Press Release
Friday 13 December 2002
( ILO/02/54 )
MADRID (ILO News) - The Real Madrid football club and the
International Labour Organization (ILO) are teaming up to raise a
"Red card" to the child labour in its worst forms - a practice that
traps one of every eight children - or some 180 million worldwide -
in exploitative, often dangerous work.
Real Madrid and the ILO will bring the "Red Card to Child Labour[6]"
campaign to Madrid's Santiago Bernabe'u Stadium on 18 December - World
Football Day - when the football team marks its centennial
anniversary with a match against a world selection team.
In a pre-game ceremony at 9.30 p.m, football players will enter the
stadium accompanied by 22 children wearing T shirts with the logo of
the Campaign and raise special red cards to demonstrate support for
the campaign to end child labour.
A 30-second ILO video on child labour will be shown on the stadium's
giant television screen at the beginning of the ceremony. Antena 3 TV
will broadcast the campaign spot at half time of the match. As the
only official match to be played in the world on that day, the match
is expected to receive a large television viewership and extensive
media coverage worldwide.
At a public ceremony in the Santiago Bernabe'u Stadium at 12.30 a.m.
on the eve of the match, Kari Tapiola, ILO Executive Director and
Florentino Pe'rez Rodri'guez, the President of Real Madrid, will sign
an agreement of mutual collaboration on the Red Card campaign. The
agreement has been facilitated by the International Organisation of
Employers (IOE) and the Spanish Employers' Confederation (CEOE).
Representatives of the Spanish government and the social partners,
including Eduardo Zaplana, Minister of Labour and Social Affairs,
Miguel Angel Corte's, Secretary of State for International Cooperation
and Latin America, Jose' Mari'a Cuevas, President of CEOE, Ca'ndido
Me'ndez, secretary general of the trade union confederation UGT, Jose'
Mari'a Fidalgo, secretary general of the trade union confederation
CC.OO., Antonio Pen~alosa, General Secretary of IOE and Joseph S.
Blatter, President of FIFA, will witness the ceremony.
About the campaign
The Red Card to Child Labour campaign was launched on 18th January
2002 in Bamako, Mali, at a ceremony chaired by Mali's Prime Minister
and Minister of Integration. During the ceremony, ILO and the African
Confederation of Football (CAF) signed a Cooperation agreement.
The next important phases of the campaign will be the FIFA World
Youth Championship (U-20) in the United Arab Emirates (March/April
2003), the FIFA Women's World Cup in China (September/October 2003),
the 2004 Copa America in Peru and the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany.
Facts and figures about child labour
According to the ILO, about 246 million children worldwide are
involved in child labour. This represents six times the population of
Spain or one out of every six children in the world. Here are some
key facts and figures on child labour:
* Nearly three quarters of child labourers, about 180 million
children, are exposed to the worst forms of child labour that is,
work that is hazardous for children or for which they are too
young. That equals one out of every eight children around the
world.
* An estimated 8.4 million children are trapped in the most
abhorrent forms of child labour such as slavery, trafficking,
debt bondage, prostitution, pornography and other illicit
activities. These forms are by their nature totally unacceptable
for children under any circumstances and should be outlawed
immediately.
* Most children work on farms and plantations. Some 70 per cent are
in agriculture, commercial hunting and fishing or forestry. Most
of the remaining 30 per cent are in manufacturing, wholesale and
retail trades, tourism, and domestic work.
* Working children are divided almost equally between boys and
girls, with boys making up a slight majority. Among children
engaged in hazardous work, boys hold a majority of 55 per cent.
* The largest number - 127 million - of working children age 14 and
under are in the Asia-Pacific region.
* The highest proportion of working children is in Sub-Saharan
Africa, where nearly one third of children age 14 and under (48
million children) are in the labour force.
* 73 million working children worldwide are under 10 years of age.
* Child labour continues to be a global phenomenon - no country or
region is immune. There are 2.5 million working children in the
developed economies, where about two per cent of children age 14
and under are in the labour force. Another 2.5 million work in
the transition economies like the former Soviet states, where
about four per cent of the children are working.
A wide range of crises - including natural disasters, sharp economic
downturns, the HIV/AIDS pandemic and armed conflicts - increasingly
draws the young into debilitating child labour. Child labour is
linked with many factors such as poverty, adult unemployment and lack
of local educational opportunities. These problems must be addressed
comprehensively. More working parents means fewer working children.
So, the equation is simple: "parents to work, children to school".
National and regional programmes against child labour have flourished
under the ILO International Programme for the Elimination of Child
Labour (IPEC)[7], which began with six participating countries in
1992 with a single donor government (Germany) and has expanded to
include operations in 75 countries funded by 26 donors. Spain is a
major donor and supports ILO-IPEC activities, particularly in Latin
America. In 2001, the ILO launched its first Time-Bound Programmes
aimed at eliminating the worst forms of child labour in specific
countries within 5 to 10 years. The first programmes are aimed at
helping some 100,000 children in El Salvador, Nepal and Tanzania.
For further information, please contact the Department of
Communication (DCOMM)
at Tel: +41.22.799.7912, Fax: +41.22.799.8577 or E-mail:
communication@ilo.org
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