# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Starting today, Tiffany and Co. will begin sharing the origins of its diamonds with its customers, setting a new level of transparency among large jewelry retailers. As part of this welcome initiative, all of Tiffany's stores will now provide the country or region of origin for all newly-sourced diamonds above .18 carat. It's now time for others in the industry to do the same.

Transparency is the first step to improve human rights in a supply chain. When I shop in my local grocery store, I know where most items come from. Right now, it carries bananas from Colombia, tomatoes from Mexico, and salmon from Norway. But if I go to a jewelry store to buy a piece of diamond jewelry worth far more than a bunch of bananas, almost no one can tell me where the diamond comes from.

The diamond industry has long been extremely opaque about the source of their diamonds. Mining companies may source diamonds from multiple countries, but not tell their clients where specific stones come from. Why does it matter? While reputable mining and jewelry companies have taken steps to avoid selling "conflict diamonds," diamonds may be tainted by other abuses, including displacement, forced or child labor, and environmental harm. According to the US Department of Labor, for example, diamonds from seven African countries may be mined with child or forced labor. Diamonds from Zimbabwe may be linked to torture, beatings, harassment, and forced relocation. A thoughtful consumer is unlikely to want to buy a diamond mined under such conditions.

Last year, Human Rights Watch launched a campaign, #BehindtheBling, challenging the jewelry industry to ensure its gold and diamonds are responsibly sourced. Since we began the campaign, several companies have taken steps to be more transparent and improve their sourcing practices. Tiffany's announcement is another step forward, and we encourage others, particularly diamond mining companies, to provide their clients with information on the origins of the diamonds they sell.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Tiffany and Co. Announces New Diamond Transparency

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Starting today, Tiffany and Co. will begin sharing the origins of its diamonds with its customers, setting a new level of transparency among large jewelry retailers. As part of this welcome initiative, all of Tiffany's stores will now provide the country or region of origin for all newly-sourced diamonds above .18 carat.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Calling chocolate a guilty pleasure is so 2010... unless your chocolate isn't fair sourced. The health benefits of dark chocolate have certainly been proven, ranging from anti-inflammatory benefits to improved memory. But where you get your chocolate is of utmost importance too - not just for your health, but for the health and wellbeing of the people producing it.

About 70 percent of the world's cacao comes from Western Africa, where many larger companies rely on child labor - and, in some cases, on slavery - to bring less expensive chocolate to the masses. According to a 2015 U.S. Labor Department report, more than 2 million children were engaged in dangerous labor in cocoa-growing regions: children as young as five handle dangerous tools like machetes and are in contact with chemical herbicides and pesticides without protective clothing.

Newspapers including the Washington Post have been working diligently to expose this human rights crisis.

"The world's chocolate companies have missed deadlines to uproot child labor from their cocoa supply chains in 2005, 2008 and 2010," reports the outlet. "As a result, the odds are substantial that a chocolate bar bought in the United States is the product of child labor."

Organizations like Fairtrade, Utz and Rainforest Alliance work hard to certify chocolate companies who are doing things right, though these systems remain imperfect, and the Post reports that even farms employing children could ostensibly pass inspection.

But as consumers, we have a say in how our chocolate is produced. As representatives from large brands like Hershey, Mars, and Nestlé continue to refuse to guarantee that their chocolate is made without child labor, it's important to turn to trustworthy brands that are transparent about their methods. Here are five we love.

1. Alter Eco

Alter Eco chocolate bars and truffles are made with cacao sourced from South America where, according to Food is Power, it is less likely that cacao is farmed using child labor. Alter Eco goes several steps further, not just paying Fair Trade premiums, but also committing to providing targeted assistance to local partners to help improve the quality of life in the regions where this chocolate is produced.

"Fostering a full-circle sustainability model guarantees that children in farming communities are in school where they belong, and not working in the fields," Mathieu Senard, Co-Founder & Co-CEO, Alter Eco Americas, PBC, tells Conscious Company Media. "It also means respecting the health of farmers and consumers by exclusively using organic crops and refusing the use of chemicals. Finally, it is an opportunity to promote agroforestry, which produces the best cacao beans while replanting trees and combating deforestation."

Alter Eco sports a panoply of certifications, from Fair Trade to USDA organic to B Corp. The company is constantly seeking out new ways to offset the effects of its production, including planting trees in Peru as part of a carbon offset program and sponsoring employee benefits like paid public transportation.

Alter Eco's organic bittersweet bar is perfect for fans of seriously dark, intense chocolate, with 85 percent cacao blended with cocoa butter, raw cane sugar, and a touch of vanilla. You can buy it on Amazon.

2. Divine

This brand is the only one that's co-owned by the 85,000 members of the Ghanaian cooperative that produces the delicious cacao that goes into these bars. Farmers earn part of the profit - and have a stronger voice in how the company is managed.

Divine is particularly committed to providing opportunities for women to gain independence and thrive, including literacy programs, numeracy programs, and training and facilitation for women in careers as elected buying clerks.

In addition to the fair trade cacao that is at the core of these bars, Divine relies on other fair trade ingredients like mango, almonds, and coconut, to add flavor to its chocolate. Its new organic line features four 85 percent cocoa bars that are also USDA certified organic, vegan, and devoid of palm oil and soy, with flavors like ginger-turmeric or blueberry-quinoa.

3. Endangered Species

The dual mission of Endangered Species is evident from the company's name: not only is this chocolate produced using fair methods, but it's also made with the goal of protecting wildlife diversity. Ten percent of the company's net profits are donated to partner organizations protecting species and habitat conservation.

The cacao itself is sourced from Rainforest Alliance-certified cacao farms in West Africa, with the goal of promoting the development of health centers and schools in the region. As the first chocolate company to source all of its cocoa from West Africa through Fairtrade, Endangered Species is 100 percent committed to improving the livelihoods of these farmers.

Each Endangered Species bar is named for a different endangered animal or ecosystem, like 82 percent dark Panther or minty Rainforest both available on Amazon.

4. Theo

In partnership with organizations like the Eastern Congo Initiative, the Jane Goodall Institute, and the World Bicycle Relief, Theo is dedicated to the production of ethical, sustainable, artisan chocolate.

"Theo's model is based on a core idea," writes the company. "Chocolate can be made in a way that allows everyone in the bean to bar process to thrive."

Theo is the first company to own and manage its own fair trade bean-to-bar chocolate factory, allowing the company to pay above-market prices to farmers in Peru and the Democratic Republic of the Congo and control the quality of its product from beginning to end.

"We want to pay farmers enough money that they can invest in sending their children to school and on-farm investments," writes the company. "This type of change is long lasting and systemic."

Theo's unique flavors like turmeric spice and salted toffee are innovative and delicious.

5. Madécasse

This Madagascar-made chocolate has a keen focus on developing the local economy in the African nation. These chocolate bars are produced and hand-wrapped in Madagascar, an initiative that has enabled Madécasse to create 200 jobs on the ground.

"Madécasse is the only chocolate available in the US that's actually made in Africa, while nearly 70 percent of the chocolate in the US market is made with cocoa from Africa," a company rep tells Conscious Company Media. "We're proud to be among the very few companies worldwide who have even attempted chocolate-making in Africa, and we're empowering Africans in the process, economically and socially."

Madécasse is made with heirloom criollo cacao and is perfect for lovers of pure, dark chocolate and is available on Amazon.
Related on Organic Authority*Note! This article contains affiliate links that are independently sourced and vetted by our editorial team which we may earn a commission on. This helps us reduce the number of ads we serve on Organic Authority and help deliver you a better user experience. We are here to help you navigate the overwhelming world of consumer products to source and uncover thoughtfully made, conscious clean products for you and your family.
You Can Now Say Your Chocolate Addiction is Helping You Lose Weight
These 5 Drool-Worthy Chocolate Bars are Seriously Dark and Seriously Delicious
5 Chocolate Breakfast Recipes that Will Restore Your Faith in Humanity

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
5 Ethical Cocoa Brands That Don't Rely on Child Labor

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Calling chocolate a guilty pleasure is so 2010... unless your chocolate isn't fair sourced. The health benefits of dark chocolate have certainly been proven, ranging from anti-inflammatory benefits to improved memory. But where you get your chocolate is of utmost importance too - not just for your health, but for the health and wellbeing of the people producing it.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Children who work on cocoa plantations are exposed to hazards such as dangerous tools, dust, flames or smoke, chemicals, and/or physically demanding labor such as carrying heavy loads or spending many hours in the sun.

Cocoa trees are grown on small, independent farms of fewer than 5 hectares. Small farm sizes in the cocoa industry mean that production is heavily decentralized among hundreds of thousands of farmers. It is estimated that there are over 4.5 million small scale cocoa producers worldwide. These producers are scattered about the globe, but are generally located within 20 degrees of the equator, where the climate is most suitable for the crop. Altogether, producers across the globe supply 4 million tons of cocoa beans annually, and Ghana and Cote D'Ivoire now produce 70% of the world's cocoa supply.

Unfortunately, the cocoa sector in this region is also afflicted with a severe child labor problem. In 2009, the U.S. Department of State estimated that there were more than 109,000 children working in the "worst forms of child labor" in Cote d'Ivoire's cocoa industry, and about 10 percent of those were victims of human trafficking or forced labor. In Ghana, the U.S. Department of Labor estimated in 2010 that about 43.5% of Ghanaia n children aged 5-14 years were working.

Children who work on cocoa plantations are unavoidably exposed to certain hazards, including dangerous tools, dust, flames or smoke, hazardous chemicals, and/or physically demanding labor such as carrying heavy loads or spending many hours in the sun.

In addition to the physical consequences of their labor, cocoa farming often interferes with children's education. In Ghana, only about 75% of children attend school. In Cote d'Ivoire the problem is even more severe: only 59% of young boys attend school, while only 51% of girls are in school. The consequences of being unable to attend school follow these children throughout their life, leading to an endless cycle of poverty.

Ultimately, the root cause of the child labor problem in West Africa is poverty. Cocoa farmers receive below-poverty incomes from their participation in the cocoa industry. It is estimated that in order to even meet the poverty line, cocoa farmers would have to earn more than three times their c urrent income.

ILRF is committed to combating the scourge of forced child labor in the cocoa industry through public education, corporate campaigns, and engagement with partners in West Africa to uncover issues and find solutions.
Amplifying Farmer Voices
The balance of power in the cocoa industry is heavily weighted towards cocoa companies, leaving very little room for cocoa farmers to voice their opinions and concerns, and to negotiate better terms for themselves and their families.

In Cote d'Ivoire and Ghana, producers must have a more active role in the price determination process for the cocoa industry. Prices are determined at the national level by committees of stakeholders, but in the field farmers report that they do not feel represented when prices are set for their product. As a result, farmers are not able to capture a large enough share of the market.
Eliminating Child Trafficking
Child trafficking in the cocoa sector is considerably difficult to identify, but there is no doubt that the problem continues to damage children's lives. The scope of the trafficking problem must be better identified and remediation programs, whether through the government or civil society, must be improved.

Companies along the cocoa supply chain have benefited in one way or another from the free labor of trafficked children. These companies have an obligation to financially contribute to remediation programs, including the building and maintaining of government-operated trafficking centers in Cote d'Ivoire.

For many years ILRF has actively pressured many companies, like Hershey, to recognize the child labor problem in the cocoa supply chain and take responsibility for finding solutions and providing remediation to affected individuals.

The Raise the Bar, Hershey! campaign consists of ILRF, Green America, Global Exchange, and Oasis. ILRF and allies have worked for several years to pressure Hershey to do more to eliminate child labor in the chocolate supply chain. The campaign achieved several campaign goals during its most active years.

In 2012, ILRF and its Raise the Bar allies developed the first-ever Super Bowl "brand-jamming" ad and secured rights to show the ad on a jumbotron screen outside Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis to an expected audience of 250,000 consumers attending Super Bowl day activities. In response to the potential embarrassment, Hershey announced the week before the Super Bowl that it would make its first commitment to sourcing independently certified cocoa for its Bliss and Dagoba lines by the end of 2012. Though the campaign viewed Hershey's commitment as a less-than-half measure, Raise the Bar agreed not to air the ad.

For Valentine's Day that year, ILRF promoted a petition launched by a local Pennsylvania high school student calling on the Hershey Trust to move Hershey into ethically sourced cocoa products. The petitions ultimately garnered more than 30,000 signatures.

Later that year ILRF authored and promoted a letter to Hershey, signed by 70+ grocery retailers, calling on the company to fully commit to ethically sourced cocoa. ILRF and allies also implemented a campaign asking Whole Foods to remove Hershey products from its stores. As a result of the petition and pressure from Whole Foods, Hershey announced it would source 100% certified cocoa in 2020.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Cocoa trees are grown on small, independent farms of fewer than 5 hectares. Small farm sizes in the cocoa industry mean that production is heavily decentralized among hundreds of thousands of farmers. It is estimated that there are over 4.5 million small scale cocoa producers worldwide.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
NGOs and news outlets in the West first shined a light on the issue of child labor and extreme poverty among cocoa growing communities in West Africa in the early 2000s. Since then, major chocolate companies, and the chocolate buying public, have become aware of these ongoing problems.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
NGOs and news outlets in the West first shined a light on the issue of child labor and extreme poverty among cocoa growing communities in West Africa in the early 2000s. Since then, major chocolate companies, and the chocolate buying public, have become aware of these ongoing problems.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Many of the world’s diamonds are harvested using practices that exploit and degrade children, communities, the labor force, and the local environment.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
India - Child labour in diamond industry

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Harvesting Cocoa

Harvesting Cocoa

Pods containing cocoa beans grow from the trunk and branches of the cocoa tree. Harvesting involves removing ripe pods from the trees and opening them to extract the wet beans. The pods are harvested manually by making a clean cut through the stalk with a well sharpened blade. For pods high on the tree, a pruning hook type of tool can be used, with a handle on the end of a long pole. By pushing or pulling according to the position of the fruit, the upper and lower blades of the tool enable the stalk to be cut cleanly without damaging the branch that bears it.

The pods are opened to remove the beans within a week to 10 days after harvesting. In general, the harvested pods are grouped together and split either in or at the edge of the plantation. Sometimes the pods are transported to a fermentary before splitting. If the pods are opened in the planting areas, the discarded husks can be distributed throughout the fields to return nutrients to the soil.

The best way of opening the pods is to use a wooden club which, if it strikes the central area of the pod, causes it to split into two halves; it is then easy to remove the wet beans by hand. A cutting tool, such as a machete, is often used to split the pod, though this can damage the beans. Some machinery has been developed for pod opening, but smallholders in general carry out the process manually. After extraction from the pod, the beans undergo a fermentation and drying process before being bagged for delivery.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Pods containing cocoa beans grow from the trunk and branches of the cocoa tree. Harvesting involves removing ripe pods from the trees and opening them to extract the wet beans. The pods are harvested manually by making a clean cut through the stalk with a well sharpened blade.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Children are particularly vulnerable in times of conflict. Here we look at the global issue of the recruitment and use of child soldiers and what is being done to tackle the problem.

What is a child soldier?

Any girl or boy below the age of 18 who is recruited or used by an armed force or armed group, in any capacity.

A child soldier is not just someone who is involved in fighting. They can also be those in other roles such as cooks, porters, messengers, human shields, spies, suicide bombers or those used for sexual exploitation. It includes children recruited and trained for military purposes, but not used in war.

Who recruits child soldiers?

Children are recruited all over the world by state armed forces and armed groups outside government control.

Non-state armed groups are more likely than states to use children in armed conflict. This makes the problem more difficult to tackle as these groups are less visible and harder to negotiate with.

Why do children become child soldiers?

Children become soldiers in different ways. Some are forcibly recruited. They may be abducted, threatened or coerced into joining, while others are enticed with money, drugs or in other ways.

In many cases, children choose to join as a result of economic or social pressures. Others join armed forces to fight for a cause that they or their family support, often with little clear understanding of the implications of their decision.

Being poor, displaced, separated from their families or living in a combat zone can make children particularly vulnerable to being recruited.

Armed groups target children for several reasons. They are easier to manipulate, they don't need much food and they don't have a highly developed sense of danger.

What happens to child soldiers?

Some children will be trained for and participate in armed combat, while others will be given a supporting role. In almost all cases child soldiers will not have access to formal education.

A number of former child combatants from the Central African Republic have reported that they were forced to perform horrific acts, such as killing their own parents as a form of initiation into the armed group. It is thought that this initiation hardens them to brutality and breaks the bonds with their community, making it difficult to return.

How many child soldiers are there?

There are an estimated 250,000 child soldiers in the world today in at least 20 countries.

About 40% of child soldiers are girls, who are often used as sex slaves and taken as "wives" by male fighters.

Where are child soldiers recruited?

Fifty countries still allow children to be recruited into armed forces, according to Child Soldiers International. Many non-state armed groups also recruit children.

The UN Secretary-General's annual "name and shame" list for 2017 highlighted the armed forces of Afghanistan, Myanmar, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Syria and Yemen for recruiting and using under-18s for armed conflict. But non-state armed groups also recruit children in these and other countries.

The report said there were at least 4000 verified violations by government forces and over 11,500 by non-state armed groups in the 20 country situations it examined.

What's being done to end the practice of recruiting child soldiers?

In the past two decades, thousands of boys and girls have been freed as a result of action plans mandated by the United Nations Security Council.

Launched in March 2014, the campaign Children, Not Soldiers is working to galvanise support to end and prevent recruitment of children by national security forces in conflict. It is particularly focused on Afghanistan, Chad, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Myanmar, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan and Yemen, all of which have signed UN Action Plans.

The UN Secretary-General's 2017 report on children and armed conflict said there had been several positive moves. That included armed groups in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and in the Philippines being delisted and the signing of a peace agreement in Colombia that included a special agreement on the release and reintegration of children.

Efforts are being made to support the release of children in these countries to civilian life and to help reintegrate them, as well as plans to prevent future recruitment of children.

Measures are being taken around the world to prevent children becoming soldiers in the future. It is important to establish and enforce 18 as the minimum age for recruitment.

The majority of states have already done this and many non-state groups have done so too. International political efforts continue to encourage all groups to do likewise.

How can child soldiers be helped?

Many child soldiers end up desensitised to violence, which can psychologically damage them. Many are traumatised by what they have been forced to do or have witnessed. Children need to undergo reintegration programmes to help them return to civilian life.

Girls face the additional difficulty of social stigma attached to the belief they have been engaged in sexual activity.

Most child soldiers have missed out on school and need additional education in order to feed themselves and make a more stable life for themselves.

There are various organisations such as War Child and Child Soldiers International who are dedicated to tackling the problem through campaigning and raising awareness, as well as rescuing and rehabilitating child soldiers.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Children are particularly vulnerable in times of conflict. Here we look at the global issue of the recruitment and use of child soldiers and what is being done to tackle the problem. Any girl or boy below the age of 18 who is recruited or used by an armed force or armed group, in any capacity.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Having some chocolate after a bad day at work seems like a great idea. It makes a wonderful flavor of ice cream. It can be put into cookies, brownies, or eaten in a wide variety of bar forms. What many people may not realize, however, is that chocolate is also produced in cocoa fields from child slave labor.
The annual estimated sales of chocolate around the world contribute $83 billion to the global economy.
Chocolate Consumption Facts

As economies develop and wealth increases, chocolate is one of the first items that people in that growing economy want to have. Many of the developing nations, in fact, expect to see sales increases of up to 25% happen. Just about everyone loves chocolate. The statistics on chocolate consumption prove it.

50% of the world's chocolate retail sales occur on the European continent.

The United States accounts for 20% of the world's chocolate consumption.

Women [91%] prefer to eat chocolate more than men [87%].

The average Brit, Swiss, or German citizen will each eat around 24 pounds of chocolate a year. This means that they eat about as much chocolate every year as seafood. This is double what the average American will eat.

Asian markets are expected to hold a 20% share of the global chocolate market by 2016.

On the average Valentine's Day, nearly $400 million of chocolate is purchased around the world, accounting for 5% of the industry's total sales.

0.0075%. That's the amount of the $1 trillion in profits in the last 15 years that the chocolate industry has put back into improving working conditions for cocoa laborers in Western Africa.

When it comes to net cocoa imports, the United States is the world leader at 20.96% of the total amount.

Despite producing most of the world's cocoa, Africans only account for 3.28% of the chocolate that is consumed annually.

4.03%. That's the percentage of the chocolate market that is in North America that does not include the United States.

The Asia/Oceania region currently makes up 15% of the chocolate consumption market.

The United States makes up 18% of the world consumption of chocolate.

The next time you take a bite out of your favorite brand of chocolate, think for a minute about where the cocoa for that chocolate originated. In Europe, the US, Australia, and Asia, most of the chocolate that is imported is coming from agricultural zones where slavery, child labor, and other questionable business practices are in force. You could be eating a product that was collected by a 7 year old boy who is being beaten as encouragement to make his quota. We all consume a lot of chocolate, and there's nothing wrong with that, but maybe we should be encouraging the consumption of ethically created chocolate products more than just enjoying a cheap candy bar with a trip to the grocery store.

How Much Chocolate Are We Actually Eating?

The worldwide consumption of chocolate every year is estimated to be at least 7.2 million metric tons.

The net sales of Mars Inc., a leading producer of chocolate productions, is over $17 billion every year.

Hershey's chocolate accounts for another $3.7 billion in sales. M&M candies have $606 million in sales all by themselves.

The price per pound of chocopologie by Knipschildt: $2,600.

The Ivory Coast, which features child slave labor, produces 1.6 million tons of cocoa every year.

The amount of cocoa that is processed by Cargill each year: 600,000 tons. This accounts for 15.4% of the global market.

West Africa produces 70% of the world's cocoa market. 90% of these crops come from small farms that have less than 5 hectares of land.

There is some progress being made when looking closely at the numbers of chocolate consumption. For UK citizens, they consume over £37.5m worth of fair trade chocolate every year. This is chocolate that is produced by workers who are receiving a fair wage for their labor. This figure isn't very high, but it is a start. Each cocoa tree can produce two crops each year, which means each tree has about 50 pods. There are about 40 cocoa beans in every pod. That's enough chocolate per pod to make 8 milk chocolate bars or 4 dark chocolate bars. If we focus on fair trade, we can still get the chocolate fix we want and support more households around the world with a liveable income.

When Are We Eating Chocolate?

Two-thirds of chocolate is consumed between meals. 22% of all chocolate consumed between 8pm and midnight.

In 2008, there were so many new chocolate products being launched that there was an average of one new item being brought to the market every hour of every day.

Brits prefer a chocolate bar to an extravagant holiday abroad.

Chocolate significantly reduces theta activity in the brain, which is associated with relaxation, which is why we want to eat chocolate when we're feeling stressed out.

February 15, the day after Valentine's Day, is the second highest day for chocolate sales during the season.

More than 90 millions pounds of chocolate are purchased for the Halloween holiday.

75% of the chocolate purchased this week will come from men buying it for women.

Chocolate is a great food. The cocoa pods flourish near the equator, so there are limited places of growth for this wonderful commodity. This means that we can't control the cocoa crop every year personally, but we can control our spending habits. If you're feeling the craving for chocolate setting in, then look for the fair trade symbols on your chocolate so that you can provide legitimate supports to those seeking to earn a fair living. It might cost a little more, but let's face it: a clear conscience is worth its weight in gold... or in this instance, chocolate.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
27 Incredible Chocolate Consumption Statistics - BrandonGaille.com

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Having some chocolate after a bad day at work seems like a great idea. It makes a wonderful flavor of ice cream. It can be put into cookies, brownies, or eaten in a wide variety of bar forms. What many people may not realize, however, is that chocolate is also produced in cocoa fields from child slave labor.

# data[].attributes.body
Child Labor: Cocoa

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Snickers candy bars famously promise to satisfy. But you might find them less satiating if you knew your chocolate could be salted with the tears of enslaved children.

Some children in Cote d'Ivoire are forced to work in terrible conditions against their will, picking cocoa beans that make their way into Mars company sweets. A class action lawsuit sought to force Mars company candy bar labels to disclose the fact that child slaves may have picked the cocoa beans that went into these chocolates. But a recent court ruling found that Mars isn't obligated to do so under California's consumer protection laws, because-technically speaking-child labor doesn't affect the quality of the product.

The June 4 ruling in (pdf) comes from the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in California. The federal appeals court opinion acknowledges that forced child labor is reprehensible and violates international labor standards. Still, the court finds that Mars isn't violating labeling laws by failing to disclose child slavery, and a district court made no mistake when it dismissed the case for "failure to state a claim," according to the appellate judges.

Mars makes Snickers, Twix, M&Ms, and other popular chocolate products, which are sold in 180 countries around the world. The opinion notes that the company does recognize-as required by law-that its "supply chains may be infected with the worst forms of child labor."

Mars buys cocoa beans from Cote d'Ivoire, where farms are notorious for abusive conditions. The Bureau of International Labor Affairs of the US Department of Labor describes the situation in the West African nation as follows:

[C]hildren . . . are working under conditions of forced labor on Ivoirian cocoa farms . . . Some children are sold by their parents to traffickers, some are kidnapped, and others migrate willingly but fall victim to traffickers who sell them to recruiters or farmers, where they end up in conditions of bonded labor . . . Some children are forced to perform dangerous tasks . . .

This is reprehensible, according to the Ninth Circuit. But omitting the information about the infected supply chain from labels doesn't actually violate state consumer protection, false advertising, and fraud laws, as the plaintiff claims. The court writes:

[T]he alleged lack of disclosure about the existence of slave labor in the supply chain is not a physical defect at all, much less one related to the chocolate's function as chocolate. Plaintiff contends that he has "no practical use" for the products tainted by slave or child labor, but the central functionality of the product is not based on subjective preferences about a product.

Mars successfully argued that it has no duty to disclose its awareness of possible slave labor involvement in its chocolates on labels because the child slavery doesn't "cause an unreasonable safety hazard." There's no physical or safety defect in the confections as a result of the nasty labor practices, and so no reason to warn consumers.

The appellate court agreed in an opinion that is, for Mars, a bittersweet win. Child labor in the supply chain is likely important to consumers, the court posits, and "not labeling chocolate bars may indirectly exacerbate slave labor in the supply chain." Still, it doesn't "affect the central functionality of the chocolate products."

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
What if Mars candy bar labels had to disclose a bitter truth about child labor?

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Snickers candy bars famously promise to satisfy. But you might find them less satiating if you knew your chocolate could be salted with the tears of enslaved children. Some children in Cote d'Ivoire are forced to work in terrible conditions against their will, picking cocoa beans that make their way into Mars company sweets.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Gold mining is extremely dangerous work for children. Yet still today, tens of thousands are found in the small-scale gold mines of Africa, Asia and South America. Children work both above and under ground. In the tunnels and mineshafts they risk death from explosions, rock falls, and tunnel collapse. They breathe air filled with dust and sometimes toxic gases. Above ground, children dig, crush, mill, and haul ore - often in the hot sun. Some stand for hours in water, digging sand or silt from riverbeds.

Child labour in salt mining

In addition to the strain of the physical effort required in salt mining and harvesting, constant exposure to salt is unhealthy for children. Salt is corrosive. It causes skin on the hands to crack and discolouration of the iris that can damage vision.

Child labour in stone quarrying

Quarrying stone for construction material or to make gravel is hard and dangerous work, particularly for children. But for many poor youngsters whose families are involved in this activity, there is no other choice. Family earnings from quarrying may be barely sufficient to cover basic needs and money earned by children can be an important part of a household's income. It may even mean the difference between eating and not eating on a given day.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Gold mining is extremely dangerous work for children. Yet still today, tens of thousands are found in the small-scale gold mines of Africa, Asia and South America. Children work both above and under ground. In the tunnels and mineshafts they risk death from explosions, rock falls, and tunnel collapse.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
The needle hums, fingers fly, and piles of cloth are stitched together at record speed. "Sixty pockets an hour," says Bithi, the 15-year-old behind the sewing machine.

Squished inside a second-story room in Dhaka, Bangladesh, flanked by 20 other women, the girl hunches over her machine, illuminated by harsh fluorescent lights. She is making pockets for blue jeans - one of thousands of child workers in Bangladesh piecing together designer clothing she'll never be able to afford herself.

Abject poverty and a sick father forced Bithi's family to send the two oldest daughters to the garment factories to sew designer clothes that will be sold in shops in Canada, the United States, and other affluent countries.

"The first day, I felt bad," Bithi remembers. "I was too small. I was surrounded by other older people. That first day, I cried."

But that was three years ago, when Bithi was 12. Now, it's routine; no more tears. Every day, Bithi helps create a minimum of 480 pairs of pants, for about $1 in wages.

Child laborer to child bride

According to Bithi's mother, Feroza, the girl's future is an arranged marriage. Her mother already has a man in mind: Bithi's work supervisor, a man eight years older who comes from a well-off family. He's expressed interest, Bithi's mother says.

Feroza is unapologetic about starting her two oldest daughters in garment factories before they were even teenagers.

"There was no food, not even rice," she says, sitting inside the family's one-room home, where all eight family members sleep. "I cry when I remember those days. I thought it's better for us to die than not to have food."

At that time, Feroza's husband was bedridden. He couldn't work, and the family was in crisis. For a year and a half, Feroza juggled domestic work, raised the six children, and ran a bag-making business. Still, ends wouldn't meet. Food was begged for and borrowed from charitable family members and neighbors. There were nights when the children cried from hunger.

So she did what her parents did to her when they arrived in Dhaka decades ago: Feroza sent her oldest daughter, Doli, to work in a garment factory at 12.

"Before I started dreaming about the future, I started working," says Doli, now 19.

And when Bithi was 12, she, too, was sent to work in a factory.

"As a mother, I feel sad," Feroza says, "but I still have to be realistic."

A lost dream

Bithi used to attend a nonformal primary education school, part of the World Vision project assisting children living on the streets in Dhaka - serving child workers and other children who aren't in school. Bithi attended the center daily on her way home from work and called it the highlight of her day, but she doesn't attend anymore.

"There are lots of children who want to come back from child labor, but they don't have any hope," says World Vision child protection officer Lima Hanna Daring."They didn't get a primary education, they can't get into secondary school, and their family relies on the income."

Now, when Bithi sees other girls her age in their blue-and-white checkered school uniforms, it's painful. "My heart breaks," she says. She also once had a dream for the future - to be a doctor - but she's given up on that.

"Now, I just dream of standing on my own feet."

Under Lima's leadership, World Vision is beginning a new three-year project in Dhaka that will provide child workers ages 6 to 14 with informal education as a pathway to returning to regular school. For children ages 15 to 18, like Bithi, the program will help them to develop new job skills so they can have a better income and working conditions.

How to help end child labor

Join us in praying for children vulnerable to exploitation and abuse.

Donate to help prevent child labor and exploitation. Your gift will help provide better economic opportunities for families so that their children can get out of work and into school. It will also help advocate for better safeguards against child labor, create children's groups to connect children and community members who care for them, and more.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
A look at child labor inside a garment factory in Bangladesh

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The needle hums, fingers fly, and piles of cloth are stitched together at record speed. "Sixty pockets an hour," says Bithi, the 15-year-old behind the sewing machine. Squished inside a second-story room in Dhaka, Bangladesh, flanked by 20 other women, the girl hunches over her machine, illuminated by harsh fluorescent lights.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Mars, Nestlé and Hershey pledged nearly two decades ago to stop using cocoa harvested by children. Yet much of the chocolate you buy still starts with child labor.

By Photos by

and

Warning: This graphic requires JavaScript. Please enable JavaScript for the best experience.

Five boys are swinging machetes on a cocoa farm, slowly advancing against a wall of brush. Their expressions are deadpan, almost vacant, and they rarely talk. The only sounds in the still air are the whoosh of blades slicing through tall grass and metallic pings when they hit something harder.

Each of the boys crossed the border months or years ago from the impoverished West African nation of Burkina Faso, taking a bus away from home and parents to Ivory Coast, where hundreds of thousands of small farms have been carved out of the forest.

These farms form the world's most important source of cocoa and are the setting for an epidemic of child labor that the world's largest chocolate companies promised to eradicate nearly 20 years ago.

e

r

g

i

N

BURKINA

L

I

B

E

R

I

A

"How old are you?" a Washington Post reporter asks one of the older-looking boys.

"Nineteen," Abou Traore says in a hushed voice. Under Ivory Coast's labor laws, that would make him legal. But as he talks, he casts nervous glances at the farmer who is overseeing his work from several steps away. When the farmer is distracted, Abou crouches and with his finger, writes a different answer in the gray sand: 15.

Then, to make sure he is understood, he also flashes 15 with his hands. He says, eventually, that he's been working the cocoa farms in Ivory Coast since he was 10. The other four boys say they are young, too - one says he is 15, two are 14 and another, 13.

Abou says his back hurts, and he's hungry.

"I came here to go to school," Abou says. "I haven't been to school for five years now."

'Too little, too late'

The world's chocolate companies have missed deadlines to uproot child labor from their cocoa supply chains in 2005, 2008 and 2010. Next year, they face another target date and, industry officials indicate, they probably will miss that, too.

As a result, the odds are substantial that a chocolate bar bought in the United States is the product of child labor.

About two-thirds of the world's cocoa supply comes from West Africa where, according to a 2015 U.S. Labor Department report, more than 2 million children were engaged in dangerous labor in cocoa-growing regions.

When asked this spring, representatives of some of the biggest and best-known brands - Hershey, Mars and Nestlé - could not guarantee that any of their chocolates were produced without child labor.

"I'm not going to make those claims," an executive at one of the large chocolate companies said.

One reason is that nearly 20 years after pledging to eradicate child labor, chocolate companies still cannot identify the farms where all their cocoa comes from, let alone whether child labor was used in producing it. Mars, maker of M&M's and Milky Way, can trace only 24 percent of its cocoa back to farms; Hershey, the maker of Kisses and Reese's, less than half; Nestlé can trace 49 percent of its global cocoa supply to farms.

With the growth of the global economy, Americans have become accustomed to reports of worker and environmental exploitation in faraway places. But in few industries, experts say, is the evidence of objectionable practices so clear, the industry's pledges to reform so ambitious and the breaching of those promises so obvious.

Industry promises began in 2001 when, under pressure from the U.S. Congress, chiefs of some of the biggest chocolate companies signed a pledge to eradicate "the worst forms of child labor" from their West African cocoa suppliers. It was a project companies agreed to complete in four years.

To succeed, the companies would have to overcome the powerful economic forces that draw children into hard labor in one of the world's poorest places. And they would have to develop a certification system to assure consumers that a bag of M&M's or a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup did not originate with the swinging of a machete by a boy like Abou.

"I admit that it is a kind of slavery. ... But they bring them here to work, and it's the boss who takes the money."

Ivory Coast farmer

Since then, however, the chocolate industry also has scaled back its ambitions. While the original promise called for the eradication of child labor in West African cocoa fields and set a deadline for 2005, next year's goal calls only for its reduction by 70 percent.

Timothy S. McCoy, a vice president of the World Cocoa Foundation, a Washington-based trade group, said that when the industry signed onto the 2001 agreement, "the real magnitude of child labor in the cocoa supply chain and how to address the phenomenon were poorly understood."

Industry officials emphasized that, according to the pledge made to lawmakers, West African governments and labor organizations also bear some responsibility for the eradication of child labor.

Today, McCoy said, the companies "have made major strides," including building schools, supporting agricultural cooperatives and advising farmers on better production methods.

In statements, some of the world's biggest chocolate companies that signed the agreement - Hershey, Mars and Nestlé - said they had taken steps to reduce their reliance on child labor.

Other companies that were not signatories, such as Mondelez and Godiva, also have taken such steps, but likewise would not guarantee that any of their products were free of child labor.

In all, the industry, which collects an estimated $103 billion in sales annually, has spent more than $150 million over 18 years to address the issue.

But when the businesses initially made the promise to eradicate child labor, according to industry insiders and documents, the companies had little idea of how to do so. Their subsequent efforts have been stalled by indecision and insufficient financial commitment, according to industry critics.

Their most prominent effort - buying cocoa that has been "certified" for ethical business practices by third-party groups such as Fairtrade and Rainforest Alliance, has been weakened by a lack of rigorous enforcement of child labor rules. Typically, the third-party inspectors are required to visit fewer than 10 percent of cocoa farms.

"The companies have always done just enough so that if there were any media attention, they could say, 'Hey guys, this is what we're doing,' " said Antonie Fountain, managing director of the Voice Network, an umbrella group seeking to end child labor in the cocoa industry. "It's always been too little, too late. It still is."

"We haven't eradicated child labor because no one has been forced to," Fountain added. "What has been the consequence . . . for not meeting the goals? How many fines did they face? How many prison sentences? None. There has been zero consequence."

According to the U.S. Labor Department, a majority of the 2 million child laborers in the cocoa industry are living on their parents' farms, doing the type of dangerous work - swinging machetes, carrying heavy loads, spraying pesticides - that international authorities consider the "worst forms of child labor."

A smaller number, those trafficked from nearby countries, find themselves in the most dire situations.

During a March trip through Ivory Coast's cocoa-growing areas, journalists from The Washington Post spoke with 12 children who said they had come, unaccompanied by parents, from Burkina Faso to work on cocoa farms.

While the ages they gave were consistent with their appearance, The Post could not verify their birth dates. In much of Burkina Faso, as many as 40 percent of births go unrecorded in official records, and many children lack identification documents.

The farms were easily visited because they typically lack fences, but people were often reluctant to talk about child labor, which is known to be illegal and is officially discouraged.

Asked about the extent of child migrants working on Ivorian cocoa farms, the farmer overseeing Abou and the other boys noted the steady stream of buses carrying people from Burkina Faso into the area. The Post's reporters also observed those buses during the March visit.

There's "a lot of them coming," said the farmer, who asked that his name not be used because he didn't want to attract attention from the authorities. "It's them who do the work."

The farmer said he was paying the boy's "gran patron," the "big boss" who manages the boys, a little less than $9 per child for a week of work and who would, in turn, pay each of the boys about half of that.

The farmer said he considers the boys' treatment unfair but hired them because he needed the help. The low price for cocoa makes life difficult for everyone, he said.

"I admit that it is a kind of slavery," the farmer said. "They are still kids and they have the right to be educated today. But they bring them here to work, and it's the boss who takes the money."

'It happens on a large scale'

What makes the eradication of child labor such a daunting task is that, by most accounts, its roots lie in poverty.

The typical Ivorian cocoa farm is small - less than 10 acres - and the farmer's annual household income stands at about $1,900, according to research for Fairtrade, one of the groups that issues a label that is supposed to ensure ethical business methods. That amount is well below levels the World Bank defines as poverty for a typical family. About 60 percent of the country's rural population lacks access to electricity, and, according to UNESCO, the literacy rate of the Ivory Coast reaches about 44 percent.

With such low wages, Ivorian parents often can't afford the costs of sending their children to school - and they use them on the farm instead.

Other laborers come from the steady stream of child migrants who are brought to Ivory Coast by people other than their parents. At least 16,000 children, and perhaps many more, are forced to work on West African cocoa farms by people other than their parents, according to estimates from a 2018 survey led by a Tulane University researcher.

"There is evidence that it happens, and it happens on a large scale," said Elke de Buhr, an assistant professor and principal investigator on the study, done in collaboration with the Walk Free Foundation, a group working to end forced labor, and funded by the Stichting de Chocolonely Foundation.

The child migrants arrive amid a vast wave of people entering from Burkina Faso and Mali. Ivory Coast is home to 1.3 million migrants from Burkina Faso and another 360,000 from Mali, according to the United Nations. Mali, Burkina Faso and Ivory Coast share an agreement on open borders.

Upon arriving in Ivory Coast's cocoa-growing areas, child migrants are used to meet the demand on cocoa farms for arduous manual labor and stay year-round. There is land to be cleared, typically with machetes; sprayings of pesticide; and more machete work to gather and split open the cocoa pods. Finally, the work involves carrying sacks of cocoa that may weigh 100 pounds or more.

"Côte d'Ivoire has long been seen as a land of better opportunity in this part of the world," McCoy, the industry spokesman, said. "That particular sort of form of trafficking speaks to a broader phenomenon that is not specific to cocoa, is not specific to Côte d'Ivoire but speaks of people seeking opportunity and that happens all over the world."

'We are hungry'

From the Ivorian economic capital of Abidjan, the village of Bonon is a five-hour drive along two-lane roads pocked with pond-sized potholes. From the outskirts of the village, footpaths lead into the surrounding forests, where farmers have created groves of cocoa trees.

In a patch of woods one day in March, another group of boys was at work with machetes. Each said he had come from Burkina Faso to work on Ivory Coast's cocoa farms.

Like teen boys elsewhere, the boys near Bonon - Abou Ouedrago, 15; Karim Bakary, 16; and Aboudnamune Ouedrago, 13 - wore colorful branded sportswear. But they sleep in huts out in the woods, spend their days doing hard manual labor and don't attend school or see their families. Karim's yellow Adidas shirt was smeared with dirt. When one of the boys falls ill, they said they pool their money to go to the pharmacy.

"There is no money in Burkina. ... We came here to be able to have some money to eat."

Karim Bakary, child laborer

During a break in the typical March day - where the temperature ran into the 90s - the boys shared water scooped into a bucket from a nearby pond. It was milky white.

They said they came in search of a better life and are paid about 85 cents a day.

"There is no money in Burkina," said Karim, who said he arrived here four years ago when he was 12. "We suffer a lot to get some money there. We came here to be able to have some money to eat."

One time, he said proudly, he was able to send some money back home: $34. He said he would like to stay in Ivory Coast to make more money.

The most somber of the three was Aboudnamune. He wore a Spider-Man ball cap and rarely smiled. He said he arrived two years ago when he was 11. He answered questions haltingly, sometimes staring into the distance, and said he'd like to see his parents because "it's been a while."

"Yes, it's a little bit hard," he said of his life on the cocoa farms. "We are hungry, and we make just a small amount of money."

A 2009 Tulane survey, based on interviews with 600 former migrant cocoa workers, offered a grim look at the economics that lead to child trafficking. Traffickers typically offer the children, who could be as young as 10, money or more specific incentives, such as bicycles, to take the bus to Ivory Coast. About half of those interviewed said they were not free to return home, and more than two-thirds said they experienced physical violence or threats. Most had been looking for work, and some said the money they were promised was never paid.

The man who was managing the boys for the owner of the farm, who declined to give his name, offered his perspective.

"Their parents abandoned them," he said. "They come here to make a living."

Then, apparently concerned about the attention the interview was drawing from passersby, he asked The Post's journalists to leave the farm.

'A moral responsibility'

The most prominent, sustained public attention to the issue arose 18 years ago with reports from news organizations and the U.S. State Department that linked American chocolate to child slavery in West Africa.

"There is a moral responsibility . . . for us not to allow slavery, child slavery, in the 21st century," Rep. Eliot L. Engel (D-N.Y.) said at the time.

Engel introduced legislation that would have created a federal labeling system to indicate whether child slaves had been used in growing and harvesting cocoa. It allotted $250,000 to the Food and Drug Administration to develop the labels.

The measure passed the House, but the industry was adamant that no government regulation was necessary.

"We don't need legislation to deal with the problem," Susan Smith, then a spokeswoman for the Chocolate Manufacturers Association, told a reporter at the time. "We are already acting."

"Was there any chance of child labor being eradicated by 2005? No, never."

Peter McAllister, who led the International Cocoa Initiative from 2003 to 2010

Engel, along with then-Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), opted to negotiate an agreement with the chocolate companies.

Now known as the Harkin-Engel Protocol, the deal kept federal regulators from policing the chocolate supply.

But the deal committed the chocolate companies to eradicate child labor from their supply chains and to develop and implement "standards of public certification," which would indicate that cocoa products had been produced "without any of the worst forms of child labor."

The top officials of Hershey, Mars, Nestlé USA and five other chocolate companies signed onto the deal. The signing companies had "primary responsibility" for eradicating child labor, lawmakers said, but the Ivorian government, labor organizations and a consumer group also pledged support.

The protocol also specified a deadline: July 2005.

Over the next few years, the industry approached the challenge with working groups, pilot programs and attempts to redefine its promise.

The industry created the International Cocoa Initiative, which was supposed to coordinate company efforts. The companies also formed a short-lived panel called the Verification Working Group. In West Africa, the industry supported pilot projects for monitoring child labor.

Even some insiders say the early efforts were destined to fall short.

Peter McAllister, who led the International Cocoa Initiative from 2003 to 2010, said the companies were "desperate" to avoid the legislation and promised more than they could deliver.

"Was there any chance of child labor being eradicated by 2005? No, never," McAllister said. "They set themselves up for a bit of a disaster because of this magic date."

"One executive told me at that point, 'We would have signed a nuclear non-proliferation treaty,' " McAllister said.

Still, the industry gave the impression it was making progress. In February 2005, Smith, of the Chocolate Manufacturers Association, told an NPR interviewer that the deadline would be met.

"We have met every deadline established in the protocol agreement, and we'll continue to do so," she said. "We have large-scale tests of the monitoring system and the independent verification system in place. Those are going on now."

But as Engel and others pointed out at the time, the companies were not close to meeting the deadline four months away. There were no consumer labels in the works; there was no clear verification system; the worst forms of child labor had not been eradicated.

Shortly after the deadline passed, the industry sought to reconstrue the meaning of a key clause in the agreement.

In 2007, industry officials argued that the promised "standards of public certification" did not mean, as some negotiators had thought, the creation of consumer labels indicating that a chocolate bar was free of child labor.

"Everyone in that room negotiating understood we were there to create a labeling requirement," J. William Goold, Harkin's lead negotiator on the deal, said in an interview for this story. "We were talking about consumer labels on chocolate. Anybody who thinks the language in Harkin-Engel means anything other than labeling for consumers is engaged in cynical self-delusion."

Instead, the industry said, the agreement meant that the companies would produce statistics on West African "labor conditions" and "the levels" of child labor in West Africa.

In 2011, a decade after signing the deal, industry officials also suggested that it had committed the companies to an impossible task.

"The industry in fact does not know of any [certification] system that currently, or in the near term, can guarantee the absence of child labor, including trafficked labor, in the production of cocoa in West Africa," according to a 2011 letter from an industry group representing Hershey, Mars, Nestlé and other companies, to researchers working on a study funded by the U.S. Labor Department.

"There was - and is - no roadmap to implement the Protocol," the letter said. The "industry has in good faith carried out that agreement, while acknowledging several setbacks."

'Certification isn't enough'

As the industry struggled to come up with its own system for monitoring child labor, it increasingly turned to third parties to tackle the problem.

Three nonprofit groups - Fairtrade, Utz and Rainforest Alliance - provide labels to products that have been produced according to their ethical standards, which include a prohibition on child labor.

Over the past decade, the chocolate companies have pledged to buy increasing amounts of cocoa certified by one of these three groups. Mars reports buying about half of its cocoa from certified sources; Hershey reports 80 percent. In exchange for meeting the groups' ethical standards, farmers are paid as much as 10 percent more for their cocoa.

Yet some of the companies acknowledge that such certifications have been inadequate to the child labor challenge. The farm inspections are so sporadic, and so easily evaded, that even some chocolate companies that have used the labels acknowledge they do not eradicate child labor.

Inspections for the labels typically are announced in advance and are required of fewer than 1 in 10 farms annually, according to the groups.

"Put simply, when the [certification] auditors came, the children were ushered from the fields and when interviewed, the farmers denied they were ever there," according to a 2017 Nestlé report.

"Certification isn't enough," John Ament, Mars's global vice president for cocoa, told Reuters in September.

Or, as an industry group representing Mars and Hershey put it, in a 2011 letter to researchers: "Given the absence of farm level monitoring, none of the three major 'product certifiers' have claimed to offer a guarantee with respect to labor practices."

Representatives of the certifying groups acknowledge that their labels are imperfect tools for the eradication of child labor and that they are improving their methods.

"Child labor in the cocoa industry will continue to be a struggle as long as we continue to pay farmers a fraction of the cost of sustainable production. . . . Fairtrade isn't a perfect solution," said Bryan Lew, chief operating officer for Fairtrade America. But, he said, the higher prices for certified cocoa and the group's efforts to organize farmer cooperatives are steps toward alleviating its root cause: poverty.

While most major chocolate companies seek to buy at least some "certified" cocoa, Hershey has pursued certification more than others.

Hershey "will source 100 percent certified cocoa for its global chocolate product lines by 2020 and accelerate its programs to help eliminate child labor in the cocoa regions of West Africa," the company announced in a 2012 news release.

Leigh Horner, Hershey's vice president of corporate communications and sustainability, said the company's efforts are not reliant on the certifications alone. It views them instead "as one of many tools and strategies that need to be deployed. . . . Without the support of the local governments, these various efforts won't work."

'Severely inadequate'

One day this March, Amadou Sawadogo, 18, was preparing a patch of forest for a cocoa farm near the village of Blolequin, by the Liberian border.

He said he had been living in Burkina Faso and, when he was 16, came to Ivory Coast after "my father . . . asked [me] to come and look for money here."

Like others here, he said it was common for Burkinabe children to come with traffickers to work in Ivory Coast and that the financial arrangements are well-known. There are about 30 young Burkinabe working around Blolequin, he said. Payments from the traffickers to parents depended on a child's age. For a 15-year-old, he said, parents would be paid about $250. Once on the Ivorian farms, the boys make a little bit of money, typically less than a $1 per day, Sawadogo said.

None of this is legal under Ivorian law.

Ivory Coast signed the Harkin-Engel deal, too, and passed laws in 2010 and 2016 that define child labor and set penalties for its use. The Ivory Coast government committee handling child labor issues also said that it has taken other preventive measures: It built schools in rural areas and cracked down on people involved in child trafficking.

Child labor and child trafficking have flourished nonetheless because of the country's inability to enforce the laws. As U.S. State Department officials noted in a 2018 report, the primary police anti-trafficking unit is based in the nation's economic capital, Abidjan, several hours away from the cocoa-growing areas, and its budget is about $5,000 a year.

That amount, a State Department report says, is "severely inadequate."

In a statement to The Post, Ivory Coast's committee against child trafficking and child labor, said the $5,000 per year was not sufficient and that "the Ivorian government has to invest more in this area." The country also has faced the eruption of on-and-off civil wars in 2002 and 2011.

Making matters more complex, some of the young migrant workers, legally the victims of child labor, say they'd like to stay. Though he had arrived only two years ago, Sawadogo said he was prepared to stay in Ivory Coast and had started clearing his own patch of forest for a cocoa farm. On his plot of land, Sawadogo had built a small shelter out of branches. It was big enough for one person to sleep in. He owned a couple of battered metal bowls and had some oil, which he'd use to fry bananas picked for lunch.

"I haven't earned much money yet," he said. "But here I've made a little money."

'Nobody needs chocolate'

After missing the 2010 deadline, the industry established a less ambitious goal - to get a 70 percent reduction in child labor - and to do so by 2020. That goal, too, is unlikely to be met, the industry has indicated, and there is still no plan for consumer labels.

Over the years since striking the deal with the chocolate industry, Harkin and Engel have issued statements that sometimes supported the industry's evolving approach and other times laid out their hopes for more improvement.

Engel, now chairman of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, said policymakers have worked closely with the industry to make progress.

"The cocoa industry now makes serious investments in addressing child labor. We still have more work to do when it comes to this challenge," he said.

Engel said the Foreign Affairs Committee is working on legislation to address child labor and supply chain issues and will likely hold a hearing later this year focused on the matter.

Harkin did not respond to repeated requests for comment.

The problem, in part, according to some industry consultants, is that the companies have not done enough to fully investigate the depth of the problem.

The cocoa sector has sought "relatively little evidence relating to child slavery," according to a report by Embode, a human rights agency, for Mondelez, a U.S. company that includes several chocolate brands, including Cadbury and Toblerone. There has been a "general lack . . . of sufficient attention" to the problem, the report stated.

In the last major survey to measure progress against the Harkin-Engel goals, a 2015 report for the U.S. Labor Department found that, based on interviews with about 12,000 people, the number of child laborers reported to have worked in West Africa the previous year had increased to 2.1 million from 1.8 million in the previous survey, completed in 2009.

McCoy, of the World Cocoa Foundation, said the results were "in many ways . . . disappointing," especially given years of work on the issue. He did note some positive signs - of the Ivorian children working in cocoa, the percentage attending school had risen to 71 percent, up from 59 percent.

And, he noted, the companies have another program to combat child labor, one that now covers more than 200,000 West African farms.

The new system relies on hiring a local farmer to check other farms for child labor. If children are found working, the farmer is encouraged to send the children to school, and he or she is offered other assistance. The advantage, advocates say, is that the oversight comes from someone more like a social worker than a police officer.

In pilot programs, the new monitoring system reduced child labor by 30 percent over three years, but it's still not clear how willing the companies are to extend the program to their entire cocoa supply. It can cost about $70 annually per farmer.

"If child labor is a priority, this is commercially sustainable," said Nick Weatherill, executive director of the International Cocoa Initiative, which is developing the system.

Meanwhile, some experts note, what might be the most straightforward means of addressing child labor is scarcely mentioned: paying the farmers more for their cocoa. More money would give farmers enough to pay for their children's school expenses; alleviating their poverty would make them less desperate.

Under the Fairtrade program, cocoa farmers receive an extra 10 percent or more of prices, but that is not enough to lift the typical Ivorian farmer out of poverty.

One small Dutch company, Tony's Chocolonely, is paying an even bigger premium - about 40 percent more, in an attempt to provide a living wage. For a metric ton of cocoa beans that would normally fetch $1,300, Tony's pays an extra $520, or about $1,820.

Asked how likely it might be for other companies to follow suit, Paul Schoenmakers, a Tony's company executive, noted that many of the large chocolate brands may fear giving their competitors a price advantage by paying more. Schoenmakers said their premium cocoa price adds less than 10 percent to the cost of a typical chocolate bar.

"There's no economic textbook or management book that thinks that [paying more] is a good idea," he said.

The industry spokesman, McCoy, said he views the Tony's Chocolonely effort as an experiment.

"Tony's sources 7,000 tons of cocoa, which is a tiny amount. . . . How scalable is that approach?" McCoy said. "I think it's an open question."

But to Schoenmakers, it's a simple matter. "Nobody needs chocolate," he said. "It's a gift to yourself or someone else. We think it's absolute madness that for a gift that no one really needs, so many people suffer."

Why The Washington Post is publishing children's names and photos in this story

A reporter and photographer with The Washington Post spent 11 days in Ivory Coast reporting this story. Reporter Peter Whoriskey and photographer Salwan Georges traveled with a translator to three villages in the cocoa-growing region of the West African country: Bonon, Niambly and Blolequin. There, they interviewed 12 boys who gave their ages ranging from 13 to 18. The boys were working on farms harvesting cocoa, clearing brush with machetes and doing other work associated with cocoa production.

Before the interviews, Georges, through a translator, asked each boy if he agreed to be photographed and whether he consented to photographs that would identify him. Georges explained that such photos would circulate widely because The Post is available to millions of readers around the world and that may result in negative consequences for them. Most boys consented to having their faces photographed while several did not, so their photos were not published. All agreed to the use of their full names. Some of the boys interviewed remarked that they wanted their parents, who live in another country, to see their photos.

-

Design and development by Clare Ramirez. Photo editing by Bronwen Latimer. Map by Tim Meko. Copy editing by Sue Doyle.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Hershey, Nestle and Mars won't promise their chocolate is free of child labor

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Nearly 20 years ago, the cocoa industry's biggest companies pledged to eradicate the "worst forms" of child labor in their supply chains. Why haven't they kept their promises?

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The CLCCG was formed when the governments of Côte d'Ivoire and Ghana, the U.S. Department of Labor, and representatives of the international chocolate and cocoa industry committed to joining together in the fight against child labor in the production of cocoa.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
In addition to preventative interventions, we are rolling out targeted interventions to build and strengthen local child protection systems, in partnership with local authorities. While the interventions may differ across origins, our approach to strengthening child protection systems is aligned with Cocoa Life's mission to lead the transformation of the cocoa sector and follows the below principles:

Community-based: we believe that thriving cocoa growing communities - where communities are empowered to be accountable for the well-being of their children - are the foundation of a sustainable cocoa supply chain.

System-strengthening and sustainable: where the communities and families have access to basic services and infrastructure, and children have access to quality education, community authorities and government institutions are more capable in fulfilling their duty to protect children's rights and keeping children safe from harm.

Rights-based and child-centric: to ensure the best interests of the child are considered, as enshrined under the UN Child Rights Convention, which involves approaching child protection in its broader sense, beyond the narrow issue of child labor in cocoa, to include all child rights issues within the community.

Monitoring and remediation

We are working with local authorities and partners to roll-out community-based Child Labor Monitoring and Remediation Systems (CLMRS). When we say 'community-based', we mean that like Cocoa Life, the CLMRS is centered on communities and their empowerment. To ensure the CLMRS are sustainable and able to run independently of Cocoa Life in the long-term, we focus on building the capacity of the communities themselves, as well as that of public authorities to support them and fulfil their duty to protect human rights. That means, as part of our CLMRS, we:

Set up and train Community Child Protection Committees to become the focal point within the community and primary liaison to school and district authorities

Identify vulnerable children, particularly those who are out of school, who are either at risk or in a situation of child labor, through household and children interviews

Engage vulnerable children's parents and support children through collective and/or individual remediation

Share all data with the authorities and refer identified cases for remediation whenever needed

Use government-developed tools to support national policies and avoid the development of parallel systems

Take a broader lens to consider child rights beyond child labor and cover all children in the community, whether their parents grow cocoa or not

Based on learning from CLMRS and wider Cocoa Life program, advocate with government for measures to obtain universal access to quality education for children in cocoa growing communities and beyond

In order to drive long-lasting positive change for children in cocoa-growing regions, all actors along the chocolate supply chain need to play their part and join forces in addressing the systemic issues underlying child labor. This is why, as founding members, we support the work of the World Cocoa Foundation (WCF) and the International Cocoa Initiative (ICI), aiming to address the root causes of child labor and drive efforts to strengthen public-private partnership with governments, development partners and civil society organizations.

In the European Union, the world's largest consuming market for West African cocoa, we have joined forces with peer and supplier companies as well as NGOs to amplify our voice. Together, we are calling on the EU to strengthen human rights and environmental due diligence requirements of companies in global cocoa supply chains, and implement a smart policy mix to support the necessary environments in producing countries for the respect of human rights, including those of children. (Read our joint position here.)

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.keywords[]
child labor monitoring and remediation systems

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Cocoa Life - Cocoa Life is Tackling Child Labor

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
In addition to preventative interventions, we are rolling out targeted interventions to build and strengthen local child protection systems, in partnership with local authorities.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
The historical figure of importance, Iqbal Masih was a young Pakistani boy who was forced into bonded labor at age four. After being freed at age ten, Iqbal became an activist against bonded child labor. He became a martyr for his cause when he was murdered at age 12.

Overview of Iqbal Masih

Iqbal Masih was born in Muridke, a small, rural village outside of Lahore in Pakistan. Shortly after Iqbal's birth, his father, Saif Masih, abandoned the family. Iqbal's mother, Inayat, worked as a housecleaner but found it difficult to make enough money to feed all her children from her small income.

Iqbal, too young to understand his family's problems, spent his time playing in the fields near his two-room house. While his mom was away at work, his older sisters took care of him. His life changed drastically when he was just four years old.

In 1986, Iqbal's older brother was to be married and the family needed money to pay for a celebration. For a very poor family in Pakistan, the only way to borrow money is to ask a local employer. These employers specialize in this kind of barter, where the employer loans family money in exchange for the bonded labor of a small child.

To pay for the wedding, Iqbal's family borrowed 600 rupees (about $12) from a man who owned a carpet-weaving business. In return, Iqbal was required to work as a carpet weaver until the debt was paid off. Without being asked or consulted, Iqbal was sold into bondage by his family.

Workers Fighting for Survival

This system of peshgi (loans) is inherently inequitable; the employer has all the power. Iqbal was required to work an entire year without wages in order to learn the skills of a carpet weaver. During and after his apprenticeship, the cost of the food he ate and the tools he used were all added to the original loan. When and if he made mistakes, he was often fined, which also added to the loan.

In addition to these costs, the loan grew ever larger because the employer added interest. Over the years, Iqbal's family borrowed even more money from the employer, which was added to the amount of money Iqbal had to work off. The employer kept track of the loan total. It was not unusual for employers to pad the total, keeping the children in bondage for life. By the time Iqbal was ten years old, the loan had grown to 13,000 rupees (about $260).

The conditions in which Iqbal worked were horrendous. Iqbal and the other bonded children were required to squat on a wooden bench and bend forward to tie millions of knots into carpets. The children were required to follow a specific pattern, choosing each thread and tying each knot carefully. The children were not allowed to speak to each other. If the children started to daydream, a guard might hit them or they might cut their own hands with the sharp tools they used to cut the thread.

Iqbal worked six days a week, at least 14 hours a day. The room in which he worked was stifling hot because the windows could not be opened in order to protect the quality of the wool. Only two light bulbs dangled above the young children.

If the children talked back, ran away, were homesick, or were physically sick, they were punished. Punishment included severe beatings, being chained to their loom, extended periods of isolation in a dark closet, and being hung upside down. Iqbal often did these things and received numerous punishments. For all this, Iqbal was paid 60 rupees (about 20 cents) a day after his apprenticeship had ended.

The Bonded Labor Liberation Front

After working six years as a carpet weaver, Iqbal one day heard about a meeting of the Bonded Labor Liberation Front (BLLF) which was working to help children like Iqbal. After work, Iqbal snuck away to attend the meeting. At the meeting, Iqbal learned that the Pakistani government had outlawed peshgi in 1992. In addition, the government canceled all outstanding loans to these employers.

Shocked, Iqbal knew he wanted to be free. He talked to Eshan Ullah Khan, president of the BLLF, who helped him get the paperwork he needed to show his employer that he should be free. Not content to just be free himself, Iqbal worked to also get his fellow workers free.

Once free, Iqbal was sent to a BLLF school in Lahore. Iqbal studied very hard, finishing four years of work in just two. At the school, Iqbal's natural leadership skills became increasingly apparent and he became involved in demonstrations and meetings that fought against bonded child labor. He once pretended to be one of a factory's workers so that he could question the children about their work conditions. This was a very dangerous expedition, but the information he gathered helped close down the factory and free hundreds of children.

Iqbal began speaking at BLLF meetings and then to international activists and journalists. He spoke about his own experiences as a bonded child laborer. He was not intimidated by crowds and spoke with such conviction that many took notice of him.

Iqbal's six years as a bonded child had affected him physically as well as mentally. The most noticeable thing about Iqbal was that he was an extremely small child, about half the size he should have been at his age. At age ten, he was less than four feet tall and weighed a mere 60 pounds. His body had stopped growing, which one doctor described as "psychological dwarfism." Iqbal also suffered from kidney problems, a curved spine, bronchial infections, and arthritis. Many say that he shuffled his feet when he walked because of pain.

In many ways, Iqbal was made into an adult when he was sent to work as a carpet weaver. But he was not really an adult. He lost his childhood, but not his youth. When he went to the U.S. to receive the Reebok Human Rights Award, Iqbal loved watching cartoons, especially Bugs Bunny. Once in a while, he also had a chance to play some computer games while in the U.S.

A Life Cut Short

Iqbal's growing popularity and influence caused him to receive numerous death threats. Focused on helping other children become free, Iqbal ignored the letters.

On Sunday, April 16, 1995, Iqbal spent the day visiting his family for Easter. After spending some time with his mother and siblings, he headed over to visit his uncle. Meeting up with two of his cousins, the three boys rode a bike to his uncle's field to bring his uncle some dinner. On the way, the boys stumbled upon someone who shot at them with a shotgun. Iqbal died immediately. One of his cousins was shot in the arm; the other wasn't hit.

How and why Iqbal was killed remains a mystery. The original story was that the boys stumbled upon a local farmer who was in a compromising position with a neighbor's donkey. Frightened and perhaps high on drugs, the man shot at the boys, not intending to specifically kill Iqbal. Most people do not believe this story. Rather, they believe that leaders of the carpet industry disliked the influence Iqbal was having and ordered him murdered. As of yet, there is no proof that this was the case.

On April 17, 1995, Iqbal was buried. There were approximately 800 mourners in attendance.

*The problem of bonded child labor continues today. Millions of children, especially in Pakistan and India, work in factories to make carpets, mud bricks, beedis (cigarettes), jewelry, and clothing, all with similar horrific conditions as Iqbal experienced.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Iqbal Masih was a young Pakistani boy who became an activist against bonded child labor. He became a martyr for his cause when he was murdered at age 12.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Baby Iqbal, unaware of what dire conditions his family suffered with, was taken care of by his sisters and played in a vast field outside his small house. However, his childhood bid its farewell to Iqbal at the age of 4, when he tasted 'real life' for the first time. In 1986, the family needed money for his older brother's marriage celebration and borrowed Rs. 600 from a local carpet weaving business owner. In return, he took Iqbal as a bonded labour until the debt was recovered.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Who was Iqbal Masih? Everything You Need to Know

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Baby Iqbal, unaware of what dire conditions his family suffered with, was taken care of by his sisters and played in a vast field outside his small house. However, his childhood bid its farewell to Iqbal at the age of 4, when he tasted 'real life' for the first time.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
On May 14, 2019, the Dutch senate passed a law that requires companies to take action on child labor, the "Wet Zorgplicht Kinderarbeid" (Child Labor Due Diligence Law) - an important milestone in the fight against child labor that adds the Netherlands to a growing list of countries adopting due diligence legislation. The law means that companies delivering products to the Dutch market will be required to report on their activities to address child labor risks in their value chains.
What does the law say?

The law requires companies to submit a statement that they have applied due diligence on child labor in their value chains, meaning that they have taken steps to prevent, identify, and account for risks and cases of child labor in their value chain. This means that a company will not be required to provide a guarantee that no child labor occurs, but that it has done what can be reasonably expected to prevent it. The law follows a trend of more due diligence laws that have been adopted by European countries in recent years. While it is certain that the law will be implemented (January 2020 at the earliest), some elements are still to be worked out. For example, it is uncertain which institution will be in charge of the law's implementation. Also, the specifics of an acceptable action plan are to be determined. Joint, multi-stakeholder plans of action approved by the Minister of Foreign Trade and Development are one way to comply.

Child labor in agriculture

According to the ILO, 152 million children are victims of child labor, of which 71% are in agriculture. In 17 countries, coffee has a known risk for being produced using child labor. Child labor is a complex issue that has multiple root causes beyond the farm, including poverty and cultural norms. This cannot be solved by a single intervention alone, but requires intensive collaboration with communities, supply chain actors and governments. Read about how this certified cooperative works on child labor in Honduras.

What does it mean for your company?

Mandatory due diligence laws such as this one raise the bar for all companies, which means those companies that have already taken action are well-positioned. Thousands of companies already work with the Rainforest Alliance and its UTZ and Rainforest Alliance standards to help develop and implement their responsible sourcing commitments. This includes reducing the risk of human rights abuses while driving positive social and environmental change. In addition, the Rainforest Alliance promotes multi-stakeholder and area-based approaches and encourages collaboration with stakeholders, including governments, companies and civil society organizations, for example in cocoa in Côte d'Ivoire and in coffee in Uganda.

Although specifics still need to be worked out, this law is already a good reason to start working on due diligence regarding child labor. Learn more about our approach here.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
New Child Labor Due Diligence Law Stimulates Company Action on Child Labor | Rainforest Alliance for Business

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
On May 14, 2019, the Dutch senate passed a law that requires companies to take action on child labor, the "Wet Zorgplicht Kinderarbeid" (Child Labor Due Diligence Law) - an important milestone in the fight against child labor that adds the Netherlands to a growing list of countries adopting due diligence legislation.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
0:00 / 2:38•Watch full video

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
ABCs of Child Labor...15 products touched by child labor and child slavery. How many do you use?

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Special report : Inside the Congo cobalt mines that exploit children

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
The Children Risking Their Lives In Underwater Gold Mines

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
16x9 - Child Labour: The Dark Side of Chocolate

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Where Children Must Work - Tropic Of Cancer - Episode 5 Preview - BBC

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
The Dark Secret Behind Your Favorite Makeup Products | Shady | Refinery29

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
12 June marks the World Day Against Child Labour under the theme "Universal Social Protection to End Child Labour." On this day, the ILO, together with its constituents and partners, is calling for increased investment in social protection systems and schemes to establish solid social protection floors and protect children from child labour.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
The International Labour Organisation states in its latest World Report on Child Labour (2013) that there are around 265 million working children in the world-almost 17 per cent of the worldwide child population. According to the publicly available data discussed in more detail below, Sub-Saharan Africa is the region where child labour is most prevalent.

While absolute numbers are still high, particularly in those countries with the lowest standards of living, from a historical viewpoint there are concrete examples of countries that managed to virtually eliminate widespread child labour in the course of a century. The United Kingdom is a case in point. In terms of recent developments, global trends show a significant reduction in child labour over the last couple of decades. However, there is wide dispersion in the progress that different countries have achieved.
See all interactive charts on child labor ↓
Historical studies suggest that child work was widespread in Europe and North America in the 19th century, but declined very rapidly at the turn of the 20th century. The available historical evidence seems consistent with the fact that industrialisation in Western countries initially increased the demand for child labour, but then eventually contributed towards its elimination.

These visualizations show the share of children in employment for the UK and the United States at the turn of the 20th century. For the US chart you can add data on rural versus urban child labour trends: for both boys and girls, the incidence of child labour was higher in rural populations.

Whilst consistent survey data on child labour in the UK is limited beyond 1911, some estimates of 20th century labour have emerged. These statistics show the significant impact of the First and Second World Wars on childhood employment. Following a reported spike in employment during the First World War (1914-1918), rates of childhood labour appeared to fall to approximately 6-7 per cent of children aged 12-14 in England and Wales.

This would make the UK's rate of reduction in child labour slightly faster than that of the United States. However, with the onset of the Second World War in 1939, the incidence of child employment appeared to show another spike- by 1944, this had increased again to 15.3 per cent of 12-14 year olds.

A global comparison

How do the child labour figures above compare to current global estimates? This visualization plots the series for the UK, US, and also Italy, together with two recent global series. The different series in this chart are not perfectly comparable because of differences in the definitions. However, they do provide a rough sense of perspective.

As we can see, the incidence of child labour in England in 1900 was similar to global incidence a century later. Global rates of child labour today are similar to those of Italy in the 1950's at around 10 per cent. In the next section we explore these series in more detail and discuss recent developments.

The incidence of child labour has been going down in recent years

A complete and overview of recent global trends in child labour can be found in the ILO's report Marking Progress Against Child Labour (2013) produced by the organization's International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour (IPEC). This report presents global estimates and trends for the period 2000-2012.

The two charts here show the ILO report data. This first chart presents the recent changes in the world-wide share of children (ages 5-17) in employment.

As we discuss below, there is lack of consensus regarding the appropriate ages for measuring child labor, particularly for the purpose of cross-country comparisons and global aggregates. The age bracket ranging from 5 to 17 years of age is common in many UN reports, but there is evidently a need to differentiate work at different ages, since children in their teenage years are less vulnerable to workplace abuse. Other common age brackets are 5-11 and 5-14 years of age.

The second chart presents global trends using estimates in two age brackets: 5-14 and 15-17 years of age. Unfortunately these global estimates are not broken down by gender, and are not available for other age brackets. However, the pattern is consistent with the remark made above: child labour has been going down in recent years.

The share of economically active children in the world has been going down for decades

The ILO Programme on Estimates and Projections of the Economically Active Population (EPEAP) has been producing statistics on labour force participation (for adults and children) since 1950, through the ILO's cross-country database known as LABORSTA. Basu (1999) uses this source to produce global labour force participation rates for children (ages 10-14) in the period 1950-1995.

This visualization presents the corresponding trend using the data published in Basu (1999). While these estimates are informative about child labour, they cannot be linked directly to those of children in employment published by the ILO IPEC for the period 2000-2012 due to issues of comparability; specifically, the IPEC and EPEAP estimates discussed above rely on different survey instruments covering a different set of countries, and break up the relevant population in different age brackets.

Many studies rely on the LABORSTA data to shed light on the extent of child labour in the 20th century. However, this source is generally believed to understate the extent of child labour, since data is not collected for work inside the household (not even market work). Nonetheless, regardless of discrepancies between these two sources, the trends tell a consistent story: the share of economically active children in the world has been going down for decades.

Where do children work?

Contrary to popular perception, most working children in the world are unpaid family workers, rather than paid workers in manufacturing establishments or other forms of wage employment. This visualization shows a breakdown of 2012 global estimates of child labour by employment status.

Schultz and Strauss (2008) compile information from a number of different sources (mostly country-specific datasets from national statistics offices-see the original paper for detailed sources) to provide a picture of the industrial composition of economically active children. This table presents their results. In almost every listed country, a majority of economically active children work in agriculture, forestry, or fishing.

A point that is also worth emphasizing here is the lack of consistency in the age brackets for which child labour estimates are available.

Child labour across countries today

How does the incidence of child labour vary across countries?

This visualization shows the share of children (7-14 years) in employment for a number of countries (for the years in which data is publicly available from the World Bank consolidated dataset).

As it can be appreciated, the prevalence of child labour varies widely by country; for instance, the share of children in employment (here defined in terms of being economically active for one hour a week) was fifteen times larger in Uganda than in Turkey according to 2006 estimates. While most countries exhibit a downward trend, many countries are lagging.

Switch to the map view in this chart to compare the level of child labour between countries. Sub-Saharan Africa is the region where child labour is most prevalent, and also the region where progress has been slowest and least consistent.

What fraction of working children are not attending school?

As we discuss in more detail below, child labour is by definition problematic whenever it interferes with the children's development. Because of this it is informative to study child labour specifically when it is coupled with absence from school.

The visualization here shows the share of children in employment who work only (i.e. those children who are economically active and do not attend school). Again, there is wide variation across countries; while in Latin America the majority of children who are economically active also attend school, in sub-Saharan Africa this is not the case. However, trends are encouraging on the whole, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa where the problem is most acute. The next section exploring correlates, determinants and consequences of child labour, provides more information about the link between work and school attendance.

How many hours do working children actually work?

The harmful consequences of child labor are partly determined by the intensity of work, and how it affects time allocation in other activities, such as playing or learning (more on this below). Hence, to understand child labor it is crucial to understand time allocation.

The chartshows, country by country, the weekly average of hours worked by children (ages 7-14) who are economically active.

As we can see, average hours worked by children vary widely across countries, even at similar levels of GDP per capita. For example, while average incomes in Bangladesh and Nepal are roughly similar, in the former economically active children spend more than three times as much time working.

In fact, even across countries with similar labor force participation of children, differences in average hours worked are large.

Current gender gaps

In the majority of countries boys are more likely than girls to be engaged in economic activity. The visualization here presents the incidence of child employment for boys vs. girls by country, according to the most recent estimates available from the data published by the World Bank. Here, the diagonal line marks equal values for boys and girls; as it can be appreciated, most countries lie below the diagonal line.

As it has already been mentioned, child labour is particularly problematic to the extent that it hinders the children's development, notably by interfering with schooling. Since time is a scarce resource, the extent to which children's employment is linked to school attendance depends on the type and number of hours worked.

In countries where children tend to work longer hours, it is more common that working children remain out of school. The chart here shows this by plotting country-level average hours worked by children against share of working children who are out of school.

The chart here shows aggregates, but we can see a similar relationship between school attendance and hours worked using micro data (i.e., plotting the relationship by pooling observations across individual households).

The visualization from Schultz and Strauss (2008) presents evidence of this link using micro data from UNICEF's Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys (2000 and 2001). It plots school attendance rates for children 10-14 against total hours worked in the last week (by type of work) with 95 percent confidence intervals (labeled CI and plotted in lighter shades).

The steepest part of the curves are in the range 20-45 hours, suggesting-as one would naturally expect-that it is most difficult for a child to attend school when approaching full-time work. This evidence also shows that there are no significant difference by domestic or marketed work.

Is there a causal relationship between children's work and schooling?

The above relationship between work and schooling is informative about the impact of children's work on schooling, but is not sufficient to establish causality; there are many potential economic and cultural factors that simultaneously influence both schooling and work decisions; and in any case, the direction of the relationships is not obvious-do children work because they are not attending school, or do they fail to attend school because they are working?

A number of academic studies have tried to establish causality by attempting to find a factor (an 'instrumental variable') that only affects whether a child works without affecting how the family values other uses of the child's time (e.g. Rosati, F., Rossi, M. (2003); ). While these studies can be criticized on the grounds of the validity of the instrumental variables used, they seem to agree on the fact that there is a stronger association between child labour and schooling than the raw data would suggest.

Cross-country data on child labour and economic growth suggests a strong negative correlation between economic status and child labour. This visualization depicts the cross-country incidence of child labour (share of children ages 7-14 involved in economic activity) against GDP per capita (PPP adjusted GDP per capita in international dollars). To provide some context regarding the absolute number of children, each country's observation is pictured as a circle where the size of the circle represents population aged 5-14.

This evidence cannot be interpreted causally; as before, countries differ in many aspects that may be associated with child labour choices and income. But there are a number of reasons why, conceptually, child labour might be indeed caused by poor living conditions. For example, children might only work if the parents are unable to meet subsistence conditions; or it could be the case that parents allocate more of the children's time to schooling as they afford the necessary inputs for schooling (text-books, uniforms, etc).

Partly following this logic, several countries have implemented cash transfer programmes in an attempt to discourage child labour and increase schooling. The idea behind these programmes is that the cash transfers are conditioned on a number of desirable actions, including sending children to school; and in doing so, they lower the relative costs of schooling and raise family income.

Schultz (2004) evaluates one such program in Mexico (the so-called 'Progresa' program) and finds a significant reduction in wage and market work associated with eligibility for Progresa. Similar findings have been found in other countries as well. The literature often refers to these programmes as the prime example of "collaborative measures" against child labour: non-coercive interventions that alter the economic environment of decision makers in order to make them more willing to let children stay out of work.

Definitions and measurement

General definition

Broadly speaking, the term "child labour" is defined as the employment of children in any work that deprives them of their childhood and dignity, and that is harmful to their physical and mental development.

The ILO defines child labour as work that is mentally, physically, socially or morally dangerous and harmful to children; and that interferes with the children's schooling by depriving them of the opportunity to attend school, either by obliging them to leave school prematurely, or by requiring them to attempt to combine school attendance with excessively long and heavy work (a general definition along these lines can be found in the ILO's Child Labour website). The ILO's Convention No. 138, adopted in 1973 and ratified by most countries of the world, stipulates the relevant ages that different countries use to define child labour.

Hours worked and age classification

According to the definition provided above, whether or not a given job is considered 'child labour' depends on the details of the actual context - the child's age, the number of hours worked and the type of tasks performed. The chart here, from Hilowitz (2004), shows a diagrammatic classification of child labour (shaded region) depending on age and type of work.

This chart shows why it is difficult to produce estimates of child labour that are suitable for cross-country comparisons: there are differences in legislation, and age matters relative to the type of work.

According to the conceptual classification used by the ILO, children in child labour include those in worst forms of child labour and children in employment below the minimum age, excluding children in permissible light work - where "permissible light work" is defined as any non-hazardous work by children (ages 12 to 14) of less than 14 hours during the reference week (for more details see ILO-IPEC, Diallo, Y., et al. (2013)).

Global aggregates and cross-country data are not publicly available for 'children in child labour' as per the conceptual definition above. The ILO tends to report figures of economically active children for the broadest age bracket (5-17 years of age). The World Bank - World Development Indicators also report figures of economically active children, but use a narrower age definition (7-14 years of age). In both cases, 'economically active' refers to children who work for at least one hour during a reference week.

Because of the limitations of the data, academic studies often focus on children's time allocation, which leaves more room for exploring the consequences of employment on other activities, such as school attendance. These studies tend to rely on country-specific survey data.

Terminology

Many studies distinguish between 'children in child labour' and 'children in employment', while using the terms 'working children', 'children in economic activity' and 'children in employment' interchangeably. In such cases, the former ('children in child labour') are considered a subset of the latter ('children in employment' or any of the aforementioned interchangeable terms).

As noted above, children in child labour include those in worst forms of child labour and children in employment below the minimum age, excluding children in permissible light work-where "permissible light work" is defined as any non-hazardous work by children (ages 12 to 14) of less than 14 hours during the reference week (for more details see ILO-IPEC, Diallo, Y., et al. (2013)).

Data quality

Schultz and Strauss (2008) provide a complete account of the particular challenges that arise from measuring children employment through household surveys. The authors highlight difficulties arising from coverage (i.e. capturing the most vulnerable children through random sampling) and accuracy (i.e. misreported hours worked and sensitivity to the recall period used).

Cunningham and Viazzo (1996) and Humphries (2010) note similar challenges in the use of national census and household survey data for accurate coverage of the incidence of child labour. There remains a generally accepted consensus that census data is likely to underestimate the scale of child labour for several reasons. This is particuarly important in case of later censuses, where national regulation required children to be in education; in this case, child labour was likely to be underreported, for fear of prosecution. These estimates therefore often underrepresent the numerous children, particularly girls, who worked unpaid at home. Since census results typically capture data from households, this often limits coverage to children who live within a family household. This can exclude children either orphaned, or living on the streets- in many cases, we might expect the incidence of child labour to be more prevalent in these demographics.

Specifically regarding the information published by the World Bank in their World Development Indicators, it is important to highlight that, while definitions are standardized (children in employment are always defined as those children aged 7-14 involved in economic activity for at least one hour in the reference week of the corresponding survey), the data-collection instruments are not standardized across the different sub-sources feeding the consolidated dataset. It is because of this that many policy reports (such as the much-referenced report Marking Progress Against Child Labour (2013)) 'homogenize' the data before reporting estimates, by correcting for discrepancies in the underlying survey instruments. Those visualizations presented here that use the consolidated data published by the World Bank have not been corrected.

Issues of consistency across different survey instruments in the World Bank consolidated data can help us explain country-specific patterns that are otherwise difficult to interpret. Consider the case of India. As can be appreciated in this visualization, the incidence of child labour in India seems to jump up in 2006, only to go back in 2010 to the levels that would have been predicted with the observations from 2000 and 2005. After checking the survey catalogue, it becomes clear that the estimates for 2006 come from the country's Demographic and Health Survey, while those for the other years come from consecutive rounds of the National Sample Survey. Cases such as this illustrate why current academic studies typically rely on data stemming from a single survey instrument, such as UNICEF's Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys.

Data and research gaps

In addition to the above-mentioned difficulties related to measurement, there are also important limitations in the way child labour data is made available.

As pointed out before, most UN reports publish global child labour estimates for custom age brackets, and only sometimes break down estimates by gender and type of work (including distinctions for 'light work', 'hazardous work', etc.). To our knowledge, there are no publicly available cross-country estimates of the evolution of child labour, broken down simultaneously by gender, age and type of work.

This is unfortunate, since a set of time-series constructed from ' contingency tables' cutting across age, gender and type of work would give us a much better picture of where to focus our efforts to fight child labour. Constructing such tables should be straightforward from the depurated micro-data used to produce the existing global reports.

Relatedly, it would be similarly helpful if the depurated cross-country series published in the World Bank - World Development Indicators were expanded to account for more flexible definitions of economic activity beyond "one hour of work in the reference week".

Some exercises along these lines have already been undertaken in academia. As we discuss above, Schultz and Strauss (2008) present estimates of 'children in economic activity', by type of activity (market work and domestic work) and by number of hours worked. To do this, the authors used mainly UNICEF's Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys (MICS) from 2000 and 2001. It would be extremely helpful for researchers and policymakers if such exercises were updated and published regularly in open-access data portals.

Regarding gaps in empirical research, it is important to highlight the lack of robust evidence speaking to the consequences of child labour on future outcomes - such as the working children's subsequent health and earnings in adulthood. Schultz and Strauss (2008) provide a summary of available evidence on this research front. The body of literature is thin and the econometric results tend to be fragile because of difficulties to establish causality.

A related research question for which there is little robust empirical evidence is whether child labor is the result of 'agency problems' - namely, whether children work because parents fail to fully consider the tradeoffs and costs that work has on their children.

Children in employment (country-specific historical data)

Toniolo and Vecchi (2008)

Data Source: Toniolo, Gianni, and Giovanni Vecchi. Italian Children at Work. 1881-1961. Giornale degli economisti e Annali di economia (2007): 401-427.

Description of available measures: Share of children ages 10-14 (total, and by gender) who are economically active

Time span: 1981-1961

Geographical coverage: Italy

Cunningham and Viazzo (1996)

Data Source: Cunningham, Hugh, and Pier Paolo Viazzo. Child Labour in Historical Perspective 1800-1985: Case Studies from Europe, Japan and Colombia. No. hisper96/1. UNICEF Innocenti Research Centre, 1996.

Description of available measures: Share of boys and girls (ages 10-14) recorded as working

Time span: 1851-1911

Geographical coverage: United Kingdom

World Development Indicators published by the World Bank (based on data from ILO, UNICEF and the World Bank)

The main source of consolidated data on child labour is the inter-agency research cooperation programme Understanding Children's Work. The principal source for this programme is the ILO's Statistical Information and Monitoring Programme on Child Labour (SIMPOC), which is the statistical arm of the International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour (IPEC). Understanding Children's Work links the SIMPOC data with data produced by the World Bank (specifically the Bank's Living Standards Measurement Study datasets) and UNICEF (specifically datasets produced with the organization's so-called Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys); as well as data from direct partnerships with national statistical offices. Details about the corresponding household surveys used to produce these datasets, including information about sample size, sample units and coverage, can be found in survey catalog of Understanding Children's Work.

Data Source: Understanding Children's Work project based on data from ILO, UNICEF and the World Bank. This data is published by the World Bank.

Description of available measures:

Geographical coverage: Global by country (predominantly low and middle income countries)

Link: http://data.worldbank.org/indicators

ILO - ILOSTAT (formerly ILO - LABORSTA)

The ILO Programme on Estimates and Projections of the Economically Active Population (EPEAP) has been producing statistics on labour force participation (for adults and children) since 1945, through the database known as ILOSTAT (formerly LABORSTA). Many studies rely on the LABORSTA/ILOSTAT data to shed light on the extent of child labour in the 20th century, before ILO started producing specialized child labour data. LABORSTA/ILOSTAT data is however problematic as a source to measure child labour, since data on work inside the household (even market work) are often not collected. Schultz and Strauss (2008) say that this source is not reliably useful for analyzing changes in child labor over time, given that the survey instruments, coverage, and estimation methodologies are not designed for this purpose.

Data Source: ILO Programme on Estimates and Projections of the Economically Active Population (EPEAP), through the

Description of available measures: Labour force participation rates by age groups

Time span: Since 1950

Geographical coverage: Global by country

Link: http://www.ilo.org/ilostat/

Children's time allocation (cross-country data)

UNICEF MICS

The UNICEF's Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys, which can be obtained upon request, contain rich information about children's time allocation in 108 countries (essentially the same set of countries for which the World Bank publishes the data referenced above). They include a child labour module which asks children 5-14 whether they work outside of their household in the last week and the last year as well as how many hours they worked outside the household in the last week. The surveys also collect hours in the last week for work in domestic chores and in the household business.

Data Source: UNICEF MICS

Description of available measures: Children's time allocation outside their household and in domestic chores in the household

Time span: 1994-2015

Geographical coverage: Global by country (predominantly low and middle income countries)

Link: http://mics.unicef.org/

Composite indices

Maplecroft's Child Labour Index

Maplecroft's Child Labour Index evaluates the frequency and severity of reported child labour incidents in 197 countries. The private risk analysis firm producing the data does not provide details about its methodology, but it does produce periodic analysis reports that are publicly available. Further information can be found on Maplecroft's website.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Why and where do children work? How did child labor change over time?

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
160 million children, almost 1 in 10 worldwide, are engaged in child labor, with 80 million working in hazardous conditions in agriculture, mining, domestic labor, and other sectors. On tobacco farms, children work long hours in extreme heat, exposed to nicotine and toxic pesticides that can make them sick.