Tackling Child Labour in Cocoa Supply Chains

In the Harken-Engel Protocol of 2001 chocolate companies assured the US Government and global markets that they could self-regulate and solve the slavery of young boys being trafficked from neighbouring countries into the cocoa farms of West Africa. They further committed that all cocoa sourced by the signatories would be certified cocoa by 2020.

It is now 2020. The commitment of the chocolate companies is a long way from being a reality. There are three big problems with the cocoa sector that must be overcome by:

• increasing incomes for farmers
• ending child labour
• restoring and protecting forests in cocoa-growing areas

Be Slavery Free has begun an online chocolate campaign telling chocolate companies Now is the time to put it all together to make a difference by ending hazardous child labour and slavery in West Africa. ACRATH, as a member of the Be Slavery Free coalition, invites you to join this campaign. Click here for campaign details.