Morocco, ILO Announce Launch of Global ‘Red Card to Child Labor’ Campaign
Geneva - Morocco and the International Labour Organization (ILO) announced Friday in Geneva the launch of the global campaign "Red Card to Child Labor," aimed at raising awareness of efforts to combat this scourge.
The campaign, which will be officially launched during the 6th Global Conference on the Elimination of Child Labor, scheduled for February 11–13 in Marrakech, will run throughout 2026, notably on the occasion of the World Day Against Child Labor (June 12), as well as during major international sporting events, including the FIFA World Cup, co-hosted by Canada, Mexico, and the United States from June 11 to July 19, 2026.
According to the latest ILO–UNICEF estimates, 138 million children are still engaged in child labor worldwide, including 54 million in hazardous work, despite a significant decline since 2000.
During a joint online press conference, Morocco’s Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the UN and international organizations in Geneva, Omar Zniber, and Vera Paquete-Perdigão, Director of the ILO’s Governance and Tripartism Department, posed for a photo, each holding up a red card, symbolizing the launch of the campaign.
“Red Card to Child Labor” carries a simple and universal message, understood across cultures, countries, and languages: child labor must end.
The red card is a clear and unambiguous symbol. In sports, at school, and in communities around the world, it means the game is over. The line has been crossed. This cannot continue.
Applied to child labor, the red card is meant to put an end to every situation that steals childhood, deprives children of education, and endangers their health and development. It is also a red card to the poverty that forces families into impossible choices, the ILO explained.
The message is also directed at the systems and indifference that condemn 138 million children to work instead of learning and playing.
First launched in 2002, the “Red Card to Child Labor” campaign was born from the conviction that child labor is not inevitable.
Today, in 2026, as the world gathers in Marrakech for this historic conference, the campaign is being relaunched with renewed urgency and strength, the ILO stressed.
The campaign is based on three simple steps, designed to allow anyone, anywhere in the world, to participate and add their voice to this global movement. People can print the card from the ILO website, take a selfie holding up the red card, and share the photo on social media using the hashtag #EndChildLabour.
Editorial team/le7tv
