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Child labour abuse 'will stop'
25/05/2007 18:48 - (SA)
Amsterdam - Top cocoa producer Ivory Coast is confident it will stop the abuse of child labour on its farms by a deadline of July 2008 to avoid US sanctions, the campaign's co-ordinator says.
"For us it's not a deadline, it's just a milestone. We will meet this milestone," Youssouf N'Djore, national co-ordinator of Ivory Coast's Child Labour Monitoring System Project, said this week.
Ivory Coast, the world's number one cocoa producer, which has been racked by instability since a brief 2002-2003 civil war, has been the target of allegations by international rights groups that children are working as slaves on its plantations.
The Ivorian government, cocoa sector and foreign multinationals who export and process Ivorian cocoa have all come under increasing scrutiny from rights and consumer groups who are campaigning for "Fair Trade" foodstuffs untainted by violence and child slavery.
Chocolate makers missed a 2005 deadline to certify labour conditions on cocoa farms but are now working to meet a July 2008 deadline to monitor conditions on 50% of West African farms.
"It is not important for us to simply say that we have completely eliminated child labour," N'Djore said at the end of a two-day cocoa conference in Amsterdam.
Setting 'strict criteria'
"It is important that whenever a case (of abusive child labour) is registered, we solve it successfully and we find ways to prevent such cases in the future," he added.
Ivory Coast faces sanctions on its exports to the United States if it misses the 2008 deadline, set by US lawmakers.
Two US politicians brought to world attention the issue of child and slave labour on West African cocoa fields when they set a deadline for chocolate makers to certify their products were free of abusive labour practices.
There have been widespread accusations that children, some as young as five, work on farms in Ghana and Ivory Coast.
Ghana, the world's number two producer, said last month it was on track to meet the 2008 target.
The Ghanaian government was now working to amend its legislation and set strict criteria about the conditions and age at which children can work, said Rita Owusu-Amankwah, the national programme manager in Amsterdam.
Cultural differences
Ivory Coast officials said they would follow Ghana's example and come up with measures after a pilot labour survey was expected to be completed in the coming month.
The survey focuses on working conditions for both children and adults on Ivorian cocoa farms.
Farmers and local authorities in Ivory Coast, while recognising the problem of child trafficking, insist there is no widespread use of forced child labour on farms.
They instead point to cultural differences and the need to pass on skills to enable their children to earn a living as an adult.
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