Age profiles in child labour laws and the quest for inclusive development
Abstract:Abstract
Prominent intercontinental regimes protect vulnerable persons, especially children,
from hazardous engagements. However, till date, controversies on the universal age
of maturity still water down the consensus to protect all children without
discrimination. This paper reviews prominent laws on Children’s development
(economic and education), then queries why these laws usually stereotype
childhood with different age grades. This is notwithstanding evidence that children
possess varying economic ingenuity. Also, that their outstanding potentials can be
expressed and economized at childhood ages. This paper is a doctrinal research of
qualitative methods that especially rely on the content analysis of primary and
secondary sources of Law. The primary sources of laws in this regard include both
domestic laws and international treaties, while the secondary sources are in forms
of reported data and information from existing anti-child labour regimes. This study
concludes that laws can prohibit children’s exploitations without discriminating
their capacity per ages. Children’s protection rules should only be complimentary
enough to (a) emphasize their developmental right to education and leisure (b)
focus on the liberty of all children to benefit from their own economic ingenuity
under safe conditions for fair wages.
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