Background
In late 2000 a BBC documentary reported the use of enslaved children in the production of cocoa—the main ingredient in chocolate— in West Africa. Other media followed by reporting widespread child slavery and child trafficking in the production of cocoa. The cocoa industry was accused of profiting from child slavery and trafficking. The European Cocoa Association dismissed these accusations as "false and excessive" and the industry said the reports were not representative of all areas. Later the industry acknowledged the working conditions for children were unsatisfactory and children's rights were sometimes violated and acknowledged the claims could not be ignored.
In 2001, US Representative Eliot Engel introduced a legislative amendment to an agriculture bill. This amendment was give the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) $250,000 to develop a label to indicate no child slave labor was used in growing or harvesting cocoa; this label would be similar to the "dolphin safe" labels used for tuna. The amendment was approved in the House of Representatives vote of 291–115. The bill appeared to have similar support in the Senate. The international cocoa industry strongly opposed it and the Chocolate Manufacturers Association hired former senators George Mitchell and Bob Dole to lobby against it. The cocoa industry faced potential consumer boycotts and harmful legislation if the bill were to pass. Mitchell and Dole encouraged the industry to make a deal, and before the bill went to a vote in the Senate, the cocoa industry agreed to address the problem without legislation.
Senator Tom Harkin and Engel negotiated a deal with the cocoa industry to create the Harkin-Engel Protocol. The protocol was signed in September 2001 with the objective to eliminate the "worst forms of child labor" and adult forced labor on cocoa farms in West Africa. It was signed and witnessed by the heads of eight major chocolate companies, Harkin, Engel, Senator Herb Kohl, the ambassador of Côte d’Ivoire, the director of the International Programe on the Elimination of Child Labor, and others.
Read more about this topic: Harkin-Engel Protocol
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