3071-The political economy of new slavery

9
Child Labour, Education and Child
Rights Among Cocoa Producers
in Ghana
Amanda Berlan
Introduction
The International Labour Organization (ILO) reports that 246 million
children aged five to 17 worldwide are involved in child labour, that
nearly three-quarters of these are exposed to the worst forms of child
labour, and that 73 million working children worldwide are under the
age of ten. This last figure alone is greater than the entire UK population.
The highest proportion of working children is in Sub-Saharan
Africa where nearly one-third of children age 14 and under (48 million
children) are in some form of employment. Seventy per cent work in
the agricultural sector such as on farms or in cattle herding. Although
children in the agricultural sector vastly outnumber children stitching
footballs or weaving carpets in sweatshops, they have received much less
attention (Human Rights Watch, 2002a). The case of children working
on cocoa farms in rural Ghana (and on cocoa farms across West Africa
in general) have been a notable exception to this lack of attention.
The interest in labour conditions of cocoa growers was sparked by
the discovery in April 2001 of a ship in the Gulf of Guinea, which was
initially erroneously thought to be taking trafficked children to work
on cocoa farms in one of the West African countries. Although it later
emerged that the children were more likely to be used as domestic
servants or head-load carriers, the case triggered a wave of concern about
labour conditions in the cocoa industry in West Africa, particularly in
relation to children. Embarrassed chocolate manufacturers were accused
of endorsing slave-like practices and suddenly found themselves trying
to explain labour standards on the cocoa farms. Anti-globalization
campaigners seized on this case as a further illustration of the abusive
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