Children remain the most vulnerable people and are in danger during globalization. Moreover, it remains an international responsibility to assist children in getting protected from work and exploitation that could interrupt their education and harm their social, moral, spiritual, mental, and physical development. Child labor rates have reduced slowly by three percent between 2004 and 2012 (ILO, n.d). Since 2000, the number has declined from 246 to 168 million, and children performing hazardous tasks have reduced from 171 to 73 million. In 2020, approximately 160 million children faced child labor, with an additional nine million at risk because of the COVID-19 pandemic (European Commission, 2022). Despite most nations implementing the policies to restrict work and employment of history mainly after the ratification of ILO conventions, child labor continues to happen massively in appalling situations, particularly in developing nations, because child labor remains a complicated issue (ILO, n.d). In Bolivia, child labor has been a critical issue since the government created the policies to reduce the minimum age of children in 2014 from 14 years to 10 years, which they believe was a positive step towards ensuring they meet their needs and that of their families due to poverty. However, the law did not adhere to international child labor standards, including ILO and UNCRC. Later after reviewing the minimum age and setting it to 14 years to comply with global standards, the country continues to experience child labor (UNICEF, n.d ). The paper will focus on child labor in Bolivia, including the minimum working age of children and how it contradicts the minimum age for work admission covered in the Convention No. 138 of the ILO or the International Labor Organization.
Child Labor, Child Labor Worst Forms and International Policy on Child Labor
According to ILO (n.d), child labor describes work that deprives children of their dignity, potential, and childhood and remains dangerous to their mental and physical development. Moreover, child labor entails works that remain morally, socially, physically, and mentally harmful and hazardous to the children and disrupts their schooling by depriving the children of a chance to go to school, making them drop out of school prematurely, and demanding them t6p attempt to incorporate school attendance with heavy and long work. In contrast, ILO Convention No. 182 Article 3 described the worst forms of labor, including children getting separated from their households, enslaved, exposed to adverse hazards and diseases, or /and left to feed and depend on themselves on the streets of big cities at an early age (humanium, 2022). Child labor includes every type of slavery or activities similar to slavery, including trafficking and sale of children, serfdom, debt bondage, compulsory and forced labor, including mandatory and forced hiring of kids in armed conflicts (Hesketh et al., 2006). It further includes utilization, providing, or procuring a child for prostitution for pornography production or performance of pornographic. More so, it entails providing, procuring, and using a kid for illegal practices, including trafficking and production of drugs, as described in the relevant global treaties. In addition, it includes work that, by its circumstances of nature it is performed can harm the morals, safety, and health of the kids (ILO, n.d).
Bureau of International Labor Affairs (2022) states that Bolivia is associated with the worst forms of child labor and has made limited enhancements to prevent the worst forms of child labor in 2021. The Bolivia government passed a decree providing migrants the capacity to normalize their status without fine payments, assisting in enrolling more kids in school. Despite the efforts, kids in Bolivia remain vulnerable to the worsts types of child labor, such as commercial sexual exploitation from mining and human trafficking. Moreover, the children carry out harmful agricultural work such as harvesting and production of Brazil nuts. Moreover, Bolivia law demands that apprentices attend school but fails to establish the minimum age for apprenticeship engagement. Furthermore, Article 1 Supreme Decree No. 187 highlights the minimum age of 17 for compulsory military service which fails to adhere to global standards. In addition, the government failed to release information concerning the enforcement of criminal law efforts publicly (Bureau of International Labor Affairs, 2022).
Oliver (2016) claims that it is normal to view a group of children working in the fields and the streets, whether in rural regions or big towns in Bolivia. Bolivia is estimated to have a population of around ten million people, with approximately 850 000 children currently working in Bolivia and half of the children working in poor working conditions. As a result, the government decided to implement a constitutional framework for the children workers. Therefore, in 2014, the Bolivia government created a new policy Code for Children and Adolescence-Law 548 (McQuade, 2014). The policy was created with the foundation of CRC or the Convention on the Rights of the Child and offered detailed protection of the CR. Despite the new Bolivia CCA not changing the standard working age of 14, it has added exceptions that cause worry and concern in the global community. The exceptions include a child working exceptionally for another person at 12 years or working in self-employment at ten years. The exceptions remain subject to the conditions that a kid should obtain permission from the Office of Defense of Children and Adolescents and their parents. The work should not harm their development, health, and education (Humanium, 2022).
The Bolivia government claims that the code was implemented to balance Bolivia’s commitment to global conventions and the domestic realities of the nation. Therefore, child labor in the country is considered a necessary evil to eliminate extreme poverty. The government believes children can meet their and their families’ needs and purchase their school requirements by working. The Bolivia government argues that it remains critical to develop a legal framework to protect and monitor the children who remain the invisible victims of abuse and exploitation (Oliver, 2016). However, international and domestic politicians viewed the policy as controversial since it reduced the minimum work age from fourteen to ten years and developed legislation that protected working children instead of prohibiting child work. The legislation remained the first law in history with input from kids and was significantly influenced by national unions created by working children WCO or working children organization. The children desired their rights to get protected to work and be considered in issues affecting them (Lind, 2020).
Oliver (2016) claims Bolivia ratified the ILO or International Labor Organization Convention No. 138 and the worst forms of child labor in Convention No. 182. Bolivia exceptionally minimizes the minimum working age of fourteen hence breaching the Convention no. 138 provisions which restrict the employment or work of children who have yet to attain fourteen years. More so, Convention No. 138 does not allow children from twelve years to work other than light tasks that do not impact their safety and health. However, the Bolivian policy permits a kid to work for another individual at twelve years, just like a grown-up, and self-employment at ten years. Moreover, the policy fails to provide legal protection to children who perform harmful activities, including agriculture, masonry work, and fishing, in a community or family environment. Despite the new code listing and restricting the dangerous practices, it offered exceptions when the practices are performed in a family environment (Jijon, 2019). The exception counter the Convention No. 138 provisions of the ILO claiming that the practices should get prohibited in the family environment and outside the family setting. In 2017, after criticism from international organizations, including ILO, on the law, the government decided to increase the minimum age to work to fourteen. However, the decision did not satisfy the WCOs in the country because it threatened their working rights and failed to consider the protection of child workers below fourteen years (Lind, 2020). As a result, child labor continues to persist despite the international community’s efforts to end it. The children have to work to get money to support their households and education in Bolivia (Childfund, 2023).
Causes of Poverty and International Responses and Global Movements that eradicate the worst forms of child labor (1998)
Children become employed due to their survival and that of their families and, in some cases because grown-ups take advantage of them. They work because of weaknesses and incompetency in their national educational framework. In addition, child labor remains integrated into social and cultural traditions and attitudes. The most significant cause of child labor entails poverty and the children’s search for work to meet their needs (ILO, n.d). ILO (n.d) states that the critical reasons for child labor in larger cities include economic deprivation and unhealthy household life. Households experiencing financial challenges fail to cope with the demand of their kids and may fail to provide sufficient nutrition. As a result, the children search for their source of income to meet their needs.
Moreover, some families remain socially disadvantaged while others are morally bankrupt or alcoholic leading to pecuniary difficulties combined with damaging dynamics in relationships. Therefore, the children move to the streets permanently or temporarily resulting in vagrant existence demanding early independent decision-making. Therefore, the primary cause of child labor includes family dysfunction and economic hardships. More so, a nation’s economic and social situation can result in child labor (ILO, n.d).
Childfund, (2023) claims that Bolivia possesses a rich culture, and its indigenous citizens remain renowned worldwide. However, the economy of Bolivia is considered the poorest in South America and the connection between poverty and ethnicity in Bolivia is powerful. Indigenous individuals remain marginalized and lack easy access to healthcare and education due to their economic, language, cultural, and geographic barriers. Therefore, children under five years get exposed to malnutrition and sicknesses while older children travel long distances to attend school. FMLC (2023) argues that Bolivia remains the only state that authorized child labor at a minimum age of ten as of 2014, violating the International Labor Organization conventions. However, the nation’s primary cause of child labor is economic instability and structural poverty. The country embraces child labor to the extent of children creating their unions, such as the Union Child and Adolescent Workers of Bolivia, to ensure their working rights to contribute to the economy of their families and pay for their education. Willman (2020) observes that the state’s economy results in child labor, and it depends on the export and production of raw materials leading to low industrial development. The economy and agricultural commodities depend on family labor that demands unpaid labor. In the urban setting, family businesses remain common, and children may work in the businesses.
United Nations Global Compact (n.d) states that the fundamental laws under global standards differentiate what constitutes unacceptable and acceptable work for kids at various stages and ages of their development. The Worst Forms of Child Labor Convention No.182 and Minimums Age Convention No. 138 offers a framework for national policy to define the minimum age for entry into work or employment that should not be below the age to finish compulsory schooling which is not less than fifteen years. Moreover, the minimum age is fourteen years and twelve for light tasks in nations with less developed educational and economic facilities. Moreover, every nation’s minimum age for dangerous work stands at eighteen. According to ILO (n.d), Convention No. 182 defines various worst forms of child labor. It remains the initial convention to attain global ratification, with most ratifications happening in the first three years. Moreover, most member states have ratified ILO Convention No. 138. Most nations have implemented policies to prohibit or develop adverse prohibitions on the work and employment of kids, mainly after the child labor conventions ratifications (ILO, n.d).
ILO (n.d) claims that some works harm children’s morals, safety, and health and make them vulnerable to danger, which is included in the worst form of child labor. The work includes working in harmful settings, including mines, where they risk injury and death from collapses of tunnels, rock falls, and accidental explosions. Moreover, children may get exposed to harmful substances and chemicals, leading to burns and injuries. In addition, the children get exposed to toxic chemicals such as lead and mercury, leading to chronic health conditions such as respiratory illness in their lungs or silicosis. More so, agricultural work exposes the kids to danger, mainly when using dangerous instruments, equipment, and chemicals such as pesticides (United Nations, 2023). Most work remains physically dangerous to the children, mainly when performed for extended periods. In addition, child laborers participate in hazardous tasks when exposed to different weather conditions leading to illnesses. Children are exposed to dangerous work when their work exposes them to diseases. The work interferes with the education of the child due to a lack of energy and time to attend school. Moreover, their households depend on the limited wages made by the children to meet their needs and that of their families such as the children in Bolivia (Humanium, 2022). However, ILO (2010) feels that offering decent jobs to adults to educate the children and the political will of the Bolivian government can prevent child labor.
UNICEF (n.d) posits that the UNCRC entails the most detailed children’s rights statement and the most widely ratified global human rights treaty. Every UN member nation apart from the US has ratified it. It possesses 54 articles that focus on the life of a child and develops the cultural, social, economic, political, and civil rights of a child UNCRC requires governments to raise the minimum age of kids to join the armed forces to fifteen years and ensure that every member of their soldiers below eighteen years do not directly participate armed conflicts. It further requires authorities to end sexual abuse and exploitation and protect them from getting sold for non-sexual reasons, including organ donation, forced labor, and unconstitutional adaptation. They should be protected from dangerous drugs by selling, carrying, making, and taking drugs, trafficking, and sale. The convention protects children from dangerous work that remains harmful or bad for their development, health, or education and possesses the right to get paid fairly and remain safe(UNICEF, n.d ). UNCRC, or UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, remains the most accepted global human rights treaty and claims that children possess the right to get protected from dangerous work that remains harmful or bad for their health, including moral, spiritual, mental, physical and social development or disrupts the education of the child (eclt Foundation, 2023 ).
CRC Article 32 on child labor posits that nations should offer appropriate penalties or sanctions and enough conditions and hours of work and set a minimum age for employment according to the necessary international tools (Child Right International Framework, 2018). ILO and UNICEF highlight the importance of education as a significant element in reducing child labor. States should undertake educational, social, administrative, and legislative measures to ensure the adaptation of article 32. Nations should fulfill their duties within global cooperation (Child Right International Framework, 2018).
Willman (2020) feels that the constitution developed a condition to protect children against labor restricting child labor and forced work in Bolivia. However, it permits activities within the household provided it is directed towards the full development as citizens of the kid. The 2014 law 548 limited the minimum age to 10, violating ILO’s international child labor standard, which set it at 14 years. However, in 2018, it increased the age to 14 years. The country possesses NGOs that work for kids and organizations for working children, such as NNATs that support working children. NGOs support the ILO and campaign to eliminate child labor in the nation, while NNATs support working children.
Moreover, the reduction in child labor has occurred internationally against a sustained international government backdrop against child labor, including multiple actors and efforts at different levels (Patrick, 2020). Some of the efforts include political commitments of authorities, a growing number of ILO Convention No. 182 ratifications on Worst Forms of Child Labor, ILO Convention No. 138 concerning the Minimum Age for Admission to Employment parallel surge, sound policy selections, two principal constitutional pillars for the international fight against kids labor, and effective legislation structures. IPEC and ILO have assisted in increasing attention toward the adverse effects of child labor on society’s future and growth and on children’s rights. Other actors have contributed to developing options for child labor. The role of ILO in leading child labor fights via incorporation of global labor standards, technical advisory help, supervisory system, capacity building projects, direct action pilots support, and assistance in developing national and international frameworks remains essential in eradicating child labor (International Labor Organization, 2013.)
Globalization and Child Labor
Globalization translates to enhanced free trade and FDI or foreign direct investment exchange, and the variables may negatively or positively impact child labor (Rahma & Khanam, 2012). Hindawi (2022) argues that economic globalization entails the elimination of hindrances to free trade and attaining enhanced incorporation of national economies. Various researchers claim that economic internationalization increases the concept of child labor, mostly in developing nations. Skilled and unspecialized labor lowers labor costs and develops a competitive advantage for big firms encouraging child labor which needs low wages and assist in minimizing production costs. More so, trade openness and tariff liberalization negatively impact child labor because of the increased demand for labor. However, it possesses a positive economic effect in the long term due to increased national and family income. On the other hand, child labor results from the pursuit of economic stability by the families, which contributes to economic empowerment and poverty reduction.
In contrast, some authors argue that economic internationalization reduces child labor because trade liberalization and foreign investment promotion positively affect families’ income rates, encouraging parents to enroll their children in school (Hindawi, 2022). Rahma & Khanam (2012), foreign investment demand for skilled labor reduces child labor as children must possess the skills needed. Multinational firms employ skilled employees and pay them more than the average salary. Therefore, growing FDI due to internationalization reduces the wages of unskilled employees and children, reducing child labor and more schooling. More so, elements such as light labor skills transparency policy, appropriate infrastructure, political stability, law and order conditions, market growth, and size remain more critical to foreign investors that lower wages concerning their investment decision.
Hindawi (2022) claims that social internationalization entails artistic, literacy, and cultural globalization and may get described as the indicative spread of American or western cultures. Most countries continue to implement the equity discourse and the importance of education affecting the appreciation of child labor. Various websites and organizations are raising awareness of children’s rights internationally. Social globalization positively affected families’ attitudes toward child labor and influenced the creation of human rights for most communities. Modern social opinions lead to a positive attitude toward child labor, mostly family attitudes. For instance, in Bolivia, child labor and children’s rights laws were passed that failed to align with international policies because the government considered the social and economic reality of the nation. The policy aimed at maintaining child labor in the nation in better conditions and ensuring the children remained economically empowered to create their economic power in the future. Therefore, social globalization assists in minimizing child labor, and an increased level of social internationalization assists in minimizing child labor.
International Labor Organization (2019) highlights that UN agencies, ILO, bilateral and multilateral agencies, international NGOs, and other groups play a critical role in combating child labor. The Child Labor Task Force is co-led by ILO, and Plan International was re-developed in 2017 under Alliance for Child Protection in Humanitarian Action. It addresses the need to enhance child labor responses during emergencies by ensuring practical collaboration and coordination on child labor issues among development actors and humanitarian responders at various levels. Alliance 8.7 in 2016 was initiated as an international partnership to eliminate child labor, human trafficking, modern slavery, and child labor, according to SDG Target 8.7. Alliance 8.7 continues to gain ILO support since it started to end child labor.
Moreover, the International Partnership for Cooperation on Child Labor in Agriculture unites ILO, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, the International Union of Food, Agricultural, Hotel, Restaurant, Catering, Tobacco, and Allied Workers’ Association, the International Fund for Agricultural Development, among other stakeholders and agencies, to international efforts to prevent child labor in agriculture (International Labor Organization, 2019). International conferences organized by ILO and IPEC include the 1997 Oslo International Conference on Child Labor and the 2020 Hague conference on child labor, which developed a road map to ensuring a world free from child labor (Morsolin, 2010). Other global conferences entail the conference in Brasilia, and Argentina international conference has the goal of meeting the SDG objectives of eliminating child labor by 2025 (Willman, 2020)
However, implementing international child labor policies domestically and internationally remains a challenge. Child labor remains a complicated concept because every state possesses cultural and societal distinctions, and the meaning of the word child remains different. In western countries, a child gets described by their age, while in developing nations, a child is described by their social roles. Nonetheless, the nature of work and the child’s age are critical benchmarks for describing child labor. Developed states have eliminated child labor, but it remains evident in developing nations, particularly in the domestic service and agricultural sectors (Rahma & Khanam, 2012). However, the global community has made apparent that the current child labor remains unacceptable and has renewed its commitment to the Sustainable Development Goals to prevent all types of child labor by 2025 (International Labor Organization, 2019). For instance, the Bolivia policy shows an alternative way of understanding child rights instead of ignoring them because it considers the reality of children’s work (Van Doesburg, 2016). In Bolivian society, child work remains deeply rooted. The government perceives that the legislation facilitates the protection of working children, and restricting child work could affect the economies of most families. The controversy shows the challenges of implementing global convention into domestic content because the perception of an appropriate childhood and that of a job remain different among cultures (Lind, 2020)
The paper focused on child labor in Bolivia, including the minimum working age of children and how it contradicts the minimum age for work admission covered in the Convention No. 138 of the ILO or the International Labor Organization and UNCRC article on child labor. Child labor remains an issue globally, and the global community continues to work towards eliminating it. However, there exist challenges in implementing the standard international policies in some nations, such as Bolivia, due to the country’s culture and poverty levels. However, child labor remains a hindrance to kids’ education and must not be considered a necessary evil due to extreme poverty. The Bolivia child labor policy provides exceptions permitting children aged ten years to work on self-employment can become a norm in society, making the children drop out of school. Despite making amendments and setting the minimum wage at 14 according to ILO, Bolivia continues to experience child labor. Therefore, the international community must work towards ending child labor internationally with a focus on the culture and situations of particular nations.
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