Child Labor Day – Strict chain law as a way out of misery

According to current estimates from the International Labor Organization (ILO) and the children’s charity UNICEF, nearly 160 million boys and girls worldwide are exploited as child laborers. The biggest problem sector is agriculture. As mentioned, the situation in cocoa cultivation is particularly precarious.

Nearly 1.6 million children work in cocoa farming
Contrary to many promises from the big chocolate manufacturers, there is still mass exploitation and forced labor in cocoa farming. Nearly 1.6 million children work illegally on cocoa farms in Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire, according to the 2020 NORC report (NORC at the University of Chicago is one of the largest independent social research organizations in the United States). Mainly established large chocolate manufacturers in the market benefit from this.

“Twenty years ago, the big chocolate companies set themselves targets, but later watered down and eventually missed them. Many international brands continue to exert enormous price pressure on producers, fueling abuses such as child labour,” says Stefan Grasgruber-Kerl, human rights expert at Südwind.

Dutch pioneers in chocolate
Today, companies like Tony’s Chocolonely show that things can be done differently. The Dutch chocolate producer is considered a pioneer in the entire industry. Founder of the company Teun van de Keuken, known in the Netherlands for the TV reveal program “Keuringsdienst van Waarde”, had researched the catastrophic practices in cocoa cultivation in 2004 and founded Tony’s Chocolonely in 2005.

The company says it is proactively looking for child labor in its supply chains. That is why they consciously source their beans from West Africa, Ghana and the Ivory Coast. That is where the problems are greatest, so that the company can make the most changes here, according to a broadcast on International Child Labor Day.

For example, the average percentage of child labor in the chocolate industry is currently 46.5% (i.e. almost every in two children works illegally on the cocoa plantations in West Africa). For the agricultural cooperatives that Tony’s Chocolonely works with according to 5 specially created sourcing principles, this percentage is “only 3.9%”, it says.

“Tony’s Open Chain” is the name of the Dutch strategy for a fairer cocoa chain, which is expressly intended as an invitation to the competition. The idea: If everyone works together to buy cocoa, the chocolate industry can work together to eliminate human rights violations in its supply chain – after all, you can still compete on the supermarket shelf. In the meantime, for example, the Dutch supermarket chain Albert Heijn with its “Delicata” chocolates, Aldi with “Choco Changer” and Jokolade are all committed to Tony’s Open Chain.

Call to politicians for stricter chain law
But because voluntary standards alone are not enough, “political and legal preconditions are especially needed to end the exploitation of child labor worldwide”, emphasizes Hartwig Kirner of the alliance “Stop Child Labor”. The alliance is therefore calling on Austrian government members and parliamentarians to make the fight against exploitative child labor a political priority and actively advocate for a tougher supply chain law. So that fair products – free from exploitative child labor – end up on our plates and in our wardrobes.

To support the demand to end child labour, any Austrian can join the hands-on campaign “Human Chain Against Child Labour” at www.kinderarbeitstoppen.at. According to the initiative, the contributions, which can be seen on kinderarbeitstoppen.at, already form a human chain from the Ministry of Justice to the House of the EU and show the strong support of Austrian civil society.