by Tim Newman · February 15, 2011
Valentine's Day is an opportunity for many people to learn more about how their chocolate is produced. That impulse is what motivated Leigh Vickery to write an article about the well-documented and continued use of forced, trafficked and child labor in the cocoa industry in West Africa. The article was published by Tyler Paper in Texas, but soon after it was posted, the management made the decision to remove Leigh's piece.After censoring Leigh's article, the newspaper posted a new one by Business Editor Casey Murphy that sounds more like industry talking points than actual journalism. As evidence that labor rights are protected in the cocoa industry, Murphy quotes one company representative who states simply, "We're very comfortable with the vendors we get our chocolate from" without providing any actual evidence of suppliers' efforts to address labor rights violations. The company representative states that chocolate is "just a token of love." Unfortunately, every report on labor rights conditions in West Africa confirms that chocolate is actually linked to continued exploitation of workers.
For example, the U.S. Department of Labor cites cocoa from five different West African countries as tainted by child and forced labor. In fact, cocoa from the Ivory Coast and Nigeria is on a list from the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) of products that government contractors must prove are not produced by forced or child labor due to the pervasive existence of these abuses in the region that produces the vast majority of the world's cocoa. Additional annual reports from both DOL and the State Department also highlight child labor and trafficking connected to the primary ingredient in chocolate.
The most extensive independent analysis of labor rights abuses on cocoa farms in West Africa and industry efforts to address the exploitation also contradicts Murphy's article. Tulane University's Payson Center for International Development reported in 2009 that one million children in the Ivory Coast and Ghana work in the cocoa industry and that the voluntary industry protocol cited by Murphy as evidence that the industry is dealing with this abuse has many critical aspects that have not been implemented in the ten years since the agreement was signed and that the efforts supported by companies do not sufficiently remediate forced labor and trafficking.
Unfortunately, the evidence is overwhelming that abuses continue and the efforts of the broader chocolate industry have not done enough. As Leigh's article notes, there are companies that are working more proactively to end these abuses and those companies should be acknowledged for their efforts. However, consumers have a right to know which companies are not stepping up to the plate to end such severe human rights violations.
While Tyler Paper decided to censor Leigh's article that highlighted the reality behind chocolate in favor of corporate propaganda, the International Labor Rights Forum worked with Leigh to make her article available on its blog. This might make a good temporary solution, but the bigger question is Tyler Paper's commitment to journalistic integrity. Additionally, Tyler Paper's actions fit in to a broader context where those in power have continuously attempted to silence those who expose abuse in the cocoa industry. In the Ivory Coast, journalist Guy-Andre Kieffer disappeared in 2004 while investigating corruption in the cocoa industry. This past summer, three Ivorian journalists ended up in jail after they published an article about a government probe into ongoing mismanagement and corruption in their country's cocoa industry.
The good news is that the three journalists jailed in the Ivory Coast in July 2010 were released, in part due to the international pressure from Change.org readers who took action. Those journalists ended up on our list of Human Trafficking Heroes of 2010. Let's use the collective strength we've exerted before to stand up for those who speak out against child labor and trafficking once again.
Contact Tyler Paper now to tell its management that we will not support their censorship of labor rights abuses in the cocoa industry.
Photo credit: GiantsFanatic
Tim Newman is a campaigns assistant at the International Labor Rights Forum. He also works on the Stop Firestone campaign. 
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