Children forced to do labor on Ivory Coast

By: Sasha Johnson | Contributing Writer

Posted: 1/13/10

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.

Certain large corporations, notably Cadbury and Mars, have made strides in the direction of Fair Trade. For example, Cadbury's most popular chocolate treat, Cadbury Milk, is now Fair Trade-certified in the UK and Ireland. Paul Hong-Lange, executive director of Oasis USA, said, "Two weeks after Stop the Traffik launched the 'March on Mars' campaign, the company promised to release a slave-free bar in the UK and Ireland in 2010, and to be slave-free by 2020. Mars has pursued the Rainforest Alliance certification which is not as strong as Fair Trade, but it does guarantee no slave labor."

Representatives from the chocolate industry argue that monitoring the labor practices of all farms is an unrealistic task. Meanwhile, as long as the subject has had media attention, the Ivorian government has maintained that the reports of slavery have been "exaggerated and are unrepresentative of most cocoa plantations." The government is also in agreement with the cocoa industry that guaranteeing the labor practices of all cocoa farms would be impossible because the buying chain for cocoa is so complex.

The Ivory Coast is the world's largest cocoa producer, followed by Ghana as the second and Nigeria as the fourth. The U.S. Department of Labor published a report in 2009, containing a listing of all countries employing either forced labor, child labor or both. Whereas Ghana is reported to use child labor but not necessarily forced labor, the Ivory Coast and Nigeria are reported to use both forced and child labor to produce cocoa. In August of 2009, Interpol launched a police operation resulting in the rescue of over 50 children, none of whom were aware that child labor is illegal.