CNN.com - U.N.: Fewer children in factories, fields

A boy waits to sift through a bucket for gold in Congo last month.

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Areas where the International Labor Organization has made strides include:

• The commercial agriculture industries in Kenya, Malawi, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia.
• Child trafficking in Sri Lanka, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, China and Thailand.
• The soccer ball industry in Pakistan.
• Child sex trade in Kenya, Thailand, Dominican Republic, Cambodia, Brazil, Tanzania, Philippines and Mexico.
• The garment industry in Bangladesh.
• Child labor in general in China, Turkey and Andhra Pradesh, India.
• The coffee, tea, rice and sugar industries in Uganda.
• Child soldiering in Congo, Rwanda, Colombia, Philippines, Ivory Coast, Sierra Leone, Uganda and Liberia.
• The "worst forms of child labor" in Bulgaria and Tanzania, which include soldiering, prostitution and drug dealing and manufacturing.
• The mining industries in Peru and Ecuador.
• The fishing and footwear industries in Indonesia.

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(CNN) -- Child labor is on the decline -- especially in Latin America -- and its most egregious forms could be eliminated within the next decade, a U.N. agency said Thursday in a report it called "cautiously optimistic."

The International Labor Organization report, titled "The End of Child Labor: Within Reach," states that between 2000 and 2004 the number of child workers worldwide fell from 246 million to 218 million.

The number of children aged 5 to 17 doing hazardous work saw an even steeper decline, from 171 million in 2000 to 126 million in 2004, the report states, adding that the decline was even more pronounced among children 14 and younger. (How child labor has declined around the world)

"Though the fight against child labor remains a daunting challenge, we are on the right track. We can end its worst forms in a decade, while not losing sight of the ultimate goal of ending all child labor," organization Director-General Juan Somavia said in a news release.

Several reasons are offered for the decline, including increased political will, awareness, poverty reduction and mass education.

Integral to eliminating child labor, though, is maintaining the current rate of decline and maintaining "global momentum," the report states.

The International Program on the Elimination of Child Labor has helped several countries enact measures to eliminate the worst forms of child labor during the past five years, but the most marked improvements were noted in Latin America and the Caribbean.

From 2000 to 2004, the number of child workers in Latin American and the Caribbean has dropped by about 66 percent. Only 5 percent of children in those countries are now engaged in work, the report states.

Brazil and Mexico, where half of the children in Latin America live, were cited in the report as the best examples of curbing child labor. In Brazil alone, the number of child workers aged 5 to 9 dropped 61 percent from 1992 to 2004. Working children aged 10 to 17 dropped 36 percent in that same time.

Though Asia and the Pacific also registered a "significant decline in the number of economically active children," the report states that the region still has 122 million child workers, the largest number of any region in the world.

The highest number of child workers per capita is 26 percent in sub-Saharan Africa, where an estimated 50 million child workers are employed, the report states.

A news release points to several factors, including "the convergence of high population growth, grinding poverty and the epidemic of HIV/AIDS."

Though the report notes many improvements around the globe, Director-General Somavia said the U.N.'s work is far from done.

"In this 21st century, no child should be brutalized by exploitation or be placed in hazardous work," Somavia said. "No child should be denied access to education. No child should have to slave for his or her survival. Let's keep up the momentum. Let's resolve to keep investing in the struggle for the right of all children to their childhood."

Since its 1992 inception, the International Program to Eliminate Child Labor has spent $350 million (€277 million) on programs to get children out of the fields and factories, according to the report.

U.N.: Fewer children in factories, fields

Report: child labor on decline, especially in Latin America

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