ABSTRACT. Increasing attention to the issue of child labor has been reflected in codes of conduct that emerged in the past decade in particular. This paper examines the way in which multinationals, business associations, governmental and non-governmental organizations deal with child labor in their codes. With a standardized framework, it analyzes 55 codes drawn up by these different actors to influence firms’ external, societal behavior. The exploratory study helps to identify the main issues related to child labor and the use of voluntary instruments such as codes of conduct. Apart from a specific indication of the topics covered by the code, especially minimum-age requirements, this also includes monitoring systems and monitoring parties. Most important to company codes are the sanctions imposed on business partners in case of non-compliance. Severe measures may be counterproductive as they do not change the under- lying causes of child labor and can worsen the situation of the child workers by driving them to more hazardous work in the informal sector. This underlines the importance of a broad rather than a restrictive approach to child labor in codes of conduct. The paper discusses the implications of this study, offering suggestions for future research. KEY WORDS: business associations, child labor, codes of conduct, international organizations, multi- national enterprises, non-governmental organizations ABBREVIATIONS: BSG – Business Support Group; ILO – International Labor Organization; IO – International (governmental) Organization; MNE – Multinational Enterprise; NGO – Non-governmental Organization; OECD – Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development; UNICEF – United Nations Children’s Fund Introduction Since the early 20th century, the issue of child labor has been the subject of widespread regula- tory and societal attention. After several indus- trialized countries had adopted laws that limited the minimum working age of children and their working conditions, international organizations were requested to advance similar measures worldwide. The main vehicle of these interna- tional attempts has been the International Labor Organization, created in 1919 with the abolish- ment of child labor as one of its fundamental objectives. This was reflected in the adoption of the Minimum Age Convention (No. 5) in the same year. In the course of the century, several other international initiatives have been taken to protect children, particularly the 1924 Declaration of Geneva, the creation of UNICEF (1946), ILO’s 1973 minimum age convention (No. 146), the 1989 UN Declaration on the Rights of the Child and, most recently, the 1999 ILO Convention to combat the worst forms of child labor (No. 182). These different initiatives aimed to regulate children’s working conditions in the traditional sense: governments, both Child Labor and Multinational Conduct: A Comparison of International Business and Ans Kolk Stakeholder Codes Rob van Tulder Journal of Business Ethics 36: 291–301, 2002. © 2002 Kluwer Academic Publishers. Printed in the Netherlands. Ans Kolk is associate professor in sustainable management at the University of Amsterdam, Department of Accountancy and Information Management. Rob van Tulder is professor in business studies at the Erasmus University, Department of Business-Society Management.