Child Rights Glossary : I

ILLITERACY
See Vicious Cycle

INITIATIVE
An important new plan or process that has been started to in order to achieve a particular aim or to solve a particular problem. It is also the power to gain advantage by taking actions that will influence invents.

International Cocoa Initiative
This initiative, however, is focussed only on West Africa and although it has begun to initiate some new programs in the region, there is no guarantee that the industry will follow through with its promises to reform cocoa production and there is not enough indication that it is willing to take the radical steps needed to achieve the production of chocolate without the use of child or slave labour.

For this to be achieved the industry must:

» Adopt a fair base price for cocoa, stabilising the industry and guaranteeing a decent standard of living to cocoa farmers so that they no longer feel pressured to use child labour and can send their children to school.

» Expand the existing projects in West Africa to foster farmers' cooperatives to Indonesia, Malaysia, Brazil and other cocoa-producing countries, so that cocoa is purchased directly from the farmers and not through exploitative middle-men.

» Ensure that the ILO Core Labour Standards are implemented, including the freedom of association and the right to organise and collectively bargain, no use of forced labour, no discrimination in employment and remuneration, and no use of child labour.

» Ensure that child labourers removed from cocoa production are enjoying a meaningful education and all their rights as children.

» Adopt environmentally sustainable policies so that the pressure for short-term gain from growing cocoa can be eliminated and farmers can enjoy a long-term sustainable livelihood.

This Christmas you can make a great difference to the children on these cocoa plantations with very little effort. If you only buy “fair trade” chocolate at a time that the chocolate industry is so reliant on for its profits it will have to take notice and will have to ensure that the manufacture of chocolate is truly fair as it will no longer be profitable for supermarkets or shops to stock their products and the chocolate company’s livelihoods will be put in great danger.

With your simple inaction, you will ensure that the chocolate industry is under constant pressure to eradicate child labour and slavery from the manufacture of chocolate and this will give the children of the plantations the greatest gift they could hope to receive – their own freedom.

Source: http://globalmarch.org
Reference: http://www.longmanwebdict.com