Childlabor / Nike

Child Labor – now and then

MBS SS 2010, Business Ethics, Prof. Dr. Müllich

Corinna Koslowski & Nina Dunker

PART I

Historical Outline

Child Labor is not a new phenomenon or problem. In former times working children were needed to secure a family’s existence.

Only in the 18th century when the steam engine was already invented and industrialization began, Child Labor was described (in Britain) as a social problem for the first time.

However, it took years until in 1919 the International Labor Organization (ILO) was founded.

Five years later, in 1924, the Children’s Charta as the first international document focusing on children was passed by the League of Nations.

All independent states in Europe and the USA had labor laws around 1940.

The ILO ratified their first compact, the Convention 105 on the abolishment of forced labor, in 1957. 171 countries signed over the years except for China, Japan and Korea among others that still have not yet signed the agreement. Malaysia and Singapore denounced it around 1960.

Two years later (1959) the Children’s Charta was renewed by the United Nations General Assembly which forms the replacement of the League of Nations.

1973 was the year in which the second ILO agreement was signed. 155 countries ratified the Convention 138, the so-called “Minimum Age Convention”. The latest acknowledgements took place in 2009 while the USA among others has not yet ratified the contract.

At the end of the eighties (1989), the UN Convention on the Right of the Child came into force.

Ten years later, in 1999, the third and last (until today) ILO Convention 182 “Abolition of Child Labor” became effective. 171 countries out of 183 ratified the document until today.

Definition of Child Labor

There are many different definitions of Child Labor. Employed children in general must not to be mixed up with problematic forms of Child Labor, it completely depends on the duration and type of work.

International...