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Chocolate
Child Labor and Slavery in the Chocolate Industry
In recent years, a handful of organizations and journalists have exposed the widespread use of child labor, and in some cases slavery, on cocoa farms in Western Africa.[4][5] Since then, the industry has become increasingly secretive, making it difficult for reporters to not only access farms where human rights violations still occur, but to then disseminate this information to the public. In 2004, the Ivorian First Lady’s entourage allegedly kidnapped and killed a journalist reporting on government corruption in its profitable cocoa industry In 2010, Ivorian government authorities detained three newspaper journalists after they published an article exposing government corruption in the cocoa sector. The farms of Western Africa supply cocoa to international giants such as Hershey’s, Mars, and Nestlé—revealing the industry’s direct connection to the worst forms of child labor, human trafficking, and slavery.
Dutch raise the bar in chocolate industry's fight against child labor
The world's biggest food companies have long been criticized for failing to tackle the insidious problem of child labor in the $140 billion global chocolate market. Now the Netherlands, with a population of 17 million and a large cocoa footprint, is using a carrot-and-stick approach to spur faster change.
Hershey investors suing over child labor allowed to pursue files
Newspaper article highlighting investors in Hershey chocolate seeking to force it to turn over records about cocoa from African farms that may use illegal child labor.
Senators call for crackdown on cocoa imports made with forced child labor
Washington Post article calling for the stopping of cocoa produced using forced and/or child labor.
Tracing the bitter truth of chocolate and child labour
In an investigation into the supply chain that delivers much of the chocolate sold in the UK - more than half a million tonnes a year - the BBC found evidence of human trafficking and child slave labour.
Mining
Child Mining - 10 Facts
Around the world, children, ages 5-17, work in mines for as little as $2 per day.Because of the relatively small number of child miners (one million), compared to child laborers in agriculture (over 100 million), child mining has not received the attention it deserves. Additionally, mining often takes place in temporary, remote, small-scale locations making it difficult to regulate and monitor.
Children as young as five make up most of Madagascar’s mica mining workforce
Investigation finds thousands of children are scavenging in deadly conditions for mineral widely used by car and electronics firms
Congo, child labour and your electric car
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For more than a decade the global digital revolution has been enabled by places like Kolwezi, a mining town dotted with small Chinese casinos and faded Belgian colonial bungalows. The world’s largest mining companies rub shoulders with miners who dig copper and cobalt out of the earth by hand with little or no safety protection.
Is your phone tainted by the misery of the 35,000 children in Congo's mines?
Guardian (British newspaper) article highlighting slave like conditions of cobalt miners (including children) in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
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