No Love For Chocolate Producers

The New Republic: Protests Hurt Child Laborers In Cocoa Fields

(The New Republic) 
Until stability returns and Côte d'Ivoire's north and south are reunited, there is little chance that efforts to improve child labor conditions will gain much momentum. But reconciliation remains a long way off. Numerous peace agreements between the government and the rebels, brokered under the auspices of the United Nations, the African Union and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) have quickly collapsed. The country's president, Laurent Gbagbo, has repeatedly antagonized the opposition by refusing to relinquish key powers to a temporary power-sharing government.

Meanwhile the rebel forces repeatedly have balked at disarmament. Plans for new elections, a key milestone toward reconciliation, have twice been postponed — first from October 2005 to October 2006, and now again to October 2007. Another round of negotiations, sponsored by ECOWAS and aimed at implementing the existing peace agreements, are currently under way in Burkina Faso. (The outgoing head of the U.N. mission to Côte d'Ivoire, the Swedish diplomat Pierre Schori, has warned the two sides: "Don't blow it this time. There won't be any more excuses.")

And, yet, while most of the blame for the ongoing stalemate rests with Gbagbo and rebel leader Guillaume Soro, the United Nations and the members of the Security Council haven't exactly stepped up to the plate. Schori, in an interview with UPI, complained that, when he took over the U.N. mission, he received no recommendations from his predecessor and that the U.N. effort originally lacked urgency.

Hoping to prove that "African solutions to African problems" can work, the Security Council has tended to take a back seat in any negotiations to ECOWAS and the African Union. The Security Council has since intervened with sticks: It imposed an arms embargo on the country in 2004, and it threatened to ban the travel and seize the assets of key players on both sides if peace talks were not resumed.

But carrots — economic aid and security guarantees — could work, and the Security Council has been slow to offer them. The United States in particular has been reluctant to get involved, even though it might be able to serve as an honest broker in a way that Burkina Faso (where the rebels found sanctuary before the abortive 2002 coup that started the civil war) or France (which has been accused of supporting the rebellion and which has the baggage of being the country's former colonial master) cannot. A political settlement — not a chocolate boycott — ought to be the focus for labor and human rights groups, because only with peace can the industry police its farms.

In the near term, a boycott of chocolate would also hurt, not help, many poor Ivorian farmers — and their children. Agriculture accounts for 27 percent of the country's GDP. And, while it is true that country's cocoa farmers receive just a fraction of the price a consumer pays for a piece of chocolate (most of the money goes to marketing and processing costs), cocoa sales are still all many farmers have to live on

. Already, because of the controversy over child labor and the civil war, Côte d'Ivoire's share of the world cocoa market has fallen. And the war has badly hurt the country's economy: It has tumbled from 156th to 164th out of the 177 countries ranked by the U.N. Development Program's annual Human Development Index. What's more, fully 45 percent of its population now lives below the poverty line, compared with 30 percent before the civil war began. That includes a lot of children, since it is estimated that 42 percent of the country's 18.5 million inhabitants are younger than 15. That's why responsible children's rights groups, like the Canadian arm of Save the Children, have stopped short of endorsing a chocolate boycott.

Other children's rights advocates should follow suit. It's all well and good to nudge chocolate producers toward better labor practices despite the ongoing conflict. But until peace and stability return to Côte d'Ivoire, a boycott on chocolate isn't going to keep children from slavery or fill their stomachs. (In fact, for now, cocoa sales may be one of the few things keeping many Ivorian children from starving.) But, in at least one respect, Teun van de Keuken, is right: When you bite into the delicious bon bon your lover gave you today, you really should feel guilty — about the calories.