Big chocolate companies have failed to eliminate the worst forms of child labour in the cocoa fields of West Africa despite promising to do so 10 years ago.
In September 2001, global chocolate companies, the United States and the Ivory Coast signed the Harkin-Engel Protocol that set out an action plan to eradicate the worst forms of child labour from cocoa supply chains.
But 10 years on, none of the Protocol’s six items have been fully implemented and, despite steps by some companies to clean up their supply chains, the industry-wide reform that was committed to by the cocoa sector has not happened.
As a result of this failure, major civil society organisations - including
World Vision's Don't Trade Lives campaign - have joined together as part of the
10 Campaign to urge national and international governments to implement legislation to ensure companies take action.