International standards and domestic compliance: the issue of child labor

• Main Author: Church, Audrey Leigh
• Format: Others
• Published: FIU Digital Commons 2002
• Subjects: International and Area Studies; Other International and Area Studies
• Online Access: http://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/etd/2362

The purpose of this thesis was to address the issue of non-compliance with international child labor standards in the Indian case. In order to do this I took a social constructivist approach to analyzing and explaining human behavior, utilizing methods of process tracing and secondary case study analysis. I first looked at why states ratifY treaties embodying international child labor standards but fail to comply with them. I then evaluated the viability of the popular legal positivist proposal to bring about compliance by linking non-compliance with economic sanctions. My findings demonstrated that the reason for non-compliance is that there are strong norms within the Indian social structure which support the practice of child labor, in direct contrast to the international treaties prohibiting child labor. Thus, I concluded that the linkage of non-compliance and economic sanctions would be ineffective because sanctions would do little to address the cause of the non-compliance.