A group known as the Global Civil Society wants the government, together with chocolate and cocoa companies, to start living up to the decades-old promise to ending child labour in the country.
The Global Civil Society in a statement bemoaned that the cocoa sector has been conspicuously quiet on the topic.
“Today, June 12, 2021, marks the International Day against Child Labour. On this day, as a large group of civil society organisations working on human rights in the cocoa sector across the world, we urgently call on chocolate and cocoa companies and governments to start living up to decades-old promises.”
“This year marks the twentieth anniversary of the chocolate industry’s promise to end child labour in the cocoa sector of Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire, a commitment they made under the 2001 Harkin-Engel Protocol and renewed again with the 2010 Framework of Action. Child labour is still a reality on West African cocoa farms, and there is strong evidence that forced labour continues in the sector as well,” the statement added.
It asked the sector to come up with ambitious plans to develop transparent and accountable solutions for current and future generations of children in cocoa communities.
“Child labour can only be effectively tackled if its root causes are also adequately addressed. As such, the cocoa sector must ensure that child labour approaches are deeply embedded into realistic and ambitious strategies to achieve a living income for all cocoa households. Such strategies must include the payment of fair and just increasing exposure to harmful agrochemicals,” it further advised.
The group acknowledged that “the developments around regulations in the EU, although the announced delays are concerning. We also observe that the United States -the world’s number one cocoa consuming country – is particularly lagging in regulatory developments on this issue.”
It is however of the view that the sector cannot use a lack of regulation as an excuse not to shoulder their responsibility.
“Every chocolate and cocoa company should have a system in place that monitors and remediates child labour in all of their value chains with a child labour risk.”
The Global Civil Society further suggested that “the impact of these systems must be communicated publicly and transparently in a way that enables meaningful participation and access to remedy for workers and their representatives. These must be developed in a much more inclusive manner than previous attempts, bringing in civil society organisations, remuneration at the farm gate; prices need to be sufficient to provide a living income.”
“It is time that the cocoa sector lived up to its promises and started to deliver on a sector-wide and ambitious plan to tackle child labour and poverty. The industry’s collective silence this year is shameful and inappropriate,” the group stressed in a statement.
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