Working children claim their rights in Cameroon
Society rarely respects child workers, but what happens when they demand it?
Empower and protect – a better approach to child work
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Published in:Beyond Trafficking and Slavery: FeatureAre adults willing to listen to children on child labour?
Working children have the right to policies informed by their views and best interests
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Published in:Beyond Trafficking and Slavery: FeatureMy childhood as a child worker in Malawi
Our author wouldn’t be where he is today if bans on child labour had prevented him from working when he needed to
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Published in:Beyond Trafficking and Slavery: FeatureWhere is the solidarity for working girls?
Working girls in Peru are doing their best to look after themselves. Will adults support them?
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Published in:Beyond Trafficking and Slavery: FeatureBanning child labour jeopardises working children’s right to survive
Trying to ‘eliminate’ child labour only pushes working children into the shadows
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Published in:Beyond Trafficking and Slavery: FeatureChild labour: a shock absorber for economic precarity
The only way to reduce child labour in low-income countries is to make it easier for households to survive without it
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Published in:Beyond Trafficking and Slavery: FeatureTo be an Afghan child worker in Iran
More than a million Afghan children are trying to make their way in Iran. What could smooth the path for them?
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Published in:Beyond Trafficking and Slavery: FeatureEmpower and protect, rather than prohibit: a better approach to child work
Child labour isn’t going anywhere, so children’s safety in work must become the priority
The many faces of child work
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Published in:Beyond Trafficking and SlaveryThe impact of COVID-19 on working children in Buenos Aires
The pandemic has made work for many children more important that ever.
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Published in:Beyond Trafficking and SlaveryChild workers need rights, not policing, to weather the pandemic
The development community wants to help child workers during and after the COVID-19 pandemic, but unless it rethinks...
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Published in:Beyond Trafficking and SlaveryOpen letter: change course on the International Year for the Elimination of Child Labour
Child labour will not end in 2021, and trying to eliminate it will only endanger working children further. Over 100...
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Published in:Beyond Trafficking and SlaveryListening to working children is a legal obligation – not a choice
If the International Year for the Elimination of Child Labour truly seeks to help working children then policymakers...
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Published in:Beyond Trafficking and SlaveryTrust in our own strength: the African Movement of Working Children and Youth in Senegal
The working children of Senegal have long organised to educate, support, and protect one another from the everyday...
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Published in:Beyond Trafficking and SlaveryUnderage human smugglers: the story behind Mexico’s “circuit children”
Activists and social workers in Juarez are working to understand underage participation in human smuggling and...
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Published in:Beyond Trafficking and SlaveryModern slavery, child trafficking, and the rise of West African football academies
Ghanaian football academies have been accused of exploiting talent and promoting trafficking in search of profit,...
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Published in:Beyond Trafficking and SlaverySaving the ‘girl child’: the politics of sexual purity and national honour
Representations of girls often place a premium on sexual purity and sexual violation, and nation-states are either...
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Published in:Beyond Trafficking and SlaverySupporting working children as social, political, and economic agents
Peru’s movement of working children offers a visionary model for collaborative, caring, and egalitarian communities...
E-BOOK
Childhood and Youth
Neil Howard and Sam Okyere
Jason Hart
Kristen E. Cheney
Karen Wells
Roy Huijsmans
Thea De Gruchy, Jo Vearey, and Marlise Richter
Michael Bourdillon
William Myers
Jo Boyden and Gina Crivello
Amanda Berlan
Hugh Cunningham
Mike Dottridge
Iman Hashim
Tanja Bastia
Karen Heissler
Treena Orchard
Viviene Cree
Brenda Oude Breuil

This volume, replete with contributions from world-renowned children’s rights academics and practitioners, argues that the current drive to eliminate all forms of child work often goes against the best interests and rights of the children supposedly being 'protected'.
This happens because what is proposed is politically disengaged, fails to tackle the underlying causes of children’s insecurities, and lacks a thorough understanding of the social, cultural, and economic circumstances surrounding young people’s work.
Combined, the authors featured in this book advocate for an approach to securing child and youth welfare that is more nuanced, context specific, non-dogmatic, politically engaged, and takes young people’s own accounts seriously.
Childhood and Youth is part of the BTS Short Course, an eight-volume set of primers designed to introduce new readers to all the major aspects of the critical discussion on human trafficking and modern slavery.
The wilful deafness of the international system
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Published in:Beyond Trafficking and SlaveryOpen letter from working children to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child
After being excluded from the IV Global Conference on the Eradication of Child Labour, working children and...
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Published in:Beyond Trafficking and SlaveryOpen letter: on the lives of street children
As a UN committee continues to draft a 'general comment on the rights of adolescents', academics working with street...
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Published in:Beyond Trafficking and SlaveryThe La Paz Declaration
For the global defence of the dignity and well-being of children and adolescents who work. Español
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Published in:Beyond Trafficking and SlaveryWhat’s wrong with the World Day Against Child Labour?
Working children everywhere reject the mainstream anti-child labour paradigm. A major new video campaign tells us why.
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Published in:Beyond Trafficking and SlaveryCan campaigns to stop child labour be stopped?
Working children’s organisations have had limited success in challenging dominant abolitionist perspectives on child...
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Published in:Beyond Trafficking and SlaveryA tale of two conferences: exploring the politics of global child labour policies
Two international conferences on child labour were held in South America this fall. In one working children...
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Published in:Beyond Trafficking and SlaverySaving the children with songs and light refreshments
If the conversation at the ILO's ‘high level panel discussion on child labour’ had lived up to its name the world...
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Published in:Beyond Trafficking and SlaveryBureaucratic dysfunction in child labour
The ILO, UNICEF, and the Committee on the Rights of the Child promote policies known to harm children. What will...
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Published in:Beyond Trafficking and SlaveryWhat we want for children in the global compacts on refugees and migrants
We expect the impact of the initiative to carry beyond the global compacts and to influence the way all children on...
In conversation with Human Rights Watch
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Published in:Beyond Trafficking and SlaveryA better approach to child work - I
As the UN considers its position on child labour, 59 experts lay out the case against a universal minimum age....
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Published in:Beyond Trafficking and SlaveryA Response to HRW's letter on international minimum-age standards
As the UN considers its position on child labour, a group of academics and practitioners have engaged in open debate...
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Published in:Beyond Trafficking and SlaveryA better approach to child work - II
As the UN considers its position on child labour, a global group of experts lay out the case against a universal...