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.
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