By Funmi Komolafe

AS the World Cup in South Africa kicks off tomorrow, the International Labour Organization, ILO, marks the World Day Against Child Labour, June 12.

The organization has also urged players not only to go for goals but also to join the campaign to pull out 215 million children from child labour world wide by 2016.

ILO Director-General, Mr. Juan Somavia, said: “While billions are caught up in the excitement of the football World Cup, some 215 million children are labouring for survival. Education and play are luxuries for them.

“Progress towards ending child labour is slowing down and we are not on course to end its worst forms by 2016. We have to get the momentum going again. Let us draw inspiration from the World Cup and rise to the challenge with the energy, the right strategy and the commitment it takes to get to the goal.”

Somavia who said  Nigeria and about 59 other countries were organising activities to draw attention to the negative effects of child labour on the children and the society at large, stressed that government, employers and workers would be involved in these activities.

He listed the activities to include, high level policy debates, football matches and other sporting activities, public debates, media events, awareness-raising campaigns, cultural performances and other public activities, adding that FIFA and ILO were collaborating on the campaign which has been tagged “Red Card campaign against child  labour.”

Global report
on child labour

On June 11, the 99th International Labour Conference is expected to discuss  ILO’s new Global Report on child labour. To mark the World Day, hundreds of school children will participate in a “children’s solidarity event” at the Place des Nations organized by the “Le Respect, ca change la Vie” community association, in cooperation with  ILO. Children and local civic leaders will also gather around a football goal to “go for the goal against child labour” and show the “red card against child labour”.

Worst forms
of child labour

The ILO office in Geneva, Switzerland, said  this year’s Child Labour Day, “comes one month after more than 450 delegates from 80 countries met at a conference in The Hague convened by the Government of The Netherlands to agree on a roadmap to accelerate progress to reach the goal of eliminating the worst forms of child labour by 2016.”
It explained that the Roadmap “sets out a number of guiding principles and identifies action to be taken by governments, social partners (workers and employers), civil society, non-governmental and other civil society, regional and international organizations.”
Agreement on the Roadmap came as the ILO’s third Global Report on child labour warned that the global campaign against the vice was at a critical juncture. The Report showed that global efforts to eliminate the worst forms of child labour were losing momentum, and warned that unless they were stepped up the 2016 target might not be reached.
The target to eliminate the worst forms of child labour, the ILO recalled, was set in 2006 after positive trends contained in the previous Global Report suggested that the elimination of the worst forms of child labour was possible by 2016.
The International Programme for the Elimination of the Worst Forms of Child Labour, IPEC, has been co-ordinating  programmes against child labour.