Child Labor and NGO Interventions Essay

NGOs intervention on Child slavery - labor abuse

Child labor and slavery is a global problem that has raised concern among various agencies and bodies of governments in different countries. Global organizations like WTO, ILO and GATT among others have prohibited its members from any forms of child labor and encouraged them to take proactive measures towards curbing the vice. With the direct and indirect pressure from these global organizations, there are hardly any nations that do not have explicit laws that ban and condemn the various forms of child labor with serious jail sentences attached to any offence related to child labor, what remains to be done is the implementation of the laws. ILO[footnoteRef:1] recommended that the member states needed to have a time-bound program of the actions they will undertake to eradicate child labor which manifests in the form of forced labor, slavery and slave like conditions, debt bondage, serfdom, pornography, child prostitution, using children for drug trade and employments, acts that are considered harmful, dangerous and hazardous to the child and interferes with their normal lifestyle and education. [1: International labor Organization, "Amsterdam Conference Condemns Intolerable Forms of Child Labor: Call for New International Standards and Global Solidarity" (1997): par-33. Accessed April 13, 2015. http://www.ilo.org/global/about-the-ilo/media-centre/press-releases/WCMS_008044/lang -- en/index.htm]

However, there are still rampant cases of child labor within the borders and cross borders, child labor is still employed from the small scale farming to the sports industry and even the manufacturing industries. Child labor is a disturbing facet of modern day slavery with cartels that fetch millions of dollars from the trade of innocent children across the globe. There are internal child labor markets within the borders of almost all countries with higher rates experienced in Africa and Asian countries, further, there are international child trafficking for the purpose of exploiting their labor taking place mostly from the poor nations to the relatively richer areas. The proceeds of the child labor and trafficking do not help the children but go to the uncaring parents and guardians in their home countries. The seriousness of the matter has made the aspect of child labor and how it is being handled by governments be a defining mark in the relations between nations and also between international organizations and the host nations[footnoteRef:2]. [2: Global March International Secretariat, "Child Trafficking." 2015: Par-2, Accessed April 13, 2015 from http://www.globalmarch.org/issues/Child-Trafficking ]

In the recent history, with the challenge of globalization acting as a facilitating factor in child labor and consequent trafficking, many developed nations have insisted on clean records as far as child labor is concerned for the nations that would like to be in a harmonious diplomatic relations with them. In order to get the clear picture of the extent of implementation of the internationally recognized laws and ethics on child labor among other human rights, the international community and the West have been relying on the NGOs and their annual reports to make decisions on whether to engage a country or not, the levels of engagement and the conditions that need to be met before an engagement is reached as well as the rules of engagement forward.

Since the NGOs have been significant partners in reflecting the levels of international policies implementations among the developing nations, it will is the focus of this paper to divulge the various ways in which NGOs involve the host governments and how their existence and operations among the host nations shape the policies of the host nations and their relationship with the West.

Participation and influence of NGOs

The Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) are predominantly known to be non-profit and voluntary membership groups where citizens organize themselves in a local basis, at the national and even international level to offer the requisite services to their people. There are three types of NGOs; the Advocacy NGOs-which are known to stand up for the voiceless or who have no access to the government or international community. Operational NGOs -- these concern themselves mainly with the provision of goods and services to the populations that direly need them for instance in times of calamity or disasters. The hybrid NGOs - are known to perform the functions of the above motioned two categories. NGOs are known to generally be organized around specific issues for instance the most outstanding achievements of many NGOs has been in the area of Human Rights, environmental protection and health. NGOs are known to serve as early warning signs to impending danger to the society as well as act as a monitoring agency for agreements made between the various government and their citizens or international community. Over many years, NGOs have operated in the social service areas mostly with the help of the private partners as well as governments of the developed nations willing to partner with the NGOs to uplift the lives of the host nations. The different U.S. governments are well know for encouraging these ties and complementary approaches to social issues. Ideally, the NGOs are meant to be non-political neither should they be directly affiliated with any government of the day in the host nations[footnoteRef:3]. However, there are NGOs that come in the form of lobby groups and ideally they push to influence political decisions made within the host nations. [3: Youngwan Kim, "The Unveiled Power of NGOs: How NGOs influence States' Foreign Policy Behaviors." 2011:Pp-17, Accessed April 8, 2015 http://ir.uiowa.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2537&context=etd]

The theoretical tie that is between the conduct of the NGOs and the foreign policy of states is highly dynamic and conditional with the extent of the influence that the NGOs have on the states activities and behavior of the leaders relying on the type of regime in place as well as the age of the NGO that is exerting the influence. It is also true that the NGOs influence the foreign policy behaviors of one state towards another in a direct and indirect manner since the NGOs act as the points of reference by Western nations, they are information providers, seen as agenda setters, lobby groups as well as generators of norms. The NGOs are known to set change agenda in many nations and have successfully made leaders and policy makers to pay attention. NGOs have the capacity and the technological power of late to form a social agenda and push it through to the top on list of the decision makers. The NGOs are also known to negotiate outcomes since they have been essential in various occasions in designing the multilateral treaties that have worked. The NGOs cannot also be undermined since they have a way of asserting legitimacy to issues. The judgment that NGOs give to a particular pertinent issue can make the difference between the promotion and the withholding of a much needed support to an agency within a country or the government as a whole by the developed nations. It is also worth noting that in the international relations, the NGOs cannot be undermined since they make solutions to be successfully implemented. The NGOs that work at the grassroots often manage to do what the host government cannot do or deems difficult to achieve. It is these NGOs that have helped many countries to translate the international agreements to the local realities that benefit the average citizen in the rural areas. These functions are known to form the basis of the actions of the NGOs and become more intense and in the process they influence the international society and the official agencies[footnoteRef:4]. When the NGOs tie the aid to be given to the conditions to be fulfilled like upholding of the rights of children, then there is a high possibility that the rates of child labor will be reduced due to the interventions by the NGOs. [4: Anup Shah, "Non-governmental Organizations on Development Issues." (2005). Accessed April 8, 2015 http://www.globalissues.org/article/25/non-governmental-organizations-on-development-issues]

How NGOs influence foreign policy behaviors

The U.S. government, like the other governments willing to work with the developing nations, look at the dataset of the activities of the U.S.-based NGOs in the developing nations constructed by the annual reports of the NGOs and posted on their websites or even obtain such data through direct contact with the management of these NGOs. The dataset is studied and quantitative analysis is made, based on this the decision on which nation would have an increment of the aid and which one would lose out is made. In this respect, NGOs that have a long standing history of serving in the developing nations have higher and better chances of influencing the aid that is to be released to a given nation. Apparently, when the number of activities by the U.S. based NGOs increase in a given nation, the media attention becomes more saturated and more is said about the nation and the challenges therein. This is often followed by qualitative analyses and the media reports that direct the attention of the U.S. To the needs of the country under the media coverage. With the extensive coverage by the New York Times and…