Slavery in the Chocolate Industry
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4/7/05
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Page 99
The Cocoa Industry and Child Labour*
Elliot J. Schrage
Council on Foreign Relations, USA
Anthony P. Ewing
Columbia University, USA
Reports of forced child labour on the cocoa farms of Côte d’Ivoire surfaced in 2000 and quickly became an important business issue for a number of prominent companies. Media coverage and the threat of regulatory action mobilised the international cocoa industry to collaborate with other stakeholders to eliminate the worst forms of child labour from cocoa production. The international cocoa industry moved from a refusal to acknowledge serious labour problems in the global cocoa supply chain, to acknowledgement, and a public commitment to act to address the problems. The experience of the cocoa industry provides a number of lessons for executives, advocates and policy-makers seeking to promote labour standards. Industry participants sought the participation of multiple stakeholders, defined standards by referencing international law, and sought reliable information from the field. This case also demonstrates that pressure on consumer brands, strategic government intervention and geographic concentration facilitates collaborative action.
Elliot J. Schrage is a lawyer and business adviser. He is currently Adjunct Professor at Columbia’s Business and Law Schools and Bernard L. Schwartz Senior Fellow in Business and Foreign Policy at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York. He previously served as Senior Vice President for Global Affairs at Gap, Inc.
G Cocoa G Child labour G Forced labour G Côte d’Ivoire G Human rights G Cocoa Industry Protocol G International Cocoa Initiative
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2741 Divisadero Street, San Francisco, CA 94123, USA schrage@post.harvard.edu
Anthony P. Ewing is a lawyer and management consultant based in New York. He is a lecturer in law at Columbia University, where he co-teaches the graduate seminar, ‘Transnational Business and Human Rights’.
u
4/7/05
5:43 pm
Page 99
The Cocoa Industry and Child Labour*
Elliot J. Schrage
Council on Foreign Relations, USA
Anthony P. Ewing
Columbia University, USA
Reports of forced child labour on the cocoa farms of Côte d’Ivoire surfaced in 2000 and quickly became an important business issue for a number of prominent companies. Media coverage and the threat of regulatory action mobilised the international cocoa industry to collaborate with other stakeholders to eliminate the worst forms of child labour from cocoa production. The international cocoa industry moved from a refusal to acknowledge serious labour problems in the global cocoa supply chain, to acknowledgement, and a public commitment to act to address the problems. The experience of the cocoa industry provides a number of lessons for executives, advocates and policy-makers seeking to promote labour standards. Industry participants sought the participation of multiple stakeholders, defined standards by referencing international law, and sought reliable information from the field. This case also demonstrates that pressure on consumer brands, strategic government intervention and geographic concentration facilitates collaborative action.
Elliot J. Schrage is a lawyer and business adviser. He is currently Adjunct Professor at Columbia’s Business and Law Schools and Bernard L. Schwartz Senior Fellow in Business and Foreign Policy at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York. He previously served as Senior Vice President for Global Affairs at Gap, Inc.
G Cocoa G Child labour G Forced labour G Côte d’Ivoire G Human rights G Cocoa Industry Protocol G International Cocoa Initiative
u !
2741 Divisadero Street, San Francisco, CA 94123, USA schrage@post.harvard.edu
Anthony P. Ewing is a lawyer and management consultant based in New York. He is a lecturer in law at Columbia University, where he co-teaches the graduate seminar, ‘Transnational Business and Human Rights’.
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References: Ewing, A. (2004) ‘Understanding the Global Compact Human Rights Principles’, in United Nations Global Compact and the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Embedding Human Rights into Business Practice (New York: UN Global Compact Office): 28. HRW (Human Rights Watch) (2003) Borderline Slavery: Child Trafficking in Togo (New York: HRW). IITA (International Institute of Tropical Agriculture) (2002) Child Labor in the Cocoa Sector of West Africa: A Synthesis of Findings in Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, and Nigeria (Croydon, UK: IITA). ILO (International Labour Office) (2001a) Combating Trafficking in Children for Labour Exploitation in West and Central Africa (Geneva: ILO). —— (2001b) ‘Agreement to End Child Labour on Cocoa Farms’, press release, 1 October 2001, www. ilo.org/public/english/bureau/inf/pr/2001/32.htm, 12 November 2003. —— (2002) A Future Without Child Labour (Geneva: ILO). ILRF (International Labor Rights Fund) (2004) Chocolate and Child Slavery: Unfulfilled Promises of the Cocoa Industry (Washington, DC: ILRF). Kahn, J. (2004) ‘The Chocolate War’, Fortune International, 23 February 2004. Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News (2001) ‘Much of America’s Sweets Made Possible through Slave Labor on Ivory Coast’, Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News, 25 June 2001. Price, E. (2002) ‘Labor Group Demands US Ban on Imported Ivory Coast Cocoa’, Dow Jones, 31 May 2002. Save the Children Canada (2003) Children Still in the Chocolate Trade: The Buying, Selling And Toiling of West African Child Workers in the Multibillion Dollar Industry (Toronto: Save the Children Canada): 19-22. Schrage, E. (2004) Promoting International Worker Rights through Private Voluntary Initiatives: Public Relations or Public Policy? (Iowa City, IA: University of Iowa Center for Human Rights). UNDP (United Nations Development Fund) (2003) Human Development Report, 2003 (New York: UNDP). UNICEF (2002) Child Trafficking in West Africa: Policy Responses (Florence, Italy: UNICEF-Innocenti Insight). USDOS (US Department of State) (1999) Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 1998: Côte d’Ivoire (Washington, DC: USDOS). —— (2001) Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2000: Côte d’Ivoire (Washington, DC: USDOS). —— (2003) Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2002: Côte d’Ivoire (Washington, DC: USDOS). —— (2004) Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2003: Côte d’Ivoire (Washington, DC: USDOS). q 112 JCC 18 Summer 2005