Hand in hand. (Partnerships).

At this year's World Cup, the focus will be on more than just soccer. UNICEF and FIFA have agreed to dedicate the event to children. Portuguese soccer player Luis Figo, world footballer of the year in 2001, has been named UNICEF goodwill ambassador.

Another UN agency is linking the sport to its own mandate. The International Labour Organization (ILO) launched its latest campaign against exploitative child labour practices to coincide with the start of the 2002 African Cup of Nations in Bamako, Mali. The "Red Card to Child Labour" campaign is symbolized by the red card handed out by referees for serious violations of rules on the soccer field. ILO aims to take the initiative worldwide to include the World Cup and seize on the popularity of the African Cup to generate the widest possible public awareness of the harsh reality of child labour, as well as to encourage people to support the global movement against it.

"Child labour is neither a sport nor a pastime", ILO Director-General Juan Somavia said. "Working hand in hand with the world's most popular sport, we hope to galvanize the global campaign against child labour with this potent symbol--the red card that means you're out of the game."

The campaign adds a new symbolic element to the global struggle against child labour, exemplified by the rapid ratification of the Organization's most recent labour standard--the Convention on the Worst Forms of Child Labour (ILO Convention No. 182)--which was adopted in 1999 and came into force on 19 November 2000. In less than three years, more than 100 countries have ratified this Convention, the fastest ratification in the ILO 82-year history. Of the 115 countries ratifying it, 30 are from Africa, including the first two: Seychelles and Malawi. While Africa today is home to some 40 per cent, or about 80 million, of the world's child workers, it has in many ways led the way in the struggle against child labour, especially in its worst forms.

In 1990, 80 per cent of primary school children worldwide were either enrolled in or actually attending school. At the end of the decade, the global ratio had increased to 82 per cent. The gender gap has been halved, but the number of children of primary school age who are not in school has remained at nearly 120 million because, in part, of population increases.

Following the launch of the campaign in Africa, the ILO International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour (IPEC) plans to expand it to Latin America, Asia and Europe. Active in 75 countries, IPEC is working towards the progressive elimination of child labour by strengthening national capacities to address and create a worldwide movement to combat child labour. Its priority target groups are bonded child labourers, children in hazardous working conditions and occupations and the particularly vulnerable, such as very young working children under 12 and working girls.

Support is given by IPEC to develop and implement measures aimed at preventing child labour, withdrawing children from hazardous work and providing alternatives, and improving their working conditions as a transitional step towards the elimination of child labour.

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The second annual "Basketball without Borders" camp will be held in Istanbul, Turkey in July. An initiative of the United Nations Drug Control Programme, it is an effort to promote friendship and an understanding between Greek and Turkish youths through sports. Hidayet Turkoglu and Predrag Stojakovic, teammates on the National Basketball Association's Sacramento Kings in the United States, will lead other Turkish and Greek professional players in coaching the 50 selected 12- to 14-year-olds in basketball instruction and competition. Mr. Turkoglu, a native of Turkey, and Mr. Stojakovic, originally from Yugoslavia, played professionally in Greece for several years. Divided into four teams without regard to their nationality, the youngsters will participate in UN-led programmes intended to promote leadership, conflict resolution and living a healthy life without drugs.