Many non-governmental organisations all over the world concerned with children have paid attention to child labour in recent years. This is manifested, for instance, in the Global March earlier this year. The March led to Geneva where the newly proposed convention on extreme forms of child labour stood high on the agenda of the ILO annual meeting. Because of this broad public attention child labour is consequently being addressed more and more frequently by companies and governments.
Most countries have laws forbidding or restricting child labour.
At the international level, various treaties and conventions refering to the protection of children, have been adopted. Companies react by producing codes of conduct that include clauses regarding the use of child labour. Because child labour is a highly emotive issue and because companies are very sensitive about their public image, tackling child labour is often the first step of companies to indicate their readyness to take responsibility for the working conditions under which their products are made. Results of initial programmes for the elimination of child labour were often disastrous. In the experience of Bangladesh, it is clearly visible that a one-sided approach, i.e. a ban on child labour, does more harm than good.