UN agencies urge greater action to eliminate child labour by 2016

(June 14, 2010) With global efforts to end child labour showing mixed results, United Nations agencies are urging greater action to achieve the goal of eliminating the scourge by 2016. The latest report by the International Labour Organization (ILO) says that if current trends continue, the 2016 target will not be reached and a renewed push to end child labour is urgently needed. As millions of people around the world focus their attention on the football World Cup that kicked off on June 11 in South Africa, ILO made an urgent appeal to “go for the goal and end child labour,” referring to the theme for this year's World Day against Child Labour. “Across cultures and continents children will be joining in the anticipation and excitement of this global event, it will be dominating their play time and leisure time at home, in schoolyards and on the streets,” ILO Director-General Juan Somavia noted in his message for the Day, observed annually on 12 June. “But for some 215 million child labourers – most in hazardous work – who labour long and hard instead of learning and playing, the World Cup is a world away,” he pointed out. ILO's new estimates on child labour, released last month, present a mixed picture suggesting some progress, but also with cause for concern, according to Somavia. On the positive side, among children aged 5-14, child labour has fallen by 10 per cent. The number of children in the same age range in hazardous work fell by 31 per cent, and there has been a 15 per cent decrease in the number of girls in child labour. The situation is particularly worrying in sub-Saharan Africa where the estimates show an increase over the last four years.