Africa child labour red-carded
2002-06-21 13:31
Dakar - In line with the World Cup soccer fever, red cards are being handed out all over Africa.
The aim of the cards is not to market the World Cup Soccer tournament, but to put an end to child labour.
The World Labour Organisation (WLO) saw an opportunity to further its campaign against child labour by using the intense interest in soccer running high on the continent at the moment.
The WLO's "red-card campaign" was launched during the African Cup soccer tournament in Mali, earlier this year.
Thousands of red cards, similar to those handed out to players falling foul of the rules on the field, have been distributed from the organisation's offices in Senegal and elsewhere in Africa. The cards have pictures of child labourers on the back.
The WLO's message is also broadcast during World Cup games. "We are getting a lot of reaction, precisely because soccer grabs people's attention," said Fatou Kene'Ndiaye Sall, head of the Senegalese programme for the abolition of child labour, said.
Wages war against slavery
According to WLO estimates, about 250 million children between the ages of 5 and 14 are forced into the labour market worldwide - 80 million of these in Africa.
So far, 30 African states have placed the international convention against child labour in their law books. The WLO hopes that more countries will follow.
The organisation especially focuses on banning child labour in dangerous environments such as mines, factories and plantations. It also fights a war against slavery and the trade in children.
In West Africa, child labour is widespread and virtually an everyday occurrence. In the informal goldmines of Burkina Faso and Mali, on coffee and cocoa plantations in the Ivory Coast and in the armed conflicts in Liberia and Sierra Leone, children are still forced against their will to work and fight wars.