Extreme poverty and lack of livelihood opportunities result in some families sending their children to work on cocoa farms. It is reported that some children are ‘sold’ to traffickers or farm owners, paying for a determined duration of labour. Children as young as 10 years then work for 12-14 hours a day with few breaks, insufficient water and nutrition, forced to carry heavy bags of cocoa beans across long distances, and with exposure to pesticides and other hazardous agricultural chemicals without adequate protection. Almost every child on a cocoa farm will display scars and wounds from swinging the heavy-bladed machetes used to crop the plants.
To comply with international labour standards and norms, such as the ILO convention 138 on the Minimum Age for Employment and the ILO Convention 182 on the Worst Forms of Child Labour, multinational corporations need to ensure that their suppliers are not involved in human trafficking and/or forced labour of children and adults. Companies should further implement monitoring systems, transparent procurement policies, regular auditing activities and training of the supply chain managers on how to detect human trafficking/forced labour or any other irregular incidents.
This discussion gives lessons learned and emerging practices to eliminate child labour within supply chains. How has public policy impacted child labour practices? Can international labour standards and norms continued to be improved? How does culture and gender impact the practices of child labour?
This introduction webinar for the RESPECT Webinar Series 2017 New technologies, Innovation and Entrepreneurship Tackling Human Trafficking was held on 8th December 2016. How are new technologies and innovations impacting human trafficking? How can new technologies and innovation address and combat human...
Men, women and children continue to be subjected to trafficking in human beings, as local, national and international statistics painfully illustrate. Human traffickers continue to act with impunity, as low global conviction rates sadly demonstrate. Yet given the nature of...
On 22-23 June, Tech Against Trafficking launched its second Accelerator program, welcoming Seattle Against Slavery and Unseen UK into the community. Both organizations have shown exceptional innovation and potential in their depl...Read More
The environmental crime of illegal logging creates a layered web of exploitation. Natural resources, protected lands, and threatened species of plants and trees are exploited as well as trafficked labour. Criminal networks often force indigenous populations into slavery and other...