Reconsidering Child Labour as a Psycho-Social Dynamic and Form of Child Rights Violation

Abstract The issue of child labour is widely researched and debated, and is well addressed in different laws, policies and forums of governments; yet child labour remains intractable in both developed and developing countries. This intractability is often explained differently, such that international child rights conventions often attribute child labour to a lack of protection for children against harmful work, while econometric studies typically blame household poverty as the factor driving families to expose their children to work that harms their sound growth and development and right to education. There are also socio-cultural debates in which child labour is correlated with normative practices that are unable to separate harmful from non-harmful child work. Focusing on Ghana’s small-scale fisheries, this article draws on the socio-cultural debates as it observes stronger ties between child labour and normative constructions of childhood. The paper concludes with reflections on both debates and research and policy considerations.