Mohammed Shafiq Hanif - 100134260Assignment 2 Matune SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT AND INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS LAW(6LA523)

Word count - 2582

ContentsExecutive summery3The facts4Discussion5The leadership5What the problem is5Why it happens5Solutions to the problem6Child labour7What the problem is7Why it happens7Solutions to the problem8Forced labour9What the problem is9Why it happens9Solutions to the problem10Environment regulations11What the problem is11Why it happens11Solutions to the problem11Conclusion11References12

Executive summery This assignment will address four issues prevalent within Matune; corruption child labour forced labour environment issues These issues have been highlighted by the Mantune government as problems halting the economic and social development of Matune and have requested and analysis of these with recommendations. Some of the recommendations are as follows; write laws into constitution ask aid from international organizations hire third parties to take part to encourage transparency and to negate corruption

The facts The intention of this report is to create awareness and knowledge for the problems afflicting Matune and to provide alternative means of sustainable development to compliment and to ensure new laws and legislation and are acted upon and not ignored. Matune is a sovereign country in the north east of Africa and has had it democracy and sovereignty for ten years since its general election in 2001; being in its infancy there are no surprises there are issues with the implementation of regulations and poor economic growth. Matune has a history fraught with problems which have halted its development as it was left with poor leadership, from colonial rule from 1800s to civil war within the 1900 Matune was never really had stable leadership to be able to develop its economy. Now that these problems have seemingly subsided Matune wishes to attract foreign investors to help on the long road out of the developing world. A 90% poverty and high crime rate from 2001 to the current date are given as the reason for the halted the development of infrastructure such as schools, hospitals and roads. Along with these issues, today the main problems are child labour, the forced labour of women and the infrastructure facilitating this. And also their unenforced environment regulations are fast becoming a growing issue.

DiscussionThe leadership What the problem is Matune has had weak leadership for a very long time and nothing has really changed, this is evident in their economic standing today, now that the government wants to force change there are many issues surrounding this. This is that due to a poor social infrastructure, vast poverty and no consideration for other people, this has lead to a poor business culture and no confidence for the government. This business culture encourages child labour, ignores environment legislation and enforces the trafficking of women for the use of forced labour. This has lead to the acceptance of these types of values, attitudes and actions within business; and they are accepted within Matune and seen as insignificant. This has a negative effect on sustainability as businesses keep doing the minimum or the illegal with regard to labour and environment and this is not acceptable on the international markets as it would give them an unfair competitive edge.

Why it happens Transparency International (2015) states that 80% of people within Africa live on less than 2 US dollars a day, stating the reason for this being corruption. Poverty might also be the reason for Matunes political corruption, the poverty rate of 90% might be the driving factor for the theft of regeneration money and lack of transparency. The European (2015) published an article stating four reasons for political corruption; the first being a politicians own aspirations of being within the rich and elite communities, but the civil service doesnt pay very well. The politicians would align themselves with certain circles and get laws and legislation enforced on their behalf to help achieve their aspirations. The second being the lifestyle and obligations of a politician; they are expected to be almost in human, travel often and be away from their friends and family. The monetary gain from the amount of work they do is not worth their time so they seek other means of getting of prosperity. The third is demonization of politics within media; this stops any neutral discussions and is just pointing the blame. The forth is transition to a consumer democracy from a post democracy. The European (2015) blames the hedonistic middle class voters for not taking part in difficult discussions which has lead to the watering down of political debate. Transparency International (2015) also points out that there is a link between electoral campaign expense and political corruption. This means in order to raise the funds to win elections, politicians and parties do favours for contributions for the donators. Solutions to the problem In Reinert (2008) book he eludes that rich countries got where they are today by government intervention, protectionism and strategic investment rather than free trade. Countries like Britain and the USA have built their domestic industries and social infrastructure whilst their economies where protected by legalisation and high import taxes; and they exported their goods across the world but now they encourage free trade to the leaders of developing countries. The first steps the leaders of Matune have to take are to adopt a protectionist way of thinking to enable the growth and protection of the industries operating within Matune and to almost mimic the ways developed countries gained success. Matune should also appoint independent regulators who have access to government records and data to ensure they are being transparent, this regulator would need legislation put in place to give it power and the parameters it would operate under. Also they should implement strict laws when concerning corruption, ranging from treason to being banned from politics altogether and maybe developed countries could back this by offering aid or incentives as long as the government remains transparent.

Child labour What the problem isAnother of the issues affecting Matune is child labour; countries in Africa have the worst and highest rates of child labour. Child labour negatively affects a childs physical and mental development, deprives them of a childhood and keeps the negative slavery cycle going on to further generations due to lack of education. The International Labour Organization (ILO) (2009) defines child labour as being mentally, physically, socially or morally dangerous and harmful to children and interferes with their schooling by: depriving them of schooling making them leave school early making them combine school attendance with excessively long and heavy workThe ILO (2009) also adds that extreme forums of child labour involve slavery, separation from families, exposure to hazards and illnesses and to leave a child to fend for themselves in big cities. They also estimate that 41% aged 5 to 14 are participating in economic activity of some sort, this is 11% more than Asia which has the second highest levels of child labour. Why it happens Child labour can happen for a number of reasons, the most common one shown in western media is African child soldiers but there are many other reasons why this happens. The biggest factor concerning child labour in Matune is probably poverty and poor government legislation. A child working can be vital to a familys survival due to reasons such as economic, natural or agricultural crisis or having to work to support family members due to parents falling ill with a serious disease. Basu (2003) states that in countries with high child labour rates have the least basic education and it is not available for all children due to their location. In impoverished nations many children are in remote rural areas so they dont have access to schooling, even if they did the access to schools might not be free or they might have hidden charges such as stationary, books and uniforms etc. Basu (2003) states further that the quality of the education is so low that parents dont see any value in sending their children anyway. This regurgitates the cycle of poverty and traps whole families for generations and also in many culture girls are not expected to work, so their parents dont see the value of educating them; or children are expected to take over the family business so it is beneficial for them to start early. Another reason why child labour happens is that there might be exemption within law; for example in Kenya the minimum age of work is 16 but excludes agriculture and in Bangladesh the minimum age but has no set regulations. The newest push factor to child labour is the global economy; employers may aggressively hire children due to it being cheaper than hiring adults and that they are easier to manage. This is in effort to drive down costs and keep the global companies satisfied with low cost manufacturing and under free trade rules it might be impossible to impose considerations to child and forced labour. Solutions to the problem The elimination of child labour will be the start of breaking the intergenerational cycles of poverty; this can be done by make child labour unnecessary for family security by providing economic, social and political security which is enforced by heavy punishments such as jail or confiscation of business for repeat offenders. Mantune should get rid of child labour by outlawing child labour any form until the age of sixteen, they should provide child benefit as a means of security for families and put child labour policies such as Convention No.138 on the Minimum Age for Admission to Employment, 1973 and Convention No/182 on the Worst Forms of Child Labour, 1999 into their constitution (United Nations, 2014).Some other regulations Matune can do is put a clause in the contract of sale stating all people trading with Matune must pay some sort of tax or extra money as a concession which contributes to fund childrens protection via free schooling and benefits. Also Matune should open up free schools and make sure children attend and Matune should be given aid for this if they cant afford it.

Forced labour What the problem isThe ILO defines forced labour as all work or service that is exacted from any persons under the menace of any penalty and for which the said person has not offered himself voluntarily. Forced labour is similar to child labour but the percentage of adults that are forced to work are higher than the percentage of children, In Matune case the majority of the forced labour comes from women. Anti Slavery (2015) estimate that Africa has an 18% forced labour rate which equates to 3.7 million adults, such forced labour includes labour intensive and under regulated industries such as; fishing farming and agriculture domestic work construction and brick kiln work mining and quarrying manufacturing illegal activities, market trading, prostitution and sexual exploitation Aiding to this problem is the infrastructure facilitation the forced labour of women, these women come from somewhere unwillingly and no one is punished even though it is common knowledge that these people are being exploited; also it is important to note that forced labour is very similar to slavery and in many cases people are not even paid for the labour they have done. Why it happens Forced labour mostly happens to cut costs and to gain more money, this has push and pull factors; people who occupy themselves to gather forced laborers find the most venerable people of societies where laws are rarely enforced to corruption or location. The push factors come from venerable people trying to make a better life for themselves, the people the most at risk are; people suffering from poverty; absolute or relative lack of employment or job opportunities poor education and life skills poor family structures and dysfunctional family situations racism and discriminatory actions such as unequal pay etc The pull factors come into play when there is a shortage of labour including; employers directly demand cheap and easily exploitable labour to improve their competitive advantage and profits and consumers indirectly demand cheap goods and services which include cheap domestic services and affordable sexual activitiesSolutions to the problem Forced labour will be a difficult thing to combat as the issues within Matune are just scratching the surface, the ILO (2009) state the biggest driver of forced labour is the global economy and the push and pull factors that drive people to seek out better prospects and other to take advantage of other people human rights. Matune needs to create a positive work environment where people dont want or need to travel to far off and out the way areas to find work, they should employ a third party workers union to actively monitor workers situations and to prosecute people who breach new regulations such as a minimum wage, no forced labour and safe working conditions. If these conditions are not met the business that has breached them should be closed down and repeat offenders should have their business taken away and it should be given as a social business to the employees. This is a sure fire way to get rid of forced labour, if the employees own everything there will be no problems, also cases of slavery or forced labour without pay should be treated as treason and should carry a death penalty. Another method can be that Mantune charge less tax to companies who dont use forced labour in efforts to keep them competitive with businesses that do, also there should be payments to companies who are compliant are protected to make sure they dont go out of business. Matune could also implement the Forced Labour Conventions, 1939 and put this in as a clause within the contract of sale and any company not compliant is in breach and can be sued etc in international court.

Environment regulations What the problem isThe problem is that businesses within Matune dont care for the environment and pollute to their hearts content, this isnt surprising that this is happening in a developing country as they have making profits as their number one priority and the government has in this case child and forced labour to worry about which are bigger issues. Why it happens Matune is a developing nation and does not regulate the damage it does to the environment; this is due to an insufficient capability to enforce these laws. These laws are unfair as the developing world didnt have to abide by these laws and in the case with the USA still does not abide by them. Also this issue can arise due to the cost of improving operations to meet environment regulations or corruption in which people will take the money intended for improvements for themselves.(United Nations Environment Programme, 2015)Solutions to the problem Normally these regulations are forced on developing countries by bigger and stronger nations, Matune should request money in return for meeting environment legislation due to losing their competitive advantage on the global marketplace. Also the biggest and most successful polluters within Matune should be money in the form of cheap long term loans or free money to improve their organizations emissions.

Conclusion Matunes future is entirely dependent on the government, and how corrupt it is willing to be. To avoid this they need to make politics a transparent place where the majority of the information is checked by a third party and where the employees dont feel the need to partake in corruption or are so scared of the laws they dont do it. In regard to the forced labour of children and women, these issues can only be combated by increased international reforms and by the developed world actively putting a stop to it. In many cases the employers that use forced labour will just over their operations somewhere else and nothing gets done. The environmental issues are going to be the most difficult to tackle as the developing countries spewed out toxins while they were going through their industrial revolutions and now actively shun and force developing countries to pay up; this being said Matune should request free finance and management of these issues, in other words wash their hands of it and let a developed country take charge of the matter.

References Anti Slavery . 2015. Forced Labour. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.antislavery.org/english/slavery_today/forced_labour/default.aspx. [Accessed 14 May 15].Basu, K. (2003). Social Sciences . The Global Child Labor Problem: What Do We Know and What Can We Do?. 17 (2), 147-173International Labour Organisation. 2009. Child labour in Africa. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.ilo.org/ipec/Regionsandcountries/Africa/lang--en/index.htm. [Accessed 27 April 15].Reinert, E (2008). How Rich Countries Got Rich and Why Poor Countries Stay Poor. New York: Public Affairs. 5-8.The European. 2015. The Gratification Business. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.theeuropean-magazine.com/thomas-kliche--2/6299-five-reasons-for-political-corruption. [Accessed 27 April 15].Transparency International . 2015. Poverty and corruption in Africa. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.transparency.org/whatwedo/activity/poverty_and_corruption_in_africa. [Accessed 27 April 15].United Nations . 2014. Child Labour. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.un.org/en/globalissues/briefingpapers/childlabour/intlconvs.shtml. [Accessed 14 May 15].United Nations Environment Programme. 2015. Progressive Development of Environmental Law . [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.unep.org/delc/ProgressiveDevelopment/tabid/78545/Default.aspx. [Accessed 14 May 15].