Save the Children Canada Calls
for End to Exploitation of Children in the Cocoa
Industry
TORONTO,
ON (February 8, 2007) Despite commitments made by Canadian
chocolate companies and the Canadian
government to clean the cocoa supply chain from the worst forms of child labor,hundreds of thousands of children are still being exploited in the West African
cocoa farms, Save the Children Canada said today. "For five years, we have waited for
governments
and the global chocolate industry to change child labor practices
on the ground in the growing and harvesting of cocoa. We are now calling on Canadians to sign a
petition on our web site to tell
the government as Canadian consumers of
chocolate that we want to do our part in cleaning up cocoa supply chains. In addition, we need a tracking system to
clearly identify where our cocoa beans
are coming from and the conditions under
which they are grown," said Anita Sheth,
Senior Policy Analyst for Save the Children Canada.Cocoa is traded on commodity exchanges
in London and
New York,
thousands of kilometers from the fields where over 1 million children work in West Africa every day to produce it. While the work
enables these children to make modest contributions to their
family income,
they have the right to work for a decent wage and in conditions that are not exploitative.
It is estimated that over 312,000 children are currently working in the worst
form of child
labor in these cocoa farms. "Since Canada
imports cocoa beans from Côte
d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast),
we believe all Canadians have an obligation to
respect, protect and fulfill these
children's rights," said David Morley, President and CEO of Save the Children
Canada, who recently returned from visiting cocoa farms in West
Africa.The
multi-billion dollar chocolate
industry is dependent on West African cocoa
which produces roughly 70% of the world demand.
Cocoa prices have dropped to ¼ of
their value over the last 10 years making farming
families extremely poor. To
maintain their margins, farmers look for the cheapest source of labor - and
increasingly they find it in the worst forms of child labor. Children
looking
for seasonal work across West Africa are sometimes trafficked across the
borders of Mali and Burkina Faso into Côte
D'Ivoire to work on cocoa farms. Children
are lured by the promise of
steady work, good wages, and even the chance to go
to school. "We must start with understanding where our cocoa in our chocolate comes from, and get choosy about whether or not we
agree with the
methods used to produce it," explains David Morley. "We are calling for greater investment in the
communities where cocoa farms exist.
We want governments, chocolate manufacturers, and
individuals to work with us
to fund schools, livelihood training and cocoa farm-safety monitoring to change
the options available for children and their families."Save
the Children
Canada will continue to work with community groups, youth,
parents, teachers, transporters and Government officials in the region to build
schools and improve education as alternative to exploitative
work, create a
network of child protection agents to help child victims, and lobby for an end to
child trafficking and exploitative child labour.
For
more information, please
contact:
Sue Rooks, Communications Coordinator
Save
the Children Canada
4141 Yonge St. Suite 300
Toronto, ON
(416)
221-5501 x305
Cell:
(416) 346-1310 srooks@savethechildren.ca
Note to Editors
Save the
Children has been working in West Africa since
1985.
Save the Children
Canada is a member of the International
Save the Children Alliance. With 27 members and operational programs in
over 110 countries, the Alliance
is the world's largest global movement for children.
Save the
Children
has been working both overseas and in Canada for over85 years to improve the quality of children's lives through the
realization of their rights. Save the Children fights for
children's rights. We
deliver immediate and lasting improvements to children's lives worldwide.
In November 2001,
world cocoa industries including the Confectionary Manufacturers
Association of
Canada (CMAC), signed a joint statement acknowledging the need to comply with standards set by the International
Labour Organization's to protect children.
The industry
agreed to identify and eliminate the worst forms of child
labour and forced labour with respect to the growing and processing of cocoa
beans by July 2005. Five years later,
this willingness
to prevent the exploitation of children has produced very
little in the way of change.
