An examination of the policies launched to combat child labour

Since the formation of class societies, children from the working class families have been a part of the labour process in favour of the ruling classes. The period when children began to be exploited massively was the period when industrial capitalism was on the rise in the West. The fact that children work in very bad work environment during long hours in factories led to the first regulations regarding child labour in England. Despite the regulations came into force at national level in Western countries, child labour exploitation has begun to be a fact in all countries that have turned their way towards industrial capitalism. The first international initiatives on the employment of children has started in the first quarter of the 20th century, and at international level minimum age conventions were accepted periodically until the 1970s under the leadership of the International Labour Organization (ILO). However, the general characteristic of these conventions is that they were flexible and pragmatic and were arranged in favour of industrial capitalism, which was the dominant mode of production, in a way that would not harm the commercial activities of the member countries. The formation of the agenda for the fight against child labour at international level began in the late 1970s, and this agenda gradually intensified in the 1980s and the 1990s. 1979 was proclaimed as the International Year of the Child and ten years later the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child was adopted. In 1991 the ILO initiated the International Program on the Elimination of Child Labour, and in 1999 Convention No. 182 on the Prohibition and Elimination of the Worst Forms of Child Labour was adopted. Today, various activities are carried out at international level in line with the agenda of combating child labour, which emerged in the 1980s and the 1990s. Not having any action plan and program against child labour until these years, Turkey has also been integrated into the policies launched by international organizations. As a conclusion this dissertation argues that the policies launched to combat child labour ignore the dynamics of capitalism, which is the main cause of child labour, and that these are far from providing economic and social protection for child workers.