Constructing a Core Labour Standard: The ILO, Child Labour, and the Conventions of 1973 and 1999

Child labour remains one of the most worrying realities of our time. Its persistence is surprising not only because of its scale, but also because it has resisted more than two centuries of national, regional and international initiatives aimed at abolishing it. The reasons why these efforts have been unsuccessful remain less clear than the literature often suggests. Many hypotheses have been put forward – on the “European heritage” of current standards, on the nature of “Western interests”, on the limitations of the ILO's approach – but little has been studied systematically. This thesis seeks to fill these gaps by reconstructing the historical evolution of international action against child labour, with a particular focus on the ILO. It examines whether a specifically European heritage has influenced the evolution of standards and identifies both the state and non-state actors and interests that have shaped them. Furthermore, it re-evaluates the ILO framework, including the most contested and often under-analysed Minimum Age Convention of 1973 (C138). To achieve these goals, the analysis is conducted chronologically in three chapters. The first traces the origins of child labour regulation from the late 18th century to the early ILO initiatives, showing how national models and interests have been integrated into international standards. The second explores the debates and negotiations that led to the adoption of Convention No. 138, highlighting the power asymmetries and conflicting priorities that determined its final form. The third assesses the transition in global labour regulation from 1973 to 1999, using Convention No. 138 as an interpretative lens to re-examine this already widely studied period. The research is based on extensive archival work in the ILO archives in Geneva (HAILO), the historical archives of the European Union, the UNICEF archives in Florence and the International Institute of Social History in Amsterdam (IISH). To overcome access restrictions, it also draws on unofficial sources, grey material and secondary literature. It also includes material from the personal archive of Professor Maria Teresa Tagliaventi and a semi-structured interview with Kari Tapiola, former executive director of the ILO and special adviser to the director-general. By placing child labour standards in their broader historical and institutional context, this thesis contributes to a more nuanced understanding of how international labour standards are created, contested and transformed, and provides a basis for future research and more effective policies against child labour.