Does membership in international organizations affect incidence of child labour

Incidence of child labour has been declining both in absolute and in relative terms over the years, but it has been highly uneven in nature. This paper examines the effect of membership in different international organizations on the incidence of child labour across 94 countries between 1980 and 1999. Firstly, we consider the effect of membership in the International Labour Organization (lLO) on child labour. The primary goal of the International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour (lPEC), the biggest operational programme of the ILO since its inception in 1992 is to abolish child labour. Secondly, this paper evaluates whether trade liberalization and globalization contributed to this aforesaid decline in child labour. Specifically for this purpose we considered membership of countries in trading clubs well renowned as proponents of free trade: the World Trade Organization (WTO) and its predecessor the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT). The paper discusses the role played by trading clubs, labour organizations, rapid economic growth and institutional change in bringing about the decline. We find that GATT or WTO membership irrespective of how we defined membership had no significant effect on the incidence of child labour and its reduction over time. Interestingly however between 1980 and 1999 members of International Programme for the Elimination of Child Labour, was found to reduce child labour by less compared to the non-members. This paper suggests that an effective solution should target the very cause of the problem and not elsewhere. Policies to eradicate child labour should focus directly on women empowerment and not trade liberalization.