He came out with some statistics about child labour in Africa. African`s Child labour RED CARD TO CHILD LABOUR

Today, all across Africa, millions of children are going to work instead of school. <p>They work on farms and plantations, in mines and quarries, in factories, in shops and as servants in homes. Some have been sold and trafficked into slave-like conditions. Others are forced into a living nightmare of prostitution or armed conflicts.

Robbed of their chance for an education - for a better life - virtually all of Africa's child labourers are condemned to lifelong poverty. It is a blight on Africa's present and a mortgage on Africa's future.

Many of the football players who have gathered in Mali for the Cup of Nations tournament have overcome similar circumstances of severe poverty to become the champions they are today. We salute them.

In this spirit of inspiration and hope, the International Labour Organization is launching the "Red Card to Child Labour" campaign in partnership with CAF and COCAN. During the three weeks of the tournament, billions of people in Africa and throughout the world will hear a message that the worst forms of child labour must be eradicated, as a matter of urgency.

THE CAMPAIGN

Football is the world's most popular sport. It galvanizes people throughout the world. For young people, in particular, it offers excitement and inspiration.

This campaign aims to seize the opportunity offered by the African Cup of Nations 2002 to make the public aware of the harsh reality of child labour and to encourage people to support the global movement against child labour.

This initiative, which starts in Africa, will progressively extend to Latin America, Asia and Europe. Because of the huge attention paid to major football tournaments. the ILO plans to build partnerships around these events because of the unique opportunity they offer to reach unprecedented numbers of people throughout the world with a simple message: "Red Card to Child Labour".

The ultimate event in this campaign hopefully will be to celebrate the universal ratification of the convention against the worst forms of child labour at the World Cup football tournament in 2006.

THE ILO AND THE GLOBAL MOVEMENT AGAINST CHILD LABOUR

Throughout the world, 250 million children between 5 and 14 years of age are victims of child labour. 80 million of these are in Africa.

In cooperation with hundreds of partner organizations around the world, the ILO, via its International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour (IPEC), is active in 75 countries, removing children from abusive child labour, providing them with rehabiliation and education and providing their families with income-generating alternatives.

At the same time, IPEC is campaigning globally to raise awareness about child labour and to persuade governments to adopt international legal standards that commit countries to immediately ban the "worst form" of child labour. In less than three years, more than 100 governments have ratified this international convention on the worst forms of child labour, including more than 30 in Africa.

The political will clearly exists and the world is uniting to declare the worst forms of child labour must end: The employment of children in hazardous work in mines, factories, plantations and other places which, by their very nature, are likely to cause serious risks to their health and safety.

All forms of slavery and practices similar to slavery, such as the sale and trafficking of children, forced or compulsory labour, debt bondage and serfdom; The use of children in illicit activities such as prostitution, pornography and drug trafficking, the use of children in armed conflict. Neither the level of development of a country, nor its cultural or moral values, nor its history, can justify the continuation of the worst forms of child labour.

WHY START WITH AFRICA?

In many ways, Africa has taken the lead in the struggle against the worst forms of child labour. Africa was the first continent to make a political decision at the Head-of-state level to promote the ratification of the new International convention against abusive child labour (in Algeria in 1999).

The first two countries to ratify the new convention were African (Seychelles, Malawi). In total, more then 30 African countries have ratified this important international agreement.
According to ILO estimates, Africa remains the continent suffering the most from the scourage of child labour.

Amr Ahmed Mohammed