GENEVA (ILO News) - The International Labour Office (ILO) today welcomed the establishment of a new initiative to fight child labour and adult forced labour in cocoa cultivation and processing.
ILO Director-General Juan Somavia said the establishment of the International Cocoa Initiative - Working Towards Responsible Labour Standards for Cocoa Growing, would support the ILO global campaign to bring good working practices to the cocoa industry. The agreement establishing the Foundation in Geneva was signed by representatives of the world's chocolate, biscuit and confectionery industries, the International Union of Food and Allied Workers (IUF), Child Labour Coalition, "Free the Slaves" and the National Consumers League (NCL).
"We welcome this initiative on the part of the cocoa industry, the international trade union movement and NGOs", Mr. Somavia said. "In collaboration with this Foundation, the ILO will play an important role in identifying strategies to remove children from the worst forms of child labour and adults engaged in forced labour in the growing and processing of cocoa beans and their derivative products."
As part of its earlier commitments, the ILO helped along the process of setting up the Foundation which will oversee and sustain efforts to eliminate the worst forms of child labour and forced labour in the growing and processing of cocoa beans and their derivative products.
The Foundation will provide financial and operational support to field projects and act as a clearinghouse for best practices that help eliminate the worst forms of child labour in the growing of cocoa. Furthermore, the Foundation will develop a joint action programme of research, information exchange and action to enforce internationally-recognized abusive child and forced labour standards. It will also help determine the most appropriate, practical means of monitoring and public reporting in compliance with these standards.
A Board of Directors, composed equally of industry and non-industry representatives, will oversee the Foundation. It will be based in Geneva, Switzerland and the ILO will serve as an advisor to the Foundation's Board of Directors.
The establishment of the Foundation is the follow-up to an agreement, concluded in October 2001 to end child labour on cocoa farms, between two members of the U.S. Congress, Senator Tom Harkin and Representative Elliott Engel and representatives of the world chocolate industry to eliminate child slavery on West African cocoa plantations and end the worst forms of child labour in the global cocoa-chocolate sector. The ILO, the IUF, the anti-slavery group "Free the Slaves" and the National Consumers League (NCL) were initial members of an advisory group that participated in the agreement.
The ILO - through its International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour (IPEC) - aims to progressively eliminate child labour worldwide, emphasizing the eradication of the worst forms of abuse as quickly as possible. To achieve this, it is active in more than 70 countries with programmes that encourage policy reform and put in place concrete measures to end child labour and through international and national campaigns to change social attitudes and promote ratification and effective implementation of child labour conventions.