Mr. President, Delegates, Dear Friends

Today, 180 million children went to work in the worst forms of child labour, in dangerous or hazardous work, risking permanent damage to themselves and even death.

More than eight million of those children are victims of modern slavery and of sexual exploitation; they are used and abused in illicit activities and in war. These are far from being the most widespread forms of child labour. But they constitute a particularly vicious exploitation of their childhood.

Another 66 million children who went to work today were simply too young to be working even though they were not in the worst forms of work.

Altogether, some 246 million children went to work today. While we have been meeting here, even as we pursued our discussions deciding what to do for children through a Declaration - 246 million children were working and were not in school.

The ILO has now compiled the most comprehensive report ever on child labour. It was launched earlier this week and sheds new light on these millions of child labourers who, dispersed and powerless, had long remained invisible. Imagine 246 million; imagine a whole population nearly the size of the United States remaining unseen and unheard simply because they are dispersed throughout the world!

Clearly, the report signals a massive problem. But it also speaks of progress. We have gone from denial to acknowledgment, to awareness.

Governments and societies have acknowledged the problem. Parliamentarians, employers' and workers' organizations, NGOs and others are also taking up the fight. Citizens, consumers, school children, college students want to act. Communities are waking up. Many people want to do something about it. The ILO's own work on child labour - research, standard setting, advocacy and technical assistance - has seen a major expansion. We are now working with 75 countries and Convention No. 182 on the Worst Forms of Child Labour has been ratified by around 120 countries in less than three years. And we have partnered with UNICEF, with Carol Bellamy and her teams on these issues. I also want to thank Patricia Durrant for everything that is being done in the context of this Conference.

So we can say that we are off the starting block but far from the finishing line. There is urgency to act now, for now after the ILO report, we know that most child labour occurs in its worst forms.

What do we have to do? First let's attack the root causes. Child labour is not a personal preference. Parents do not want to condemn their children to a life of hardship, to deprive them of a future. They want opportunities for a decent family life. They don't have them today. We need economic policies that can deliver decent work for parents and good education for children. If parents don't have work we will see children going in to work. If we have full employment for parents we will see the work of children diminish.

Second, the fact is that we will not get rid of child labour just through individual development projects and programmes. They are important because they show that it can be done. But stopping child labour starts with moral outrage. It demands personal commitment. It also demands a societal engagement. A society that aims to be free of child labour must have courage and creativity to do so. It must connect its policies and institutions with the security of children, their families and their communities.

Third, an international community that wants a world free of child labour must make it a priority of all international organizations. And I say all international organizations. All policy advice coming from international organizations should be audited with respect to their impact on the worst forms of child labour.

Fourth, such commitments must be founded on integrated family-centred strategies that provide escape routes out of poverty; and safety nets to deal with crises. I believe that the present model of globalization, on the contrary, contributes to weakening family structures through rising levels of uncertainty and insecurity that affect most the weakest.

Let me then repeat, we must build such strategies around getting parents into jobs and children into school. Decent work for parents is one of the best guarantees of security and stability for families, communities and societies. It is a key route out of poverty. We must be prepared to make it an explicit goal of national policies and international cooperation.

Fifth, we can move forward by progressively establishing child-labour free zones; child-labour free enterprises, child-labour free communities, child-labour free cities, child-labour free regions, child-labour free countries. They all come together in the International Labour Organization's Time Bound National Programmes to eliminate the worst forms of child labour within a given period of time to be set by each country. We talk a lot about ownership in the international system. These programmes are about each country deciding from within, how long it wants to take to reduce the worst forms of child labour. It is a national decision. A decision that must be taken by each country and each society. We do not have a single ILO proposal for each country in the world. But we do have the instruments to help countries that would like to move forward on this issue. And consequently, I want to formally invite all countries to agree on such a programme.

They do demand a strong political commitment and national ownership, linking action against child labour to poverty alleviation, to the provision of basic education to children and work and income to parents. It does not refer, of course, to what we in the ILO describe as light work by children. This is work that does not affect their health, integrity or formal education. It is work which occurs in all societies in some way or another.

Finally, countries ready to make this kind of commitment merit support. The international community can provide such support through the policies it shapes and the resources it commits.

If we can all agree on such an approach, I think that our chances of making this world fit for children will be vastly improved. We must never forget that child labour is about adults using and exploiting children for personal profit; that it is adults tolerating the abuse of children. Stopping it is the responsibility of adults. This is the true test of intergenerational solidarity. Let us adults live up to that responsibility.

In finishing let me put what I have just said in the language of soccer as we prepare for the World Soccer Cup in Korea and Japan. On that occasion we should - and the ILO will propose - that we give a red card to child labour. Un carton rouge au travail des enfants. Una tarjeta roja al trabajo infantil.

This my dear friends is what I believe we need to do. We need to have the commitment. We need to leave here and say that we want to stop child labour. Each of us needs to do this - not because someone from the international community came to tell us to stop it; not because someone is making it a condition for access to resources. It must be because each one of us says: "I want to stop it because I do not want to have child labour in my own society".

For those of you who want to work in that direction, the ILO is there to serve you.

Thank you so much.