TRADE MEASURES ON CHILD LABOUR

This study examines whether the prohibition of child labour in international law should be imposed through trade measures. It explores the status of child labour in international law and asks whether the existing legal framework should be complemented by trade measures. It seeks to define an appropriate framework in international law.

The problem of child labour and the international community

The problem of child labour has existed for a long time. Whilst it was prevalent in Europe during the Industrial Revolution in the nineteenth century, it still exists on a large scale in developing countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America. From the end of the 1980s, the international community has increasingly recognised the need for action. Starting with the adoption of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) in 1989, followed by the World Summit for Children in 1990, the adoption of various soft law instruments such as the Programme of Action for the Elimination of the Exploitation of Child Labour and the United Nations (UN) Special Session of the General Assembly in 2002, the UN undertook various efforts to promote the rights of children, including addressing the problem of child labour.

Likewise, in 1998, in an effort to take up the challenges of globalisation, the International Labour Organization (ILO) adopted the ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work, which referred inter alia to the effective abolition of child labour, and, in 1999, the Convention on the Worst Forms of Child Labour.