By Jim Lobe
One WorldJuly 4, 2002
The launch of a new initiative to fight child and slave labor in West African cocoa fields, announced this week in Geneva, is being hailed as a new landmark in pressuring big corporations to take responsibility for social and working conditions in impoverished countries where they buy their primary commodities.
The International Cocoa Initiative (ICI) commits major Western manufacturers of chocolate and other cocoa products to work with nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and local governments in devising programs to monitor and enforce international bans on abusive child and forced labor where cocoa beans are grown and harvested.
The hope is that, within a short time, the ICI will develop a program comprehensive enough to assure chocolate consumers in industrialized countries that they can consume the confectionary free of the suspicion that it was produced by child or slave labor.
"The International Cocoa Initiative solidifies the partnership between our industry and stakeholders, and creates a catalyst for change and progress," said Larry Graham, president of the Chocolate Manufacturers Association of the USA (CMA). "Together, we have created a mechanism that will focus the best research, expertise and ideas on this critical issue."
The ICI's creation comes one year after the United States House of Representatives approved legislation co-sponsored by Senator Tom Harkin and Representative Eliot Engel directing federal regulators to devise a mandatory "no child slavery" label for chocolate products sold in the U.S. The U.S. is the world's largest importer of cocoa products by far, consuming annually more than three billion pounds of chocolate at a total cost of some $13 billion.
The action followed newspaper and NGO reports documenting cases of children being trafficked to cocoa farms in Cote D'Ivoire (Ivory Coast), in particular, from their homes in poorer neighboring countries, such as Burkina Faso and Mali. The State Department also acknowledged in its 2000 human rights report that some 15,000 children between the ages of nine and 12 had been sold into forced labor on cotton, coffee, and cocoa plantations in northern Cote D'Ivoire over several years.
The West African country produces almost half of the world's cocoa beans, and virtually all of the chocolate sold in the U.S. has some cocoa that originated there.
The manufacturers strongly opposed the measure, arguing that they could not be held responsible for practices on small farms so remote from their corporate headquarters. Indeed, most chocolate manufacturers use international or domestic brokers to bid on cocoa beans in local markets and rarely have reason to travel to the countries where they are produced.
But as NGOs threatened consumer boycotts and the Senate began to consider its version of the bill, the manufacturers agreed last October to seek a negotiated solution that would not require legislation. They committed themselves in writing to meeting a July 1, 2002, deadline for launching the ICI, which includes the creation with the NGOs of a Joint Foundation to oversee its work.
The negotiations which followed included the CMA and the World Cocoa Foundation, which represented major non-U.S. manufacturers, the International Labour Organization (ILO), and a number of NGOs, including the Child Labor Coalition, Free the Slaves, the Global March Against Child Labor, the National Consumers League, and the International Union of Food, Agricultural, Hotel, Restaurant, Catering, Tobacco and Allied Workers Association.
"We asked the industry to back its commitment with financial support and resources and to share equally the decision-making power during the entire process," said Kevin Bales, director of the U.S.-based Free the Slaves. "A year ago, the industry committed to do just that, and the establishment of this Joint Foundation signifies they have kept their word. The Joint Foundation is the vehicle that will get the job done on the ground."
Under the plan, the ICI, to be based in Geneva, will be headed by two co-presidents, one from the industry and one from outside it. Its board of directors will consist equally of industry and non-industry representatives. Its first task will be to support field projects in order to determine the best ways of monitoring the enforcement of labor practices and conditions.
"This is a far-sighted initiative, and the program they have outlined is both thoughtful and action-oriented," according to Frans Roselaers, who directs the ILO's International Program on the Elimination of Child Labour. "We will encourage continued cooperation among all concerned parties and are ready to advise and assist," he added.
"With today's announcement, consumers will know that a portion of the cost of cocoa in their favorite products is going toward eliminating abusive child labor in the growing of cocoa," said Engel, who, along with Harkin and Senator Herbert Kohl, will serve on the Foundation's advisory board. "There is a lot of hard work ahead, but I am more confident than ever that we will succeed."
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