Chocolate giants in slavery case
The US Supreme Court is hearing arguments about whether US chocolate companies should be held responsible for child slavery on the African farms from which they buy most of their cocoa.
Six African men are seeking damages from Nestle´ USA and Cargill, alleging that as children they were trafficked out of Mali, forced to work long hours on Ivory Coast cocoa farms and kept at night in locked shacks.
Their lawyers argue that the companies should have better monitored their cocoa suppliers in West Africa, where about twothirds of the world’s cocoa is grown and child labour is widespread.
Nestle´ USA and Cargill have responded that they deplore child slavery and trafficking, and that they have taken steps to eradicate such practices among their suppliers.
The companies have asked the Supreme Court to dismiss the lawsuit, arguing that courts in the US are the wrong forum for the Malians’ complaint, and that the applicable law permits such cases against individuals but not corporations.
The Malians’ lawyer, Paul L Hoffman, said the companies had ‘‘crossed the line’’ from merely buying cocoa to facilitating the system.
There is plenty of evidence that the world’s chocolate supply depends heavily on child labour, and that despite two decades of industry promises, it remains widespread in Ivory Coast.
While much of it occurs on family farms, some is also arranged by traffickers who ferry in children from neighbouring Mali and Burkina Faso.
A Washington Post investigation of the use of child labour in the cocoa industry found that representatives of some of the biggest and best-known brands could not guarantee that any of their chocolate was produced without child labour.
More recently, a report sponsored by the US Department of Labour indicated that the West African cocoa industry was exploiting the aid of 1.6 million West African child labourers. Most were involved in tasks considered hazardous, such as wielding machetes, carrying heavy loads or working with pesticides.
Human rights advocates say the companies should be held responsible because child labour arises in part because they refuse to pay enough for cocoa, and have yet to fully institute systems for tracing beans to specific farms.