‘Could It Be That They Do Not Want to Hear What We Have to Say?’ Organised Working Children and the International Politics and Representations of Child Labour

Abstract

AbstractThis chapter is primarily concerned with exploring and problematising the representational strategies deployed in processes of global governance and advocacy related to child labour. It is observed that on the international level the broad category of ‘child labour’ is narrowly represented as a form of modern slavery by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and influential NGOs such as the Global March Against Child labour. Actors that challenge such narratives, in particular working children’s movements, are excluded from exerting influence. To better understand how we arrived as this impasse and how we can move forward, the chapter aims to reconstruct, analyse and problematise the institutional and geo-political developments that have resulted in the current status quo, with a special focus on the efforts of organised working children to influence this process. Using the theoretical constructs of the ‘paradox of institutionalisation’, the ‘paradox of a children’s right to participation’ and the ‘problematic of representational power’ to analyse the chapter’s empirical reconstruction, it is concluded that the ILO is to reconsider its restrictive advocacy campaign in favour of identifying more nuanced and evidence-based programmes and policies on child labour.