05-08-06,9:25am

Global unions - including UNI and the ICFTU - have welcomed a new report from the International Labour Organisation that shows a significant decline in child labour, especially in its worst forms. A new ILO report shows an 11% decline in child labour worldwide and - in an upbeat assessment - the UN agency says it believes the worst forms of child labour can be eliminated within ten years. The ILO makes a new appeal to its partners - governments, employers and unions - for greater national efforts to make child labour history. Meeting the UN Millennium goals by 2015 to reduce global poverty will further help to eradicate child labour, says the report. 'The end of child labour is within our reach,' ILO Director General Juan Somavia told the media. 'Though the fight against child labour remains a daunting challenge, we are on the right track. We can end the worst forms in a decade, while not losing sight of the ultimate goal of ending all child labour.' The number of child labourers has fallen from 246 million to 218 million between 2000 (when the ILO issued its first comprehensive report on child labour) and 2004. The ILO's report - 'The end of child labour: within reach' - also shows that the number of children and young people aged 15 to 17 who are trapped in hazardous work has decreased by 26% (down from 171 million to 126 million). Among younger child labourers aged 5-14 the drop was even sharper - a 33% decline. The ILO report identifies a 'worldwide movement against child labour' and attributes progress to increased political will and awareness - backed up by practical action to reduce poverty and provide mass education.

UNI-Africa Youth is urging affiliates to take part in programmes to remove child labour - and to support the 12 June events on the World Day Against Child Labour. At its world conference UNI Youth put the focus on the elimination of child labour and HIV/AIDS and backed the global campaign for 'Education for all' by 2015. 'Just like the ILO, we recognise that more can and should be done,' said the ICFTU's Guy Ryder. 'At the same time the international trade union movement is proud to have been one of the main players in the struggle to eliminate child labour, as the report rightly recognises.'

The ILO's own International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour (IPEC) assists in national efforts to deal with child labour and provides policy advice. IPEC has also reached some five million children through direct action. These initiatives, says the ILO, 'have played a significant catalytic role, both in mobilising action and demonstrating how child labour can be eliminated'. The impact of HIV/AIDS on child labour is a challenge acknowledged by the report.

Regionally the most rapid declines in child labour have been in Latin America and the Caribbean. The report spotlights Brazil where the activity rate among 5-9 year olds is down 61% and among 10-17 year olds by 36%. Child labouring rates are also in decline in Mexico - half of Latin America's children live in Mexico and Brazil. Asia Pacific still has the largest number of child workers in the 5-14 age group - 122 million - estimates the report. But there has been a significant decline. In sub-Saharan Africa the problem is still grim - made worse by grinding poverty, high population growth and an HIV/AIDS epidemic that has made many young people the only breadwinners in their family. The region has the highest proportion of working children - 50 million youngsters (26% of the child population). But the ILO highlights a 38% increase in primary school enrolments in the region between 1990 and 2000 and moves to put the plight of the continent at the centre of the global agenda.

'In this 21st century, no child should be brutalised by exploitation or be placed in hazardous work, ' said Mr Somavia. 'No child should be denied access to education. No child should have to slave for his or her survival. Let's keep up the momentum. Let's resolve to keep investing in the struggle for the right of all children to their childhood.'