{"id":1117,"date":"2024-12-08T02:57:52","date_gmt":"2024-12-08T02:57:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/goodchocolatehub.org\/?p=1117"},"modified":"2025-08-28T14:01:19","modified_gmt":"2025-08-28T14:01:19","slug":"human-rights-issues-in-the-cocoa-sector","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/goodchocolatehub.org\/en\/all\/human-rights-issues-in-the-cocoa-sector\/","title":{"rendered":"Human Rights Violations in the Cocoa Sector"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/goodchocolatehub.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/Human-rights-issues-in-cocoa.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-3222\" style=\"aspect-ratio:16\/9;object-fit:cover\" srcset=\"https:\/\/goodchocolatehub.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/Human-rights-issues-in-cocoa.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/goodchocolatehub.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/Human-rights-issues-in-cocoa-360x360.jpg 360w, https:\/\/goodchocolatehub.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/Human-rights-issues-in-cocoa-180x180.jpg 180w, https:\/\/goodchocolatehub.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/Human-rights-issues-in-cocoa-768x768.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>The cocoa sector faces serious human rights challenges, with child labour being the most widespread and severe issue. Approximately 1.56 million children, some as young as five, still work on cocoa farms in C\u00f4te d&#8217;Ivoire and Ghana, often performing hazardous tasks (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.ilo.org\/migration-stub-453\/hazardous-child-labour#:~:text=More%20specifically%2C%20hazardous%20child%20labour,ill%20health%20and%20psychological%20damage.\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.ilo.org\/migration-stub-453\/hazardous-child-labour#:~:text=More%20specifically%2C%20hazardous%20child%20labour,ill%20health%20and%20psychological%20damage.\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">definition hazardous child labour<\/a>) like handling pesticides, using sharp tools, and carrying heavy loads. This work endangers their health, education, and development. Poverty drives many families to rely on child labour, compounded by limited access to education and low awareness of the risks. Despite commitments like the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cocoainitiative.org\/sites\/default\/files\/resources\/Harkin_Engel_Protocol.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Harkin-Engel Protocol<\/a>, progress in eliminating child labour has been slow and targets have been missed.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Beyond child labour, the sector also struggles with forced labour, human trafficking, gender inequality, unsafe working conditions, and inadequate wages. Addressing these human rights issues requires a multi-faceted approach: robust supply chain due diligence, ensuring living wages for farmers, improving education access, raising awareness among farmers, promoting sustainable farming, and fostering collaboration between governments, industry, and civil society. We believe that only through collective effort, sustained accountability of all stakeholders in the supply chain, and informed consumer engagement meaningful and lasting change can be achieved in the cocoa sector.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Sources<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>International Cacao Initiative (ICI): <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cocoainitiative.org\/issues\/child-labour-cocoa\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">Child labour in cocoa.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>EU Commission (2021): <a href=\"https:\/\/international-partnerships.ec.europa.eu\/system\/files\/2021-07\/ending-child-labour-cote-ivoire-ghana-2021-executive-summary_en.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">Ending Child Labour and Promoting Sustainable Cocoa Production in C\u00f4te d&#8217;Ivoire and Ghana<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Inkota (2019): <a href=\"https:\/\/www.inkota.de\/sites\/default\/files\/2020-05\/mcf-studie-menschenrechtsverletzungen-im-kakaoanbau.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">Menschenrechtsverletzungen im Kakaoanbau &#8211; Warum wir ein Lieferkettengesetz brauchen.<\/a> <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Further links<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>SRF Rundschau (2024): <a href=\"https:\/\/www.srf.ch\/news\/schweiz\/lindt-spruengli-in-schweizer-schoggi-steckt-kinderarbeit\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">In Schweizer Schoggi steckt Kinderarbeit.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>NDR Doku (2024): <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ardmediathek.de\/video\/ndr-story\/das-maerchen-von-der-sauberen-schokolade\/ndr\/Y3JpZDovL25kci5kZS9wcm9wbGFuXzE5NjM2MzEyM19nYW56ZVNlbmR1bmc\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">Das M\u00e4rchen von der sauberen Schokolade.<\/a> (nur abrufbar in Deutschland)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>UNICEF Schweiz: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.unicef.ch\/de\/aktuell\/news\/2022-06-10\/kinderarbeit-im-kakao-sektor#:~:text=UNICEF%20engagiert%20sich%20im%20Rahmen,effektiv%20und%20nachhaltig%20zu%20bek\u00e4mpfen.\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">Kinderarbeit im Kakaoanbau \u2013 es braucht umfassende und nachhaltige L\u00f6sungen.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The cocoa sector faces serious human rights challenges, with child labour being the most widespread and severe issue. Other issues include forced labour, gender inequality, unsafe conditions, and low wages. Meaningful change requires collective action, better wages and supply chain accountability.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3222,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1117","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-topics"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/goodchocolatehub.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1117","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/goodchocolatehub.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/goodchocolatehub.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/goodchocolatehub.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/goodchocolatehub.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1117"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/goodchocolatehub.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1117\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3241,"href":"https:\/\/goodchocolatehub.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1117\/revisions\/3241"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/goodchocolatehub.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3222"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/goodchocolatehub.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1117"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/goodchocolatehub.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1117"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/goodchocolatehub.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1117"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}