Child labor exposed in cocoa in 2000-2:
- Knight Ridder Reports
- Slavery: A Global Investigation Documentary
- IITA Report (US Departments of State and Labor/International Labor Organization published research survey documenting the prevalence of abuse)
Voluntary industry initiative to end the worst forms of child labor:
In 2001, after legislation for a mandatory slave-free label passed the House of Representatives, industry instead agreed to voluntarily end the worst forms of child labor in cocoa by July 1, 2005 in the
When industry failed to meet the deadline, it extended the deadline to July, 2008 and commited to ending the worst forms of child labor on only 50% of farms in Cote D'Ivoire and Ghana in this statement
In 2005, Global Exchange published this critique of the Protocol:
The News on Chocolate is Bittersweet
Evidence that industry is on target to miss the Protocol deadline once again in 2008:
This report, commissioned by the US Department of State, shows that industry is on target to miss the deadline again, saying that industry's definition of certification is "a misnomer":
Payson Center for International Development and Technology Transfer Tulane University. Oversight of Public and Private Initiatives to Eliminate the Worst Forms of Child Labor in the Cocoa Sector in Code d'Ivoire and Ghana October 31, 2007.
On February 14, 2008 Christian Parenti reported from the Ivory Coast cocoa fields, in Fortune Magazine: "Today child workers, many under the age of 10, are everywhere":
Chocolate's bittersweet economy
BBC has reported on this situation regularly since the time of the first media exposes:
Response by concerned organizations:
Global Exchange and other leaders in cocoa industry reform developed the following Commitment to Ethical Cocoa Sourcing, which lays out an alternative that will bring real reform and an end to abusive child labor in the cocoa industry: