ILO Convention 182 and the policies foreseen
by the National Action Plan (PAN). Feasible alternatives are required
for children to be removed from exploitative and slavery-like working
conditions. In the international field action should be taken to progress
towards an ‘ideal’ situation, where child labour will no longer be
necessary.