2026 Theme: Red card to child labour: Fair play for children, decent work for adults
The 2026 World Day comes at a decisive moment. The 6th Global Conference on the Elimination of Child Labour, held in Marrakech, reaffirmed the urgent need to accelerate action and translate commitments into concrete results. The provides a concrete roadmap and indicators for tackling child labour through integrated responses that address root causes and protect every child’s rights.
Under the slogan “Red card to child labour: Fair play for children, decent work for adults”, the 2026 World Day Against Child Labour campaign calls for reinforced action on the policies that prevent child labour and withdrawn children from it: quality education, universal social protection, decent work and adequate livelihoods for adults, stronger laws and enforcement, better data and monitoring systems, and responsible action in agriculture and supply chains.
This action is urgently needed. Despite progress, 138 million children remain in child labour worldwide, including nearly 54 million in hazardous work.
On this World Day Against Child Labour, raise the Red card to child labour. Mobilize, speak out and act to turn the Marrakech commitments into real change for children, families and communities everywhere.
High-Level Event: Red Card to Child Labour: From Marrakesh to action
顿补迟别：June 9, 2026 | 7: 30 a.m. – 8:45 a.m. EDT
Marking the 2026 World Day Against Child Labour, this high-level ILO event features tripartite members sharing country experiences on implementing the . Adopted at the 6th Global Conference in Morocco, the Framework drives accelerated action. The Red Card campaign unites attendees against child labour.
Since 2000, child labour has almost halved, from 246 million to 138 million, yet current rates remain too slow, and the world has fallen short of reaching the 2025 global elimination target. To end it within the next five years, current rates of progress would need to be 11 times faster.
Sub-Saharan Africa continues to carry the heaviest burden, accounting for nearly two-thirds of all children in child labour – around 87 million. While prevalence fell from 24 to 22 per cent, the total number has remained stagnant against the backdrop of population growth, ongoing and emerging conflicts, extreme poverty, and stretched social protection systems.
Asia and the Pacific achieved the most significant reduction in prevalence since 2020, with the child labour rate dropping from 6 per cent to 3 per cent (from 49 million to 28 million children). Although the prevalence of children in child labour in Latin America and the Caribbean stayed the same over the past four years, the total number of children affected dropped from 8 million to about 7 million, the report notes.
According to the data, agriculture remains the largest sector for child labour, accounting for 61 per cent of all cases, followed by services (27 per cent), like domestic work and selling goods in markets, and industry (13 per cent), including mining and manufacturing.
To accelerate progress, UNICEF and ILO are calling for governments to:
- Invest in social protection for vulnerable households, including social safety nets such as universal child benefits, so families do not resort to child labour.
- Strengthen child protection systems to identify, prevent, and respond to children at risk, especially those facing the worst forms of child labour.
- Provide universal access to quality education, especially in rural and crisis-affected areas, so every child can learn.
- Ensure decent work for adults and youth, including workers’ rights to organize and defend their interests.
- Enforce laws and business accountability to end exploitation and protect children across supply chains.
From child labour in agriculture, Kimberly now at 17, learns new skills in mushroom production to support her family through an ILO project with the Government of Japan. This initiative develops the skills of communities and parents of child labourers in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) in the Philippines.
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