How much chocolate do you eat a week?

The truth behind your tasty treats

Over 67% of the world’s cocoa crop comes from West Africa.  The Ivory Coast alone holds 43% of the world market.  It’s highly likely that your favorite chocolate bar comes from here.  Thousands of children, from within the Ivory Coast and neighboring countries, pick and harvest these beans.  Many of these children have been trafficked. They have been sold into slavery.  They have had their freedom taken away from them and are forced to work long hours on the cocoa plantations without receiving any money for their work.

In 2001 the ICI (International Cocoa Initiative) was set up as part of the Harkin–Engel Protocol to combat trafficking in the chocolate industry.  Although small scale community projects have been set up, the ICI actually promised to eradicate the worst forms of child labor including trafficking, by 2005.

They missed the deadline.

They then extended the deadline to 2008.

We are still waiting for the chocolate industry to guarantee that the chocolate they sell is “Traffik Free”.

Please join us in calling the chocolate manufacturers and retailers to SIGN the Traffik Free Chocolate Commitment.