Child Labor in Latin America
![handle is hein.journals/lbramrca19 and id is 555 raw text is: CHILD LABOR IN LATIN AMERICA
Soo Nam*
I. INTRODUCTION
CHILD labor practices in developing countries are a significant
problem and have become a focus for attention internationally.
In fact, approximately 250 million children between the ages of
five and fourteen in developing countries are working.' Due to an in-
creasing number of child laborers in developing countries, the Interna-
tional Labor Organization (ILO) created the International Programme
on the Elimination of Child Labour (IPEC) in 1992.2 The IPEC's objec-
tive is to promote a worldwide movement to eradicate child labor.3 IPEC
is operating in nineteen different Latin American countries and ninety-
two countries worldwide.4 But as a result of the many different sectors of
child labor as well as its expansive causes, it has been difficult to success-
fully combat child labor in regions such as Latin America.5 According to
ILO in its most recent issue of the global child labor trend estimation, out
of 141 million children between the ages of five and seventeen in Latin
America and the Caribbean, fourteen million were child laborers.6 In
other words, [o]ne in ten children were child labourers in Latin
America and the Caribbean.7 The effect of child labor is not only a
direct negative impact on the child, but a negative impact on society be-
cause it prevents the child from acquiring the skills and education neces-
sary to promote society and create a better future. Therefore, the
prevailing objective of this paper is to analyze the causes and effects of
child labor, different sectors of child labor, conventions and international
*Soo received her B.A. from the University of Texas in Austin in 2007. She re-
ceived her Juris Doctorate degree from SMU Dedman School of Law in December
2013. The author would like to thank her family and friends for their uncondi-
tional support.
1. Int'l Labour Org. [ILO], Combating Child Labour: A Handbook for Labour In-
spectors 3 (2002) available at http://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/--ed-pro-
tect/--protrav/--safework/documents/instructionalmaterial/wcmsI 10148.pdf
[hereinafter Combating Child Labour].
2. ILO, About the International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour
(IPEC), http://www.ilo.org/ipec/programme/lang-en/index.htm (last visited Nov.
22, 2013) [hereinafter International Programme].
3. Id.
4. ILO, IPEC Worldwide, http://www.ilo.org/ipec/programme/IPECinthefield/lang-
en/index.htm (last visited Nov. 22, 2013).
5. See YACOU1BA DIALLO I-F AL., INT'L LABOUR OFFICE, GILOBAL CHILD LA3OUR
DEVELOPMENTS: MEASURING TRENDS FROM 2004 Tro 2008, 5 (2010).
6. Id. at 9.
7. Id.
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