January 14, 2000

Child Labor Is Indefensible

To the Editor:

Karen A. Porter's provocative essay was a harsh but relatively familiar cultural-relativist critique of human rights ("An Anthropological Defense of Child Labor," Opinion, November 19). Here is not the place for a detailed response to Porter's various points, but her piece does require a brief rejoinder.

Porter argues that the Convention on the Rights of the Child does not recognize the non-Western cultural norm of children working with

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