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case analysis about child labor...

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LEBANESE AMERICAN UNIVERSITY

Labor law, Ethics, and Diversity Dr. Afaf Younes Ola Syagha

REVIEW PAPER ABOUT CHILD LABOR

Table of Contents Introduction And General Background............................................................................................1 Child Labor Globally.......................................................................................................................3 Child Labor in Lebanon...................................................................................................................4 Legal implications...........................................................................................................................5 Ethical implications.........................................................................................................................6 Mill: The Father of Utilitarianism................................................................................................6 Kant: The Father of Principles’ Theory........................................................................................7 The Effects of Child Labor..............................................................................................................8 Prohibiting child labor.....................................................................................................................9 Children Programming.................................................................................................................9 The Importance of Playing.........................................................................................................10 The Importance of Education.....................................................................................................11 Conclusion and recommendations.................................................................................................11 References:....................................................................................................................................12

Introduction And General Background "There can be no keener revelation of a society's soul than the way in which it treats its children." – Nelson Mandela

Child labor is a chief universal topic linked with poverty, insufficient educational opportunities, gender inequality, and ultimately it imposes a wide range of health risks. According to ILO, child labor is defined as "work that deprives children of their childhood, their potential, and their dignity, and that is harmful to physical and mental development" Moreover, the classification of what is considered as child labor or not, depends not only on the activities performed but also on the consequences generated by these activities. (ILO, 2007) For example, a work that interferes with the children's schooling, or a work that is morally, emotionally or physically disruptive will fall under the classification of child labor with accordance to the UNICEF's Convention on the Rights of the Child, and International Labor Organization [ILO] Convention 138,3 and 1824 The criminals we see today were once misunderstood and mistreated children, the psychopaths we dread and stay away from were once unhappy and scared little kids. Knowing this, we understand how the psychology of the child and the environment he lives in, affect tremendously the adult he is going to be and the life he is going to lead, for what you reap in the personalities and minds of the little kids, will be reflected in the adults they grow to be. In addition, perhaps if all kids were raised in healthy, ethical and loving conditions, a better society will be certainly

created. Good children make up good adults; consequently, it is highly important to focus on the conditions, and the setting children are growing up in. In these terms, child labor can be considered a detrimental obstacle in the healthy development of children and can have an immense effect on their wellbeing on many levels. Child labor is different from child work, and it is important to state the difference, for child work can be any designated assistance in house chores or any other chores that don't impose hazards on the child's health or affect his daily life activities and well-being. Child work becomes child labor when it seriously imposes harm on the child's life in any way, strips them from time to go out, play and perform their normal activities, gives too much responsibilities and duties that a young child can bear, don't pay fairly, threatens their physical and mental health and the list can go on. ( Basu & Tzannatos, 2003).

Child Labor Globally To take a closer look at the situation of child labor globally, there are some extreme forms and manifestations of the issue. According to UNICEF (2006), there are young children forced due to harsh economic conditions to perform vigorous manual labor all day in the hot sun or in unhealthy and unhygienic conditions. It is estimated that there are over 264 million kids between the ages of 5 and 15 around the world are struggling in severe working activities, every day for long hours, and this takes away their natural right to go to school and live the normal life any kid should be living. There are Over 9.2 million-child laborers are working in the Middle East and North Africa (8.4 % of the global total) the rest can be spotted in Asia that also has its big share. The Maple croft’s Child labor index has pinpointed the following countries as being the vilest in

terms of children exploitation: Somalia, Pakistan, Nigeria, Myanmar, Liberia, India, Ethiopia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Chad and Bangladesh. There is a big difference between a child who has a normal job such as working in a store selling goods and a child imposed to work a certain amount of hours per week in a physically demanding and dangerous work in order to be able to support his family. Child labor can include several fields and activities and some may argue over what is considered wrong or accepted. As mentioned earlier, whatever affects the mental, physical health and abuses the children's basic rights are labeled as child labor (Edmonds & Pavcnik, 2005) In spite of the several acts directed at curbing child labor through the work of world organizations and some efforts of governments, child labor is deeply rooted to several aspects and clearly prevailing with little change.( Tiwari, 2005) in this vein, It is very sad to consider that out of the estimated 264 million kids who are forced to do child labor, three-quarters of them work in very hazardous conditions and do very dangerous jobs such as working in mines and chemical compounds could put their lives at risk. The worst forms of child labor that can be considered an absolute violation of humanitarian standards are prostitution, child pornography and trafficking from one country to another and working as slaves in very hazardous areas (Tiwari, 2005)

Child Labor in Lebanon Lebanon has its share also from struggling with child labor. According to ILO, (2011) respond to child employment, "Child labor is reported as one of the biggest social problems in Lebanon" it

was estimated that there are about 3163 children ranging between 10 to 13 years old, working in Lebanon, while the number of those looking for work in this age group is 1947. This number has skyrocketed after the Syrian crisis. These two percentages represent 1.2% and 0.7% respectively of the total population in that age group. On the other hand, there are 28786 working children aged 14-17 years and 9525 of that same age group looking for work, representing 10.9% and 3.6% respectively of children in that age group. North Lebanon has the highest share of working children with respect to the two age groups 1013 years and 14-17 years. Mount Lebanon, Beirut, Beqaa and the South follow in order of children's working percentage. Overall, the districts of Tripoli, Minyeh, Akkar, Baabda, Baalbeck, Zahleh, Saida and Tyre have about 80% of working children aged 10-13 years. In the North, exploited children are found mostly in the districts of Tripoli, Akkar, and Minyeh (91-97% of working children in this region). In the region of Mount Lebanon, the districts of Baabda and Metn have the highest proportion of working children. More specifically, the poor urban neighborhoods of Bab Tebbaneh in Tripoli, Bourj Barajneh in Baabda and Bourj Hammoud in Metn are the worst affected areas in these districts. (Dionigi, 2016) Many children are working 6 days a week and more than 10 hours a day in harsh conditions especially like agriculture. According to ILO (International Labor Organization office in Beirut): "Children are working hard for the price of 7 dollars a week sometimes which is unfair". Most of these kids are maltreated boys who are spread in several cities and villages in Lebanon. These kids are forced to carry heavy loads, to work with dangerous chemicals and machinery, to work in construction and building, to sell items on roads under bad circumstances, and to work in gardening and in a farm that proposes a different kind of threats. Other than the explicit health

complications these kids are facing, they are also falling a pray for paid or not paid sexual exploitation (UNICEF, 2006)

Legal implications The Lebanese law shares the same definition of a child as well defined by the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC). A child, according to the Lebanese law is any person who is under eighteen years old and thus many laws and provisions have been dictated for the sake of child labor. With reference to the Lebanese law, children ranging between 18 and 13 are free to work in the frame of specific regulations and conditions. First, the Lebanese law firmly prohibits the employment of children who are under the age of thirteen years old. On the other hand, those above thirteen are requested to submit a medical certificate proving that they are fit for the job they are hired to perform. According to article 23, it is prohibited to employ children under the age of 16 in any type of work that is deemed life threatening or morally corrupting. Furthermore, in addition to other limitations, no child can be employed for more than six hours per day and for each four consecutive working hours, he or she shall be granted one-hour break. No child can work during the period from 7.pm until 7a.m. Moreover; Lebanese children cannot work extra time during holidays and their resting time, knowing that a child must rest in every 24 hours a period of 13 hours at least. A working child is granted 21 days as his or her annual leave.

Ethical implications Mill: The Father of Utilitarianism

The Principle of Utility states that one should act in all situations in a way that generates the greatest good for the greatest number of people. The Utility Principle takes interest of everyone into account and proposes that people should engage in a cost-benefit analysis to determine the effects of an action on all the people involved to produce the greatest amount of good and the least amount of pain. In the framework of child labor, Mill considers the reasons and the consequences of forging or adopting this prospect. According to Basu, the harsh reality and poverty are what forces families and their kids to work in these extreme conditions. Thus, if one chooses to forbid child employment, the results won't bring up better opportunities for kids or give them the chance to go to school and lead a normal life. In the contrary, they will end up suffering more, having nothing to do and with no money. In more extreme cases, preventing child labor in poor countries will not solve the problem, in fact, the problem will aggravate, and it might push those concerned ones to engage in crimes in order to save their lives. (Basu, 1999) Taking into consideration all the aforementioned consequences, child labor is considered morally right in the utilitarian definition, for it takes into account that the child is working to assist financially one’s impoverished family. In addition, as children produce inexpensive goods for big corporations, these activities boost the economy of one’s country: and this means utility is being maximized and consequently child labor is actually achieving the greatest good to the greatest number of people. (Carson, Wokutch, & Murrmann, 1982). Kant: The Father of Principles’ Theory

On the other hand, Kant adopts a contradicting stand to the issue of child labor, for his philosophy lies on the ideology of respecting all human beings and the ultimate purpose is to always do the right thing in spite of the consequences. According to Kant, you should never use people to get what you want. According to Sadik and his colleagues, looking through the lenses of Kantian ethics, it is with no doubt that child labor is immoral since it breaches the fundamental human rights of children. According to Kofi Anan, child labor has some serious consequences that can linger with the individual and the society and extend beyond than the years of childhood. Not only do children incur the inevitable current consequences, but also, they suffer long-term cognitive, physical and emotional repercussions that will seriously affect their adulthood lives (Saddik, Nuwayhid, Williamson, & Black, 2003) Furthermore, child labor is deplorable since it garbles the children’s values, shakes their dignity and self-confidence, and exposes them to anti-social behavior. (Nieuwenhuys, 1996) According to Kant, it is extremely accentuated that one should not act on motives that are to be considered as universal law. Therefore, it is highly important for people to put themselves in the shoes of a child laborer. Are they capable to undergo the agonizing pain that he or she goes through? Would they find it moral if are suffering while employers are enjoying the fruits of agony ? If the answers are no, then definitely, child labor is unethical.

The Effects of Child Labor To no one's surprise, child labor has serious implications on the physical, mental, social and cognitive wellbeing of a child.

For a person to grow at his or her foremost, and other than the basic physical rights, he or she is in need of belonging to social groups, of connecting to different others, of getting love and affection from his environment and of interacting with the outer world. However, children who work for long hours are deprived of spending quality time with their peers and family members, and this disturbs their overall social development. Children need to build positive relationships with others in order to learn, thrive and build their characters; working for long hours will seriously prevent them from properly developing their connection to the outer world and building his identity. This will eventually lead kids to develop insecurities who will be at the mercy of emotional problems. (Basu, & Tzannatos, 2003) With reference to Basu and Tzannatos, Children who work intensively, experience depression and isolation, which often strips them from developing healthy emotions as they grow, and can impair their physicality. Children working in hazardous conditions will have higher health risks from bearing activities that are too advanced to them and they are found to be at higher risks for developmental delays. Children who work in harsh conditions are often smaller than those who play and grow naturally. Those laboring children are also at a higher risk for ailments such as respiratory illnesses and are exposed to harmful chemicals that can also affect their health severely. According to Global Burden of Disease Study, (2005), since child labor is considered a byproduct and a symptom of poverty those laboring children are also at a higher risk to suffer from "malnutrition, poor water and lack of sanitation and hygiene, unsafe sex, and dangerous occupation which lead to other serious health and mental conditions later in life" Even working adolescents can be affected adversely. Teenagers, who spend more than 20 hours per week working, will be more exposed to develop problematic social behaviors including

substance abuse and hostility. The risks also influence their educational development, as they are more likely to perform poorly in school and drop out (Psacharopoulos, 1997).

Prohibiting child labor At the same time, In the normal world, children should be busy playing, getting an education and love, not busy working and supporting their families. Preventing child labor is not only a trend for making the world a more cultured place, but it actually stems from the horrible consequences children and societies are left to deal with. It is important also not to focus solely on why child labor is wrong, but also on why it is necessary for children to have time to play and get an education and most importantly to be raised right and loved unconditionally. Children Programming The first seven years of a child life are called hypnosis period. This is the period in which a child learns everything about life, and his mind gets programmed to adopt practices, habits, and mechanisms that allow him or her to lead a healthy or successful life. In addition, the following years are validation and inhabitation of what has been learned earlier, so whatever is taught to a child early in his childhood will be the reality of him as he grows up. So, imagine what an exploited child would be learning as his belief system and his identity constituents. Accordingly, children's upbringing is the most important task that not only families but also the society and the government should take upon their shoulders as one of the most critical contributors to a healthy and successful generation and society. Child labor will hamper the process of child learning and getting love and affection from his caregivers. Children abused in their childhood will adopt the abuse and the oppression and mimic it or project it later in their

lives. Therefore, child labor affects society and its progress as a whole. For it is easier to build strong children, than repair broken adults. (Lipton, 2010) The Importance of Playing Furthermore, a very important birthright that should be given with no conditions is the right to play. Although many people think that all those kids want is just to be naughty and have fun, other than the fun part, play is so vital to optimum child development. The United Nations High Commission has recognized play for Human Rights as a right of every child, for Playing is linked with building happier, physically stronger and healthier children. By way of illustration, playing is found to build stronger bones and immune system, to contribute to cognitive and emotional development, in improving sensory skills, and attention spans in children. (Alexander, Frohlich, & Fusco, 2012) The Importance of Education Moreover, to understand better the consequences of child labor, it is critical to stand at the importance of getting an education. Forgoing the opportunity to go to school will cost the children and the society equally. For example, not only does education secure a person financially and vocationally, but also education serves the society as a whole, by making it thrive on the financial, precautionary, and pedagogical level. In addition, education in any society helps in lowering crime rates. This is explained by the fact that when children are spending their time learning and studying, the opportunity cost of crime and spending time in prison will rise. Education does not only create better employment opportunities and better earnings but also it also delivers "dynamic incapacitation" this is supported by Bell and his colleagues' claim that "Crime rates peak at age 18, and keeping teenagers in school during this key period can help

ensure that they never proceed down the wrong track." To keep children away from crime and abuse, it is important for them to get proper education, so that they can excel in their future. (Bell, Costa& Machin, 2018)

Conclusion and recommendations Ultimately, child labor is clearly a violation of basic children's rights, in which laboring children suffer on all levels, and t...