Abstract (eng)
Abstract
National and international measures regarding child labor in Bolivia - effects, difficulties, possible solutions
Child labor must be viewed in a differentiated manner! A distinction between “child work” and “exploitative child labor” is essential.
Two international organizations, the United Nations (UN) and the International Labor Organization (ILO) deal with this issue’s legal aspects. For the first time since 1989, the UN has given children a new set of children's rights, pertaining to education, family life, protection from physical violence, nutritional guidelines, and more, broken down into 50 articles. Protections against economic exploitation are enumerated in Article 32. The ILO specifies 2 standards in their respective conventions, which were also ratified by Bolivia; convention number 138 specifies a minimum age of 14 years, where convention 182 contains items pertaining to the fight against the worst forms of child labor.
Bolivia has been plurinational since 2009, meaning that the state allows, and recognizes the legitimacy of, the different neighboring indigenous peoples’ political implementations of their own respective systems within the country. Subsequently, the legal basis for working children, the so-called “Código niña, niño y adolescente”, was revised with the participation of the national organization of the children's movement, UNATSBO. Bolivia took a different path in 2014 when child labor was legalized. Under certain conditions, children as young as ten were permitted to work. In 2018, the minimum age was increased again, this time unconditionally to 14 years of age. The latter increase can be attributed largely to international pressure.
The Organization of Working Children (UNATSBO) campaigns for the regulation of child labor in Bolivia, as outlawing child labor had led to widespread illegal child labor in Bolivia. Local peoples tend to see international measures as neocolonial, because the international organizations have ignored the reality of the people, especially children, of Bolivia. They operate from a European point of view, which may not be suitable for all countries, ignoring the voice of the peoples of the global south is a mental aspect of neocolonial action.
In this thesis, the research results of the UNATSBO (children's organization) on the effects of international and national measures on Bolivians and child laborers are presented, as well as alternative solutions to the problem of child exploitation.