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Trade Associations: responding to child labour

Appendix 3 examines the actions taken on child labour by importers or retailers in relation to four categories of export product:

• The garment or apparel industry
• The sporting goods industry (specifically footballs)
• Hand-knotted carpets
• The cultivation of cocoa

The first three examples mainly concern children in South Asia, while cocoa farming is an issue for children in West Africa.

The examples demonstrate that companies that usually compete against each other in the marketplace have been able to cooperate in taking action to stop child labour. However, they also raise concerns about the low priority given to the best interests of the child in comparison to the interests of businesses, trade unions and politicians.

Several observations are made about companies or trade associations’ actions on child labour:

• Actions on child labour by companies are usually stimulated by bad publicity and consumer activism and thus often lead to rapid responses rather than long-term solutions that safeguard the best interests of the children concerned.
• Local people, including workers, employers and child workers, are poorly consulted in the process of formulating a response.
• Actions are concentrated in the export sectors of developing countries leaving the governments of these countries to deal with child labour in other areas of the economy.
• Actions may have unintended side effects for children and others, particularly if they have a narrow focus e.g. some actions may negatively impact upon women, child workers may enter more dangerous occupations.
• Economic and social realities render it practically impossible to eliminate all cases of child labour. As a result actions to address child labour in one area often displace it to another.

A “children’s rights advocate”

The clear recommendation emerging from this appendix is that in formulating a response, companies should appoint an independent person with specific responsibility for advocating the best interests of the working children, a ”children’s rights advocate“.