Child workers are still being exploited in West African cocoa fields and the chocolate industry's efforts to stop the abuse are not sufficient to meet a July 2005 deadline, humanitarian and labour activists say.
Images of child abuse in West African cocoa plantations triggered an international outcry in 2000 and resulted in a United States congressional protocol, which has no basis in law, giving American chocolate companies four years to make significant progress toward solving the problem.
If not, politicians promise to draft laws requiring US chocolate makers to put a "no child slavery" label on their goods after guaranteeing no forced child labour was used.
There were about 109,000 children working in dangerous conditions in Ivory Coast, the source of 40 percent of the world's cocoa, according to a 2003 United States State Department report. Hazards include harmful pesticides and risk of injury from machetes.
So far, the industry has met most of the requirements of the protocol, including creating a foundation, the International Cocoa Initiative, to make sure cocoa production is environmentally friendly and safe for children. A major requirement, to set up a certification system to monitor child labour, has yet to be fulfilled.
Several critics say there are too many gaps left.
"It's a very long shot," to implement a certification programme by next July, said Frans Roselaers of the International Labour Organisation, who has been working with the chocolate industry.
"It hasn't been done anywhere on that scale with success before."
Africans often view child labour as normal, said Roselaers, who directs an ILO programme to end the abuse of child workers.
"It would not be realistic or responsible on our part to think that you can change attitudes in the way that you can build a plant and start production," Roselaers said.
Anita Sheth, a senior researcher at Save the Children Canada, said too many unanswered questions remain.
"How does monitoring happen on roughly 1 million cocoa farms? ... How do farmers get increased prices, or fair prices, for their cocoa beans and how does this contribute to changing child labour practices on the ground?" Sheth said.
Peter McAllister of the International Cocoa Initiative said there was no definitive figure on how many children are forced labourers in West Africa. Initially, governments and industry denied the problem, he said. But Ivory Coast's recent pledge to eradicate child labour on its cocoa plantations shows attitudes are changing.
Ivorian officials have said, however, they doubt the 2005 deadline could be met.
Cocoa is a temperamental plant that grows only within 20 degrees of the equator and is susceptible to many diseases.
Ivory Coast leads the list of major producers, followed by Ghana, Indonesia and Nigeria. West Africa provides 70 percent of the world's cocoa grown on small family farms under 12 acres (5 hectares).
Representatives of the Washington-based World Cocoa Foundation and Chocolate Manufacturers Association, who signed the protocol, said they were confident they would be able to ward off labelling.
A certification system will be tested in Ghana and Ivory Coast later this year, said Bill Guyton, president of the World Cocoa Foundation. It will assess how each country is doing as a whole, rather than certifying individual farmers.
At the core of the system are programmes ranging from sustainable environmental projects to farmer training courses involving an array of humanitarian and development agencies. There also will be a monitoring and enforcement system, Guyton said. The details of who will collect data, enforce laws and pay the bill, have yet to be ironed out, he added.
Enforcement could include arrests, prosecutions and fines for farmers who violate the law.
The word 'slavery' on a label would taint the appeal of luxury chocolate goods and possibly hurt sales, said Susan Smith of the Chocolate Manufacturers Association.
The cocoa beans used in making a chocolate bar could come from anywhere in the world, so it would be almost impossible to ensure no abusive child labour was used, she said.
"You couldn't honestly put that label on. You'd end up discriminating against countries that have huge volumes of cocoa," Smith said.
United States chocolate makers get up to two thirds of their cocoa from Ivory Coast.
If labels were required and enforcement complete, "it would just destroy the country (Ivory Coast)," Smith said.
The threat of legislation still stands. Representative Eliot Engel and Senator Tom Harkin of Iowa, both Democrats, said they were committed to introducing legislation in July 2005, if they were not satisfied with the progress being made.
Civil war in Ivory Coast has caused some delays but the deadline remains, an Engel spokesman said.
Kevin Bales of Free The Slaves, who wrote a book that helped spark media attention to the problem, said, "We've been hoping for this sort of reaction from industry as a whole for more than a hundred years. The fact that they're making progress, we're very supportive of that".
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