The Seahawk

Issue date: 1/13/10 Section: World View

Media Credit: Courtesy of International Labor Rights Fund

Half of the world's chocolate is made from cocoa produced on the Ivory Coast. Children are trafficked from neighboring countries and forced to do hard manual labor on Ivorian cocoa plantations for no pay. They are not fed and are kept out of schools; many are beaten viciously and are forced to work up to 100 hours per week. These children are often bought from their parents for a pittance; their parents are led to believe that they will be receiving an education or learning a trade. Other times these children, typically 12 to 14 years old, (though the U.S. Department of Labor reports that children as young as five have been involved) are stolen. They come from neighboring West African countries such as Mali, Togo and Burkina Faso. Some 15,000 children have been trafficked from Mali alone, taken or sold from the slums of the country.

This issue is not new, however; the ICI (International Cocoa Initiative), part of the Harkin-Engel Protocol, was established in 2001, with a deadline to end the worst forms of child labor, in particular trafficking and slavery, set at 2005. The deadline was never met, and so it was extended to 2008. Currently the situation is unresolved and has human rights organizations such as the anti-slavery coalition Stop the Traffik in an uproar. Antonie Fountain, a voice for Stop the Traffik in Amsterdam, comments on the structural failure of the program.

"Tulane University, which was asked to monitor progress, gave a scathing review of the system, stating that it was hardly a successful monitoring system," he says. Additionally, "The threat of legislation was very effective in mobilizing the global cocoa industry into action. Sadly, the action they were mobilized into was action to undo the legislation."

There are an estimated 600,000 cocoa farms on the Ivory Coast, which account for one-third of the nation's economy. Though Ivorian farmers are perceived to be at fault, the industry itself, riding on the basic principles of free-market capitalism, may be the cause of these injustices. Raw cocoa is very cheap-its price has not risen in over 30 years, and therefore many farmers cannot afford to employ workers.

Some groups such as the Global Exchange seek to combat this dilemma by introducing Fair Trade-certified chocolate into the mix. To be Fair Trade-certified, the product must be manufactured within the provisions of international labor laws; additionally, the farm must utilize environmentally sustainable practices. Last Halloween, the organization launched a "reverse trick-or-treating" campaign to raise awareness about the ongoing problem. Upon receiving popular treats manufactured by companies such as Cadbury, Nestlé and Hershey's, all of which buy cocoa at a commodities exchange where Ivorian cocoa is mixed with cocoa from other regions, the participating children handed back a sample of Fair Trade chocolate as well as a Global Exchange brochure.

Continued...

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