This review examines refractions of children's rights in development practice from an anthropological point of view and considers the case of young domestic girls working in Abidjan. The author argues that child labour legislation and the children's rights perspective in Abidjan is permeated by patriarchal values that mask the exploitation of work performed in the domestic arena under the cover of (pseudo) kinship ties. The author contends that development programmes that target young domestic servants in a children's rights-framed approach risk obscuring situations where children are put to work and actually exploited. (Contains 14 notes and 1 table.)