Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Child Law in the International Context: Exploitation, Abuse and the Limits of Labour Laws

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Child Law

  • 924 Accesses

Abstract

In this chapter we will discuss the conditions of life of the born child, particularly in the third world. In the happy cases when children survive to birth, the period from 0 to 5 years is the most hazardous from a number of standpoints, especially in the global south. The main risks to life, are malnutrition and vulnerability to a number of diseases, such a s malaria or diarrhea, all of which can easily be eliminated with cheap medications commonly used in the North (WHO 2002).

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
eBook
USD 16.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Hardcover Book
USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Notes

  1. 1.

    Or on existing U.S. law [Refugee Act of 1980, 8 U.S.C. §110 l(a)(42)(A) 2000].

  2. 2.

    Note 46 adds: “the provision of penal sanctions for the crime of exploiting children in hazardous work is not widespread as for breaches of subparagraphs (a) to (c) of art.3”.

  3. 3.

    www.sceintificamerican.com/slideshow.cfm?=10-most-polluted-places-in-the-world.

References

  • 1967 Protocol to the Status of Refugees, UN Doc. HCR/IP/4/Eng.Rev.l (1979)

    Google Scholar 

  • 1979 Moon Treaty 1979 Agreement Governing the Activities of States on the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies, 18 ILM ((1979), 1434. In force July 11, 1984

    Google Scholar 

  • 1982 Coventio on the Law of the Sea (Montego Bay)Misc.11 (1983) 8941;ILM (1982) 1261. In force 16 November 1994

    Google Scholar 

  • 2013 World Hunger and Poverty Facts and Statistics, @ http://www.worldhunger.org/articles/learn/world%20 hunger%20Facts %202002.htm

  • Adinolfi G (2008) ILO child labour standards in international trade regulations: the role of the WTO. In: Nesi G et al (eds) Child labour in a globalized world. Ashgate Publishing, Aldershot, pp 263–293, 277 (Human rights, or in this case, the rights of the child, impose non-derogable obligations, based on jus cogens norms (Barcelona Light and Traction Power Company Ltd. (Belgium v. Spain). ICJ Reports 1970

    Google Scholar 

  • Allain J (2007) The definition of slavery in general international law and the crime of enslavement in the Rome statute. ICC Guest Lecture Series of the Office of the Prosecutor. www.icc-cpi.int/otp/otp_guestlectures.html

  • Appellate Body Hormones Decision, EC Measures Concerning Meat and Meat Products (Hormones), AB-1997-4, WT/DS 26/AB/R,WT/DS48/AB/R

    Google Scholar 

  • Ashford N (1999) A conceptual framework for the use of the precautionary principle in law, Protecting public health and the environment. Island Press, Washington, DC, pp 198–206

    Google Scholar 

  • Aulakh R (2013a) Bangladesh tannery site reaches top ten. The Toronto Star, 20 November 2013, pp A1–A18

    Google Scholar 

  • Aulakh R (2013b) Tannery boys. The Saturday Star, 12 October 2013, pp A1 and 2, 28–29

    Google Scholar 

  • Barcelona Traction, Light and Power Company, Ltd. (Belgium v. Spain), 1970 I.C.J. 3 (Feb. 5)

    Google Scholar 

  • Barlow M (1999) Blue Gold. Special Report issued by the International Forum on Globaliztion (IFG) Ottawa, Canada

    Google Scholar 

  • Bill C-27 An Act to Amend the Criminal Code (child prostitution, child sex tourism, criminal harassment and female genital mutilation), 2nd see Sess., 35th Parl., 1997

    Google Scholar 

  • Black HC (1979) Black’s law dictionary with pronunciations, 5th edn. West Publishing Company, St. Paul

    Google Scholar 

  • Black RE, Morris SS, Bryce J (2003) Where and why are 10 million children dying every year? Lancet 361:2226–2234

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bodin J (1962) Six books of a commonwealth (London) [trans: Knolles R (ed), McRea KD]. Harvard University Press, Cambridge

    Google Scholar 

  • Caulfield LE, de Onis M, Blossner M, Black RE (2004) Undernutrition as an underlying cause of child deaths associated with diarrhea, pneumonia, malaria, and measles. Am J Clin Nutr 80:193–198

    Google Scholar 

  • Charnovitz S (1998) The moral exception in trade policy. Va J Int Law 38(4):689, at 704–705

    Google Scholar 

  • Child health and maternal health, Millennium Project 2005, p 132

    Google Scholar 

  • Chossudovsky M (2003) The globalization of poverty and the new world order, 2nd edn. Global Research Publications, Montreal

    Google Scholar 

  • Clarkson T (1993) International Organization, No. 50, p 3

    Google Scholar 

  • Commission on Human Rights, Report of the Special Rappporteur on the Sale of Children Child Prostitution, and Child Pornography, UN CHOR, 1994, U.N.Doc. E/CN.4/1994/84 at para. 6

    Google Scholar 

  • Convention on the Status of Refugees (CSR) (1951, 189 U.N.T.S. 150; into force 22 April 1954

    Google Scholar 

  • Cribb R, Quinn J, Sher J (2013) Ottawa to make information on se offenders public in a bid to foil sex tourism. The Toronto Star, 17 September 2013, Al

    Google Scholar 

  • Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes Act, s.c. 2000, c.24 ss. 6(1), 8

    Google Scholar 

  • Dalrymple JK (2006) Seeking asylum alone: using the best interests of the child principle to protect unaccompanied minors. Boston Coll Third World Law J 26:131

    Google Scholar 

  • Doezema J (2000) Lose women or lost women? The re-emergence of the myth of white slavery in contemporary discourse of trafficking in women. Gend Issues 18:23

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dupuy RJ (1991) Humanity and the environment. Colo J Int Environ Law Policy 2:201–204

    Google Scholar 

  • Dyson R (1999) Mind abuse – media violence in an information age. Black Rose Books, Montreal

    Google Scholar 

  • Dyson R (2011) Media use and misuse: at odds with a sustainable future. In: Westra L, Bosselmann K, Soskolne C (eds) Globalisation and ecological integrity in science and international law. Cambridge Scholars Press, Newcastle upon Tyne, pp 441–451, 445

    Google Scholar 

  • Farmer P (2005) Pathologies of power. University of California Press, Berkeley, pp 26–30

    Google Scholar 

  • Forst R (2001) A critical theory of transnational justice. In: Pogge Th (ed) Global justice. Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp 169–187, 176

    Google Scholar 

  • Francioni F (2006) WTO law in context: the integration of international human rights and environmental law in dispute settlement process. In: Sacerdoti G, Yanovich A, Bohanes J (eds) The WTO at ten. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp 143–145

    Google Scholar 

  • Freedman LP, Waldman RJ, de Pinho H, Wirth ME, Mushtaque A, Chowdury R (Coordinator), Rosenfield A (Coordinator) (2005) Who’s got the power? Transforming health systems for women and children. U.N. Millennium Project, Task Force on Child and Maternal Health, Earthscan, London, p 31

    Google Scholar 

  • Grandjean P (2013) Only one chance. Oxford University Press, Oxford

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Gruskin S (2001) A world fit for children: are the world’s leaders being passed on the fast lane? Health Hum Rights (Harv Sch Public Health) 5(2):1–7

    Google Scholar 

  • Hathaway J (1991) The law of refugee status. Butterworth’s, Toronto (or on existing U.S. law (Refugee Act of 1980, 8 U.S.C. §110 l(a)(42)(A)2000))

    Google Scholar 

  • Hattar M et al (2007) International child sex tourism: scope of the problem and comparative case studies. The protection project. John Hopkins University, Washington, DC

    Google Scholar 

  • Houlihan J, Kropp T, Wiles R, Gray S, Campbell C (2005) Body burden in the pollution in newborns. Environmental Working Group, Washington, DC

    Google Scholar 

  • Howse R (2000) Democracy, science & free trade: risk regulation on trial at the world trade organization. Mich Law Rev 98:2329–2357, 2350

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Human Rights Watch (October 2012) Toxic tanneries: the health repercussions of Bangladesh Hazaribagh leather. See www.hrw.org/news/2012/10/08/bangladesh-tanneries-harm-workers-poison-communities

  • Hurrell A (2001) Global inequality and international institutions. In: Pogge Th (ed) Global justice. Blackwell Publishers, Oxford, pp 32–54, 32

    Google Scholar 

  • ILC1 Report VI(?), 86th Session (1998), 31

    Google Scholar 

  • ILO (2004) ILO Commercial Sexual Exploitation and Masculinity; A Qualitative Regional Study of Males from the General Population. Geneva

    Google Scholar 

  • ILO (April 2002) Every child counts-new global estimates on child labour. Geneva, p 26

    Google Scholar 

  • International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights 999 U.N.T.s. 171, into force March 23, 1966

    Google Scholar 

  • International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, UN Doc.A/6316 (1996) 993 UNTS 3

    Google Scholar 

  • International Labour Office (1999) ILO targeting the intolerable: a new international convention to eliminate the worst forms of child labour. Geneva

    Google Scholar 

  • Jacobson M (1980) Nutrition and the politics of food. In: Green M, Massie R Jr (eds) The big business reader: essays on corporate America. The Pilgrim Press, New York, p. 128

    Google Scholar 

  • Kooijmans J (2008) Prostitutions, pornography and pornographic performances as worst forms of child labour: a comment on article 3(b) of ILO convention 182u. In: Nesi G et al (eds) Child labour in a globalized world. Ashgate Publishing, Aldershot, pp 129–149, 132

    Google Scholar 

  • Lagrega MD, Buckingham PL, Evans CJ (1994) Hazardous waste management. McGraw-Hill, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Law on Criminal Code of Ukraine (CCU) #234 l-14t 5 April 2001

    Google Scholar 

  • Laxer J (1991) Inventing Europe: the rise of a new world power. Lester Publications, Toronto, 209

    Google Scholar 

  • Licari L, Nemer L, Tamburlini G (2005) Children’s health and the environment. World Health Organization Regional Office for Europe, Copenhagen

    Google Scholar 

  • McBride S, Shields J (1993) Embracing free trade: embedding neo-liberalism. In: Dismantling a nation: Canada and the new world order, Fernwood, Halifax, NS, pp 162–164

    Google Scholar 

  • McMichael AJ (1995) The health of persons, populations and planets: epidemiology come full circle. Epidemiology and Society, Epidemiology Resources, London

    Google Scholar 

  • McMichael A, Haines A, Slooff R, Kovats S (eds) (1996) Climate change and human health. WHO Publications, Geneva

    Google Scholar 

  • Meron T (1986) Human rights law-making in the United Nations. Clarendon, Oxford, p 187

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Mongolia Law on the Protection on the Rights of the child of 1996, Section 7(4)

    Google Scholar 

  • Morales-Singh MB (2008) To rescue, not return: an international human rights approach to protecting child economic migrants seeking refuge in the United States. Columbia J Law Soc Probl 41:511–545, 514

    Google Scholar 

  • Nazario S (2006) Enrique’s journey: the story of a boy’s dangerous Odyssey to reunite with his mother. p 5

    Google Scholar 

  • Nibert D (2012) The fire next time: the coming cost of capitalism animal oppression and environmental ruin. J Hum Rights Environ 3(1):141–158, 149

    Google Scholar 

  • Noguchi 2008: 166: ILO, The End of Child Labour; Within Reach – Global Report Under the Follow-Up to the ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work, Report to the ILC; 95th session, 2006, Report l(B)

    Google Scholar 

  • Noguchi Y (2008) The use of children in illicit activities as a worst form of child labour: a comment on Article 3(c) of ILO Convention 182. In: Nesi G et al (eds) Child labour in a globalized world. Ashgate Publishing, Aldershot, pp 151–175, 166

    Google Scholar 

  • OHCHR, Contemporary Forms of Slavery Fact Sheet no. 14. www.ohchr.org/Documents/Publications/FactSheet14.en.pdf

  • Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the Sale of Children, Child Prostitution and Child Pornography, UNGA Res.A/RES/54/263 of 25 May 2000, art. 2

    Google Scholar 

  • Organization of American States, Cartagena Declaration on Refugees, Nov. 22, 1984, O.A.S. Ser.L/V/II.66, doc. 10, rev.l

    Google Scholar 

  • Pelletier DL, Frongillo EA, Habicht JP (1993) Epidemiologic evidence for a potentiating effect of malnutrition on child mortality. Am J Public Health 83(8):1130–1133

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Perrin B (2009) Taking a vacation from the law? Extraterritorial criminal jurisdiction and Section 7(4.1) of the criminal code. Can Crim Law Rev 13:175, 176

    Google Scholar 

  • Pimentel D et al (1998) Ecology of increasing disease. Bioscience 48(10):817–816

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pogge T (2001) Priorities of global justice. In: Pogge Th (ed) Global justice. Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp 6–23, 15

    Google Scholar 

  • Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees, 606 U.N.T.s. 267, in force October 4 1967

    Google Scholar 

  • R. v. Bakker, 2005 B.P. 289 (B.C. Provincial Court)

    Google Scholar 

  • R. v. Hape; 2001 Sec 26, 47, c.R. (6th) [2007] 2 S.C.R. 292, per LeBel J., para. 57

    Google Scholar 

  • R.V. Klassen, 2008 ECSC 1762

    Google Scholar 

  • Ragazzi M (1998) Obligations erga omnes. Oxford University Press, Oxford

    Google Scholar 

  • Ramos LM (2011) New standard for evaluating claims of economic persecution under the 1951 convention relating to the status of refugees. Vanderbilt J Transnatl Law 44:499–525

    Google Scholar 

  • Rees W (2000) Patch disturbance, ecofootprints and biological integrity: revisiting the limits to growth (or why industrial society is inherently unsustainable). In: Pimentl D, Westra L, Noss R (eds) Ecological integrity: integrating environment, conservation and health. Island Press, Washington, DC, pp 99–124

    Google Scholar 

  • Sachs J (2005) The end of poverty. The Penguin Press, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Sanna S (2008) Slavery and practices similar to slavery as worst forms of child labour: a comment on Article 3(a) of ILO Convention 182. In: Nesi G, Nogler L, Pertile M (eds) Child labour in a globalized world. Ashgate Publishing Ltd., Aldershot, pp 101–128, 111

    Google Scholar 

  • Seck S (1999) Environmental harm in developing countries caused by subsidiaries of Canadian mining corporations: the interface of public and private international law. Can Year Book Int Law 37:139–221

    Google Scholar 

  • Soskolne C (2001) International transport of hazardous waste: legal and illegal trade in the context of professional ethics. Global Bioeth 1:3–9

    Google Scholar 

  • Statute of Westminster, 1931 (UK) 2 2 George V, c.4, s. 3

    Google Scholar 

  • Stiglitz J (2012) The price of inequality. Norton and Co., New York, p 3

    Google Scholar 

  • Sutherland K (2004) Work, sex and sex-work: competing feminist discourses on the international sex trade. Osgoode Hall Law J 42:139–166, 160–161

    Google Scholar 

  • Ternes TA (1998) Occurrence of drugs in German sewage treatment plants and rivers. Water Res 32(11):3245–3260

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tickner J (1999) A map toward precautionary decision making, Protecting public health and the environment. Island Press, Washington, DC, pp 162–186

    Google Scholar 

  • Tunisia, Code de Protection de l’enfant, promulgué par la Loi no. 95–92 of 9 November 1995

    Google Scholar 

  • Turman T, Troedsson H, Stahlhofer M (2001) A human rights approach to public health: WHO capacity building in the area of children’s rights. Health Hum Rights (Harv Sch Public Health) 5(2):147–154

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • UNGA Resolution 57/190, UN, Independent Expert P.S Pinheiro, World Report on Violence against Children, United Nations Secretary general Study on Violence against Children, 2006, available at http://www.unviolencestudy.org

  • UNICEF (1997) The state of the world’s children 1997. Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp 1–108, http://www.unicef.org/sowc97

    Google Scholar 

  • UNICEF (2005) End child exploitation, child labour today. UNICEF, UK

    Google Scholar 

  • UNICEF State of the World Children 2005: Childhood Under Threat, N.Y. UNICEF 2004, pp 106–109

    Google Scholar 

  • United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees “The State of the World’s Refugees 2006”. At www.unchr.org/publ/PUBL/4444d3bf34.html#chl.52

  • Universal Declaration of Human Rights, G.A. Res.217A, U.N. GAOR, 3d Sess., 1st Plenary Meetg., U.N.Doc.A/810, December 12, 1948

    Google Scholar 

  • UN Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Sale of Children, Child Prostitution and Child Pornography, 25 May 2000, A/RES/54/263 art. 6, entered into force 18 January 2002

    Google Scholar 

  • U.N. Press Release (Geneva) HR/1/1733, Aug. 6, 1985, at 2; see also U.N. Doc. A/40/348, 6–7 (1985)

    Google Scholar 

  • US Public Health Service, Vital statistics of the United States: 1900–1970, Washington, DC. http://infoplease.com/ipa/A0922292.html

  • Vietnam Penal Code, Section 252

    Google Scholar 

  • Villaneuva F (2012) Le Champ D’Application de l’Article XX(A) du GATT et le Travail Dangerous Des Enfants: Une Question Relevante de la Moralite Publique. McGill Law J 58:407, 450

    Google Scholar 

  • Wabwile M (2009) Re-examining states external obligations to implement economic and social rights of children. Can J Law Jurisprudence 22:407–447, 408

    Google Scholar 

  • Wallach L, Sforza M (1999) Whose trade organization? Corporate globalization and the erosion of democracy: an assessment of the world trade organization. Public Citizen, Washington, DC

    Google Scholar 

  • Westra L (1998a) Development and environmental racism, the case of Ken Saro-Wiwa and the Ogoni. In: Living in integrity, Chap 5. Rowman Littlefield, Lanham, pp 111–122

    Google Scholar 

  • Westra L (1998b) Living in integrity. Rowman Littlefield, Lanham

    Google Scholar 

  • Westra L (2004) Ecoviolence and the law (Supranational normative foundations of ecocrime). Brill, Leyden

    Google Scholar 

  • Westra L (2013a) The supranational corporation. Brill, Leyden

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Westra L (2013b) The victims of structural violence: the case for collective obligations. Clarity Press, Athens (in press)

    Google Scholar 

  • Westra L, Lawson B (2001) Faces of environmental racism. Rowman, Littlefield, Lanham

    Google Scholar 

  • WHA (21 May 2003), into force Feb. 2005

    Google Scholar 

  • WHO Report, p. ix Figure ES 1

    Google Scholar 

  • World Health Organization (2011) Pharmaceuticals in the drinking water. WHO/HSE/WSH/11.05. World Health Organization, Geneva, pp 1–35

    Google Scholar 

  • WHO (2013) World health report for universal health coverage: world health report 2013. WHO, Geneva. ISBN 978 92 4 156459 5

    Google Scholar 

  • Zimbabwe Children’s Protection and adoption Act, 1971 (No. 22), as amended by Act No. 23 of 2001, Section 10; Indonesia, Child Protection Law, No. 23/2002, 22 October 2002, Section 67

    Google Scholar 

  • Zleptnig S (2010) Non-economic objectives in WTO law. Martinus Nijhoff, Leyden, esp. p 193

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Law, University of Windsor, Windsor, Ontario, Canada

    Laura Westra

Authors
  1. Laura Westra
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2014 Springer International Publishing Switzerland

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Westra, L. (2014). Child Law in the International Context: Exploitation, Abuse and the Limits of Labour Laws. In: Child Law. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-05071-3_4

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation