Child Labour: Debatabase - Debate Topics and Debate Motions

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Intro to Debatabase
Summary: Is the imposition of sanctions on states the best way to end child Discuss topic
Debatabase Junior labour?
Contributing Topics
Commission Topics Introduction
My Topics Author:Jacqueline Rose ( United Kingdom ) Jacqueline is a History student at Clare College,
Submit Topic Cambridge. A former convener of the PriceWaterhouseCoopers Cambridge Union Schools Competition,
Suggest Topic she now runs workshops for intermediate level Cambridge debaters.

Created: Monday, December 02, 2002

Last Modified: Sunday, January 16, 2011

Context
In the past activists have tried to encourage consumers to boycott companies using child labour by
means of negative publicity about the conditions under which children work. The debate is partly,
therefore, about whether such action (which may be ignored) is sufficient to force companies
themselves to act, or whether it is more effective to use sanctions to pressurise governments into setting
up national legal regulations (which might be avoided or repealed). However, there is a second issue:
whilst it is normally deemed a truism that child labour is inherently bad, a subtler reasoning is sometimes
illuminating. It is hard to see how child labour on family farms can be avoided, when countries do not
have the resources to set up schools and to pay families a minimum income. Ultimately child labour
ends up more as a question of solving poverty than a simple moral or emotional issue.
A model for a sanctions regime would need to take several details into account: both general ones
regarding sanctions cases (by whom will sanctions be imposed? And to what extent will they be
enforced?) and questions particular to this topic: what age is a ‘child’? Is child labour inherently a issue,
2011 Bosnia and Herzegovina or is the debate really about minimum labour standards for any employee?
Leadership Program
Exact dates TBA. Eighteen Arguments
high school students and three
teachers from Bosnia and
Pros Cons
Herzegovina (BiH) attend the
highly interactive Youth There is an international duty on governments to Whilst codes of ‘human rights’ are effective bases for
Leadership Program and
uphold the dignity of man. This can only be done with enforcing political and legal standards, they are less
accompanying Teacher
the independence gained from education, a good effective in dealing with social and economic ones. It is
Professional Development
Program, in Salem, Oregon, quality of life and independent income. Child labour realistic to use sanctions to enforce rights to free
and Washington, DC. destroys the creativity and innocence of the young, expression and the rule of law; impossible to force an
and must be stopped. impoverished state to maintain Western standards of
More about this event
education and labour laws, which did not exist when
the West developed. This use of sanctions merely
lessens their impact when used for the correct
purposes.

Sanctions provide the only means of forcing states to Consumer power has proven highly effective in the
take action. Consumer pressure is too weak to do so - past in forcing trans-national companies to institute
whilst opinion pollsters are told their interviewees are ethical practices. Boycotts of one producer lead others
willing to pay more for ethical products, very few to act out of fear of negative publicity - the market
Slovak Debate Association:
people put this into daily practice. takes care of the problem itself.
Bratislava Schools'
Competition Pressure on trans-national companies is not enough. Quite true - this is why sanctions, an inherently blunt
The Slovak Debate It is a fallacy to believe that all child labour equals instrument, will always fail. Imposing sanctions on
Association would like to invite sweatshop work for multinationals in poor countries. whole states is unfair as they are not wholly
you to the international There is a difference between this, family labour on responsible for the actions of individuals within them.
Bratislava Schools Debating
farms (in both developed and less developed Should we impose sanctions on the USA because
Competition. The tournament
will take place from 7th to 11th countries), the use and trade of child prostitutes and illegal sweatshops have been found to exist there?
April 2011 in Slovakia’s capital countries who force children into their armies.
city (yep, you guessed it)
Ending child labour will allow the young to have A utopian vision of all previously labouring children
Bratislava.
greater chances of education and development. This entering school is belied by evidence showing many
More about this event
will increase the human resources of a country for the either cannot afford to pay school fees or continue to
future, thus encouraging economic growth. Their work at the same time. In fact, many TNCs have now
labour will be replaced by drawing from the large pool set up after-work schools within the very factories that
of underemployed adults in most developing activists criticise.
countries; often these will be the parents of current
child workers, so there will be little or no overall impact
on family income.

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Child Labour: Debatabase - Debate Topics and Debate Motions

It is true that alternatives will need to be found to Placing sanctions on some companies will merely hide
HWS / IDEA Round Robin previous employment - but raising liquidity by loans child labour underground. Moving children, who have
In the HWS / IDEA round secured on future earnings or micro-banking are both to work from poverty, into unregulated and criminal
robin the International Debate possible scenarios. The international community was areas of the economy will only worsen the situation. Is
Education Association and able to place human rights over the cause of free it really likely that the WTO, a bastion of free trade,
Hobart and William Smith trade in the cases of South Africa and Burma - so why would accept the restrictions that sanctions entail?
Colleges are bringing together not here?
an elite and internationally
diverse group of debaters and This is an argument for a targeted and more Sanctions harm the poorest in society - companies will
adjudicators for a weekend of sophisticated use of sanctions, not against them in simply move to areas where the restrictions do not
debate at the highest level.
any form. Sometimes free market economics is simply apply. Past experience has shown that government
More about this event an excuse for a denial of responsibility. interference with the market does more harm than
good.

Motions
This House believes that children should be free.
This House believes that education is the best economics.
This House would end child labour.
This House would put sanctions on states using child labour.
IDEA Exchange 2011 – Vilnius
15-17th April!
Useful Sites
If you are interested in making
a positive change in your One World.net
community, if you are working Asia Monitor Resource Center
or volunteering for the
Child Labor.in
promotion of the values of an
open society, if you are National Consumers League
interested in debate – International Labour Organisation
competitive and non-
Social Accountability International
competitive, if you would like
to meet other Stop Child Labour

More about this event Child Labour in Cocoa Growing

Case Study from Nepal

Useful Books
Child Labour
By: Sandy Hobbs
Economic Sanctions and American Diplomacy
Estonian Debating Society By: R. Hass
and IDEA join forces to
organize Estonia Open 2011! Hidden Hands: International Perspectives on Childrens Work and Labour
By: Phil Mizen
Estonian Open 2011 will be
held in British Parliamentary The Exploited Child
Style: 5 preliminary rounds By: Bernard Schlemmer
with 5-minute speeches,
followed by semi-finals and
Themes
Grand Final with 7-minute
speeches. Team cap for the Politics and Economics
tournament is 36 and N-1
judging rule applies for the
teams. Chi
Discuss
View the full discussion
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Author Post

Debatabase Posted: Wed Dec 20, 2006 12:08 pm

Member
Author: Jacqueline Rose (United Kingdom) Jacqueline is a History student at Clare
College, Cambridge. A former convener of the PriceWaterhouseCoopers Cambridge
Union Schools Competition, she now runs workshops for intermediate level
Cambridge debaters. Created: Monday, December 02, 2002 View Topic In the past
activists have tried to encourage consumers to boycott companies using child labour
by means of negative publicity about the conditions under which children work. The
debate is partly, therefore, about whether such action (which may be ignored) is
sufficient to force companies themselves to act, or whether it is more effective to use
sanctions to pressurise governments into setting up national legal regulations (which
might be avoided or repealed). However, there is a second issue: whilst it is normally
deemed a truism that child labour is inherently bad, a subtler reasoning is sometimes
illuminating. It is hard to see how child labour on family farms can be avoided, when
countries do not have the resources to set up schools and to pay families a minimum
income. Ultimately child labour ends up more as a question of solving poverty than a
simple moral or emotional issue.A model for a sanctions regime would need to take
several details into account: both general ones regarding sanctions cases (by whom
will sanctions be imposed? And to what extent will they be enforced?) and questions
particular to this topic: what age is a "child?" Is child labour inherently a issue, or is
the debate really about minimum labour standards for any employee?

file:///C|/Users/User/Desktop/Debatebase/Child%20Labour.htm[3/31/2011 9:27:54 PM]

Child Labour: Debatabase - Debate Topics and Debate Motions

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