AMERICA/BRAZIL - The World Cup begins with a "Red Card to Child Labour"

Thursday, 12 June 2014

San Paolo (Agenzia Fides) - Today, June 12, during the opening of the World Cup, when the eyes of the world will be pointed towards the Itaquerão stadium in San Pablo, the global campaign "Red Card to Child Labour" will also be re-launched, sponsored by the International Labour Organization (ILO). Today also the World Day against the exploitation of child labor will be celebrated, mentioned by Pope Francis during the general audience on Wednesday, with an appeal to the international community "to eradicate this scourge of child exploitation".
According to ILO, about 168 million children in the world are victims of child labor, they have no right to child life, they are not allowed to grow up in an environment where they can receive affection, play, go to school. The campaign "Red Card to Child Labour" invites all to fight for the rights of these children.
The last Global Report on child labor, published in 2010 by ILO, notes that almost 141 million children live in Latin America and the Caribbean and of these about 9% suffer the exploitation of child labor (13 million children). The sectors where child workers are employed are: civil construction, mining, textile work, agriculture. The latter is the main industry, because it employs 60% of working children. The rest is distributed in services and industry.
In recent years another worrying phenomenon has appeared: the exploitation of children in illicit activities such as prostitution, pornography and drug trafficking, where victims are forced to carry out humiliating activities and at high risk, with irreparable damage to the child's physical and psychological integrity.
In the Brazilian state of Ceará, the Ministry of Public Works (MPT), together with other institutions, have given life to the campaign "Together against Child Labour", proposed by the Forum for the Prevention and Elimination of Child Labour (FNPETI) with the support of the ILO. All municipalities have been asked to join the campaign where 100 thousand pamphlets, 100 thousand leaflets of the World Cup and between 10 thousand posters and placards posted in the streets have been printed.
Brazil has pledged to eliminate the worst forms of child labor, including domestic work, by the year 2016. According to a survey conducted by the MPT in the state of Ceará, Fortaleza metropolitan area had the highest rate in 2011 of working children between 10 and 14 years of age, out of nine regions monitored in the country more than 10 thousand children subjected to child labor were found. (CE) (Agenzia Fides 12/06/2014)


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