First of all, I shall discuss the international conventions on child labor then i shall examine the legislation in Pakistan and analyze how it is helping the cause of the working children.

Child Rights and the International Law:

The International recognition of the rights of the children dates to the League of Nations. Various conventions were adopted by the special committee on child rights within the League of Nations. In 1924, the committee endorsed the declaration on the rights of the child, known as the “Declaration of Geneva”. This declaration formulated some duties rather than enforcing rights of the children. For instance, the declaration stated that the “child must be protected against every form of exploitation”, rather than stating that the child have a right to be protected against such exploitations. After the Second World War the General assembly of the newly established United Nations made efforts to adopt a revised declaration of the rights of the child. The General Assembly on 20 November 1959, finally adopted the revised Declaration on the Rights of the Child. The declaration acknowledged the material and immaterial needs of a child and mentioned that the states should fulfill the needs. The declaration also reiterated that “The child shall be protected against all forms of... exploitation”. Previously UN by adopting the Universal Declaration of Human Rights 1948 (UDHR), had acknowledged the basic rights of the human beings, and specifically the social protection a child should get. Later the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights 1976 (ICCPR), acknowledged that a child should enjoy any rights that a minor enjoys within a state or society without any discrimination. The declaration passed previously (i.e. UDHR) had no legal obligations upon the states to implement the rights acknowledged, it only had moral obligation but the ICCPR (as a treaty) had a legal obligation upon states under the international law. Thus, the ICCPR was a treaty imposing obligations upon states to protect the rights of their citizen albeit it was not specifically for child rights. ICCPR was a result of the rights acknowledged in the UDHR by the nations, thus to give a legal binding to those obligations previously recognized the ICCPR and the International Covenant on Economic Social and Cultural Rights 1976 (ICESCR) were ratified by the member states.

Similarly, to give a legal recognition to the Declaration on the Rights of Child, the need was felt to come up with a separate treaty on the rights of the child. As a result of which CRC was adopted, which is discussed in detail later in this question. The laws specifically regarding “child labor” dates to the treaty of Versailles (1919) which authorized the establishment of the ILO. The ILO mandated one of its main tasks as "the abolition of child labor and the imposition of such limitations on the labor of young person’s as shall permit the continuation of their education and assure their proper physical development”.  The ILO adopted its first convention on child labor in 1919. The convention prohibits the work of children under the age of 14 in industrial establishments. Subsequently, nine sectoral conventions on the minimum age of admission to employment were adopted applying to industry, agriculture, trimmers and stokers, maritime work, non-industrial employment, fishing, and underground work. A comprehensive instrument towards the total abolition of child labor was adopted in 1973 in the form of “The Minimum Age Convention (no.138)”. Followed by “The Worst form of Child Labor Convention, 1999 (No.182)” which complemented the previous convention no. 138.

Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC):  The CRC is the first legally binding international instrument to incorporate the full range of civil, cultural, economic, political, and social rights. It was adopted on 20th November 1989 by the U.N. General Assembly, thirty years after the Declaration of the Rights of Child. The convention is ratified by all the states except United States of America (USA) and Somalia. By ratifying the convention each state under the international law is under an obligation to protect the rights of the children as stated in the convention. The convention is based on four basic principles; non-discrimination; devotion to the best interests of the child; the right to life, survival, and development; and respect for the views of the child. The central obligation of the state parties in relation to the CRC is to respect and ensure the rights recognized therein. CRC requires governments to undertake “all appropriate...measure” to implement the treaty, so CRC adopts a broad and flexible approach which does not stipulate the specific means by which it is to be implemented in the national legal order. Furthermore, it stipulates that measures should be taken to the maximum extent of “available resources” in the case of implementing rights which are related to, inter alia, economic matters. This is the same approach as the ICESCR has taken with respect to the realization of the socio-economic rights by the states. The CRC has also recognized the value of the opinion of the children; it obliges states to give right to the children to express their views freely about things affecting them. The convention develops the concept of protection of children against exploitation, as it was in both the declarations for the rights of the child. The approach of the article 32 of the convention is to regard it as the right of the child to be protected against economic exploitation. Exploitation is not merely the breach of a single fundamental right; it usually involves the breach of several rights. A state party to the convention is under a duty to take legislative, administrative, social and educational measures to protect children from economic exploitation, to have regard for other international instruments, and to provide for a minimum age or ages for admission to employment. It however does not provide for any detail as to the content of the conditions and the limitations of hours, only that it should not amount to the economic exploitation. The problem with CRC, as Jeremy Seabrook points out, is that it takes idealized western norm of family as the basics for the protection of children. It ignores the joint family system of the sub-continent and elsewhere, and it promotes the version of the western family which is already at an advanced stage of dissolution. In western societies a child may have individual rights and duties but in other societies, especially in South Asia, a child is attached to a family. So, laws regarding an interest of a child will be related to the whole family, as in many cases family is dependent on the earnings of a child. So, realizing the positive rights of the children is necessary before putting a restriction upon child work under a specific age. The CRC does not contain a provision expressly obligating its incorporation or requiring it to be accorded any specific type of status in national law. In practice, the effect of international law within the national legal system differs from state to state. In general, the approach of states to incorporate international law into its national legal system is divided into transformation approach (dualistic view) and the incorporation approach (monistic view). In the former approach the states give effect to the provisions of covenants by transforming them into national law via the required procedure, for example, by amending existing laws. In the latter approach the covenants itself become the part of the national law as soon as it is ratified by the required procedure. The only international implementation mechanism provided for in CRC is the system of periodic reporting by states parties to the relevant human rights treaty body, i.e. the committee on the Rights of the Child. The CRC does not provide for inter-state or individual complaints. CRC contains civil and political rights as well as socio economic rights, thus the individual complaint system would have raised difficult problems about determining whether the alleged violated obligation was one of an immediate or progressive nature.

 ILO Conventions on Child Labor: The ILO conventions are elaborated through a tripartite process which involves governments, employers, and workers organizations. They are debated and adopted by the ILO’s International Labor Conference, which is composed of government, employer, and worker delegates from the member states. States when ratify a convention subject themselves to supervisory machinery which involves regular reporting to the ILO on the application of the ratified convention. From time to time, ILO member states are asked to submit reports on the status of their law and practice concerning matters dealt with in selected conventions, even if they have not ratified them. As mentioned earlier, ILO has adopted two comprehensive conventions against the total abolition of child labor. The convention no. 138 was based on the idea that children have a natural right not to work and that their very presence in the workplace is the crux of the child labor problem. It is also essential to remember that this convention was not intended to be just about children or to serve only their interests; it was also about protecting labor markets and adult economic interests. Thus, the approach of the ILO was to exclude children altogether from economic activity, which was deemed to be the work of the adults. The Convention prohibits children from engaging in any economic activity (childcare and housekeeping chores are considered noneconomic) below certain specified minimum ages. The only exceptions are for work in educational institutions (as part of training) and on small family farms producing for local consumption. A general minimum age for admission to "employment or work" is set at 15, but in no case is it to be less than the age up to which children are obligated by law to be in school. In the poorest countries, the minimum age may be temporarily set a year younger. Children may do "light work," defined as safe part time work that does not interfere with schooling, beginning at age 13 or, in the poorest countries, at age 12. Children below age 18 may not engage in hazardous work, although those at least age 16 may do so if properly protected and instructed. The style of the convention is relatively detailed, going beyond principles and objectives to specify a variety of different universal age standards to the precise year. Furthermore, the ILO Recommendation No. 146 recommends that the conditions under which those under the age of 18 are employed should be maintained at a satisfactory standard and supervised closely. It further recommends fair remuneration and the principal of equal pay for equal work. This principal worked in keeping children out of workforce when the labor union in Karachi asked for equal pay for equal work. the root of child labor is embedded in the economic conditions of the state. With only economic development a state can provide free education practically to a certain extent. The convention is strict on specifying ages for specific employments for children. With families depending upon the income of children the implementation of such clauses is impracticable. Thus, the ratification of the convention within developing states especially in South Asia have been very slow, for example, Pakistan ratified the convention in July 2006 becoming only the second country in South Asia to ratify the convention. The criticism on this convention is that it is a western approach of tackling child labor; prohibiting all child work under specific ages has been targeted harshly by critics lately. The convention no. 138 was followed by the worst forms of child labor convention 1999 (No. 182). The convention commits all its ratifying members to “take immediate and effective measures to secure the prohibition and elimination of the worst forms of child labor as a matter of urgency”. The convention may be termed as closer to a global consensus on child labor. But Ben White have noticed that it “appears ... to represent an attempt to incorporate relativist principles in a global standard-setting exercise, and therefore perhaps to have sidestepped the issue of cultural relativism”. In its preamble the convention recognizes the fact that the lethal cause of child labor is poverty, and to effectively deal with child labor a sustained economic growth is important. Unlike the convention 138, ILO have not targeted child labor in general, it has specified the child labor to its worst form which is more practical approach of dealing with this issue especially in developing states. The indulgence of children is thereby prohibited in any kind of slavery or forced labor, child prostitution, illicit activities such as drug manufacturing and work which is harmful to health, safety, and morals of the children.  The importance of education in eradicating child labor is acknowledged, thus after keeping the children away from worst forms of child labor their rehabilitation is necessary upon states. One of the rehabilitations should be providing formal education or vocational training. The rehabilitation is important as children might be forced to join other unregulated employment if they do not get better incentives. The convention seems to be aware of the stakes involved in eradicating child labor swiftly, which is why it is keen on adopting a way where child labor is eradicated progressively but keenly in occupations which are hazardous for children. Thus, the global standards are fixed and relevant to be adopted at national levels.

  Legal measures against Child labor in Pakistan:  The committee on the rights of child in its country report stated, inter alia, that child labor exists in Pakistan at an alarming rate; widely accepted by the society. Even though Pakistan has ratified the CRC and both the ILO conventions on child labor; it is also a signatory to the Declaration of the Rights of Child.  Pakistan has adopted the transformation approach (dualistic approach) for the implementation of the international covenants. Thereby to infuse the international norms against child labor within its legal system Pakistan must amend the existing laws or come forward with fresh legislation. The legislation shall also be following the constitution. The constitution of a state is supposed to be a “Grund Norm” i.e. all other legislation should be derived from the constitution and be in conformity with the constitution. The constitution of Pakistan provides that all forms of forced labor and traffic in human beings are prohibited and children below the age of 14 years are prohibited from working in any factory or mine or in any hazardous activity. It is included in the principles of policy to Provide free and compulsory secondary education and making technical and professional education generally available and higher education equally accessible to all the people. The previously discussed pre partition laws promulgated by the British authorities continue to be in force in the country. Furthermore, the Employment of Children Act 1991 was enacted in April 1991 to protect the working children from economic exploitation after the ratification of the CRC by Pakistan. The implementation of labor laws in Pakistan is the responsibility of the Ministry of Labor and Manpower (MoL). The Federal Laws of Pakistan are published by the Government in a document called the Gazette of Pakistan. The notification and implementation are also reported in “Labor Gazette” of the MoL. Notification of a new labor Act is sent to the firms operating in a province by the provincial MoL, and district level labor officers/inspectors are responsible to monitor the implementation of labor regulations in the various establishments.   The Employment of Children act 1991 defines a child as a “person who has not completed his fourteenth year of age”. The Act prohibits any work by children in specific occupations or workshops. Child labor was prohibited in 6 occupations and 14 processes, after the ratification of ILO convention No. 182 this has been changed to 4 and 34, respectively. The number of hours worked by the children is to be fixed for every establishment, but one-hour rest after three hours of work is made necessary for every kind of work. The working hours including rest time are fixed at seven hours; working at nights is restricted and working in two different places on the same day is also prohibited.147 The act does not prohibit work in establishments or enterprises that are not related to the occupations and processes specified in the Act. It also does not prohibit children’s work in the agriculture sector (except where hazardous chemical sprays are used), or work in the family business, farm, or enterprise. However, the Act lays out strict regulations of conditions of work for children in these occupations. Thus, the act aims to eliminate the employment of children in the most hazardous occupations and to regulate the conditions of work for children in other less hazardous occupations. In addition to the labor officer/inspector, any person or police officer can file a complaint of an offence under the Act in any court of competent jurisdiction. It is also expected that given the provisions of the EoCA 1991, the immediate impact would be on the demand of child labor since it specifies the employers to be the offenders. Here the act seems to be better in approach as compared to the factories acts of nineteenth century Britain where the parents were to be the offenders.

 The implementation of the rules against child labor is a contentious matter. According to SPARC the number of inspections in Punjab is deteriorating each year, as in 2005 the chief minister of Punjab has directed that the labor inspectors were not to inspect the industries. All over the country the picture is gruesome, nonexistence of specified labor inspectors complicates the enforcement of child labor laws. The monitoring of child labor laws is left to the provincial governments through the provincial inspection machinery and the provincial child labor resource centers. The provincial governments with their meagre resources are struggling to resolve other major issues, for example, law and order situation in the present N.W.F.P. (KPK) the question is how they can regulate the inspections in the local industries with such resources?  Some monitoring is carried out through local arrangements in independent sectors such as the Independent Monitoring Sector for Child Labor (IMAC). At federal level there is no such labor inspection policy; the Ministry of Labor is now due to make a fresh policy with the help of Asian Development Bank (ADB). It is mentioned in the targets of the ministry of labor and manpower to eliminate child labor progressively, the timeframe given is 2005.The target is given but the policy of implementation at federal level is missing, thus achieving a target without a specified policy show lack of interest. Furthermore, it remains a goal of the Ministry of Labor and Manpower in Pakistan to eliminate child labor progressively with a target of 2005. it is three years that 2005 is gone but the government still has a target to achieve something in past years. All this shows the lack of interest to work for the cause of children; every work is left for the donor agencies the NGO’s and especially the international organizations. International organizations like ILO and Save the Children UK are working on different projects all over the country; the main theme of these projects is to eradicate child labor through providing education.