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This brief presents some of Uganda’s child protection laws and then outlines the good work that the Platform for Labour Action (PLA) does for child domestic workers in the country. The law that deals with employment in Uganda regards work in public places, but child domestic work occurs in an environment that is considered private. This complication notwithstanding, organisations have fought for the rights of child domestic workers.  Legal frameworks that protect children’s rights are critical to understanding the matter at hand.  Uganda has enacted several laws to protect children’s rights and these are most often used to fight for the rights of children who are abused as domestic workers.

The April 2010 British Petroleum (BP) oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico has caused global outrage, eliciting quick political, financial, legal and environmental action and visible results. The ruptured oil well has been sealed. Tony Hayward, BP’s chief executive has been replaced and a massive clean-up effort has ensured that environmental damages have been kept to a minimum. From the perspective of marginalised states, the BP oil spill has elicited cries of double standards in the oil industry. Indeed, the BP oil spill seems less significant in comparison to the over 2,400 oil spills involving foreign oil companies in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria in the last four years. This discussion paper questions the existence of global double standards in the oil industry. It reflects on the effects of the oil industry of global power relations and marginalisation in light of the contention