From Monica Burns, Freedom United

Dear COLIN, ‘Tis the season to be jolly – especially if you own a chocolate company. Confectionary sales are soaring as we begin the holiday season. But we won’t be celebrating until the cocoa industry stops profiting from child exploitation.

Sign the petition

As we speak, thousands of children are working on cocoa farms in Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire in exploitative conditions. Many are using dangerous equipment like machetes, carrying heavy loads, and coming into contact with harmful pesticides. Some are being forced to work against their will.   Chocolate companies know about this problem. They’ve been promising to tackle it for years. But despite their promises, children and adults continue to face exploitation every day in major companies’ supply chains.   Together we can end exploitation in the cocoa industry. We are inviting you to join our global coalition and push cocoa companies to step up and take decisive action to eradicate child exploitation from their supply chains.

Demand action

And now is the time for action. Scrutiny of major chocolate companies is building. The industry is facing increased legal action and media attention over reports of child trafficking in supply chains.    A new lawsuit has been filed against Nestlé, Cargill, Hershey, Olam, Mars, Mondelez and Barry Callebaut by eight Malian citizens. The group say they were trafficked to Côte d’Ivoire as children and forced to work on cocoa plantations. They accuse the companies of benefiting from cheap cocoa harvested by forced child labor.

Stand with survivors

Freedom United is partnering with leading organizations in the fight to end child exploitation in the cocoa sector, including Be Slavery Free, Fair World Project, Mighty Earth, and Sum of Us. Together, we’re calling on the world’s 10 largest chocolate companies to:   !. Prevent child trafficking and child labor.   2. Scale up child labor monitoring and remediation systems.  3. Pay cocoa farmers a living income within the next five years to decrease the likelihood of them resorting to employing and exploiting children.  4. Increase transparency and traceability to ensure accountability.   5. End all deforestation as more labor is required for post-forest cultivation, meaning farmers often resort to cheaper labor sources, including children.  6. Rapidly reduce pesticide usage to protect workers and their environments.   The experts have spoken – these actions will stop the systematic exploitation of children in the West African cocoa industry. Now, will you speak up too?

Speak up today

In the time it takes you to unwrap a chocolate bar, you can join over 175,000 concerned consumers who have signed our petition and tell chocolate companies you want guilt-free chocolate.   Sign the petition today.   In solidarity,   Monica and the team that supports the Freedom United community

Monica Burns
Campaigner, Freedom United

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