I'm a great believer in the overall ILO agenda of decent work. Whether there's any chance of these protocols being really effective in addressing the problem of child labour, I'm rather doubtful. The studies that we have of child labour—I'm thinking more of ethnographic studies that have been conducted—I'm sure there are such strong incentives for kids themselves, never mind for their parents, to be getting into work. So long as the whole structure of the economy isn't transformed, I think that those incentives for kids, as well as for their parents, are going to remain very powerful. I'm sorry, it's rather a depressing kind of answer, but that's what I think.
On February 27th, 2013. See this statement in context.