The children's right to development: contextualising children's right to development in developing countries under economic globalisation. Case study on child labour in Cambodia's export-oriented garment industry

Abstract

With this thesis we aim to provide an analysis of the opportunities that the Right to Development offers to children’s development. The Right to Development was implemented in 1986 as a proposal to enhance individuals’ self-realisation and bring remedies to the injustices of economic globalisation. The traditional interpretation of this Right has neglected the particularities of children and hence, its potential to either benefit or damage their development has not extensively been examined. Therefore, this study hopes to provide a useful contribution to raise awareness of how adapting the features of this Right towards children could improve their development. It gives a special look to children in emerging countries because of the historical disadvantage in their development, which increases the potential of the Right. This thesis also insists on the need to focus on the specific child under study and to take into account the circumstances that shape his or her development, because of the harm the Right could produce if interpreted wrong. This study evaluates the phenomenon of child labour in the garment industry of Cambodia to prove the efficiency of the approach .