Ethics and Sustainability

ETHC-2200-01
The Dark Side of Chocolate

Submitted By:
Aaroh Palkar (100780435)
Gourav (100808947)
Hilomi Deliwala (100836774)
Kshama Pandya (100823902)
Smit Patel (100815604)
 1. Discuss the video with your teammates; identify different opinions that are
covered in the documentary. What points are important to recognise and realize?

After discussing the documentary, we identified that human trafficking and slavery of
children are the first and foremost issues to be realized. We can see in this
documentary that most of the cocoa that is transported across the world is produced
in Ivory Coast, in Africa. Farmers in Ivory Coast use children to harvest cocoa as it is
cheap labor. The lack of care shown by both businesses and African governments is
perhaps the most troubling aspect of the film. Despite the eight largest firms' 2001
commitment to combat child labour and slavery in cocoa production, The Dark Side
of Chocolate exposes that the chocolate business continues to deny its massive
labour exploitation problem.
Corruption is also an issue to be addressed, as the African government failed to
respond or take the necessary steps to address the issue despite being aware of it.It
helps the exporter produce cocoa at a lower rate and transport it to organizations.
Education is also a big concern in poor countries like Ivory Coast and Ghana. Children
are lured to be given more money to work on the farm, but once they are taken
away from their families, most of them are not even paid. If they had given
education, things would have been different. Governments in countries like this
could also help provide education benefits to their citizens. To oppose child labour
and activities related to it, we may buy from ethical chocolate firms who pay and
respect their workers properly instead of using child labour. In this approach, we're
refusing to support brands that don't go with human rights. Organizations can also
protect these laws by abiding by the rules and regulations of the country.
 
 
2. What are the major moral/ethical issues, dilemmas presented in the documentary?

Assumption:
 Young children work as slaves in the cocoa industry.
 Children are smuggled from Mali to the ivory coast to work on the cocoa plantation.

Excerpts from the video:

 The chocolate industry is accused of child labour and trafficking.
 The Harkin Engel Protocol that prohibits trafficking in children and child labour sets a
precedent.
 The premise is in Cologne, Germany, where firms gather to promote their chocolates
every year. The aim is to find out where cocoa comes from for chocolate production.
 Idrissa Kante (civilian from Segou): Confirms the existence of trafficking. Children
being smuggled to the Ivory Coast are 12-14 years old. Girls aged 11-12 are also
involved. In 2006, Idrissa discovered 97 boys and 35 girls. In 2007, she found 99 boys,
41 girls, and over 150 children in 2008/09.
 Local heads of the bus company: The bus from Korogoho to Ivory Coast transports
10-15 children at a time via a secret back door.
  Two live trafficking incidents involving children were recorded between Mali and
Ivory Coast.
 130 children were trafficked from Segou till the time the documentary was recorded.
 The trafficker confirms that if someone on the border denies trafficking, he/she is
lying.
 Keiondre Keifer, a French-Canadian journalist who was doing a storey on Ivory Cocoa
money laundering, was kidnapped from the parking lot and has been missing since
then. The case remains unsolved to date.
 Saf-Cacao makes a 135mn profit in a year.
 Ali Lakiss, CEO and owner of Saf-Cacao, clearly denies children's indulgence in the
plantations. But the secret filming clearly shows his claims are false and children
work at the plantation.
 The government official also denies any trafficking in cocoa plantations.
 A plantation owner confirms trafficking and provides info about the arrangements.
They also confessed that the charge of trafficking a child for indefinite use is 230
euros.
 65 children were rescued from Interpol's led operation BIA. However, the officials
were not surprised.
 All the big leaders in the chocolate industry (Nestle, Cargill, AMD) refused to meet
and issued a statement instead, saying that they don’t have any control over the
plantations despite having an establishment of over 50 years in those areas.
 The makers also played the documentary in front of Nestle HQ in Geneva but there
was no response.

Conclusion:
In conclusion, there is a great deal of confusion amongst chocolate producers
regarding child trafficking and child labor. But they don’t want to take any action
against it as it might minimise their profits. The government also supports these
plantations as it is one of the major sources of monetization.
However, there's the Harking Engel protocol that prohibits any child trafficking or
child labor, and all the major firms have agreed to sign it, but there seems to be little
respect for this accord.
 
3. Do you agree or disagree with the documentary's point of view? If solutions are
presented within the documentary to mitigate the core ethical issues or dilemmas,
do you and your group agree? Explain why you agree or disagree.

Our teammates completely agree with the point of view of the journalist, Miki, who
filmed the whole documentary in order to raise awareness and shed some light on
unethical activities hidden behind the chocolate industry.
Miki attempted to provide many solutions after knowing the truth and conducting an
investigation into these plantations to check whether the cocoa suppliers and the
company associated with them were actually involved in child labour or not.
We all agree with the solutions presented by Miki regarding mitigating the core
ethical issues in the cocoa industry. His work in revealing the dark side of chocolate
and taking the necessary steps to spread awareness regarding the same is
commendable.
 Why Do We Agree? After knowing the truth, Miki then contacted Interpol, the
International Labour Organization, the president of Ivory Coast, and chocolate firms
as well, where he challenged authorities' understanding of trafficking and child
labour, as well as their answers to it. Miki also showed his documentary on a huge
surface outside of Nestlé's premises in the documentary's climax to let everyone,
including the consumers and people working at Nestle, know what they are doing
with the lives of innocent children.
Therefore, after thorough research on how one can put an end to such slavery, we
believe Miki exactly took the ideal steps to stop child labour:
Firstly, to contact retailers, producers, and buyers to address the problem and
discuss everything regarding their products' roots.
Secondly to make contact with lawmakers on a district, provincial, and federal level:
Urge them to establish "ethical guidelines" that contain care for humane,
environmental, and decent policies, and request the authority to create legislation to
make sure that no items in any community are manufactured with child slavery.
Thirdly, to contact companies that are present in other nations where children are
forced to work: It may be avoided if businesses adopt responsible business practices.
This is a possibility. Encourage cocoa companies to apply pressure on local
authorities to take steps and enterprises that exploit child labour to adopt viable,
decent work policies.
Then to make contact with state officials: Request that the authorities improve and
execute their regulations, as well as expand academic options for minors and
business prospects for grownups.
Lastly, educating people about child worker concerns also motivates them to take
appropriate steps.
Thus, the disappointing part is that, even after taking all the appropriate steps, the
cocoa industry has failed to bring a considerable amount of positive change in
reducing the child labour involved in the cocoa industry.
 
4. What are we supposed to learn from this documentary? What are the lessons we
can take away?

The dark side of chocolate sheds light on the issue of child trafficking and child
labour in African countries, with children forced to work on cocoa farms in particular.
Cocoa is in high demand on the global market at affordable costs. As a result,
farmers are in desperate need of cheap labour. As a result, child labour is used in the
production of cocoa in West Africa. This is an excellent example for us to observe
and realise that no one up there regards a child as a human being with rights to life
and liberty who was not created to be a slave (UN, 1948).
There are a total of three stakeholders that fail to address the problem:
1. Individual people
2. government.
3. Corporations

One of the most important things we can take away from this film is how a lack of
education and widespread poverty have a significant impact on children's
perceptions of the world and their comprehension of it. Furthermore, being close to
 agricultural chemicals used on cocoa fields is highly harmful for a youngster. It raises
worries about how it impacts a child's health and how companies and manufacturers
are unconcerned about it. The lack of care shown by both corporations and African
governments is perhaps the most troubling aspect of the film. Despite the eight
largest firms' 2001 commitment to combat child labour and slavery in cocoa
production, The Dark Side of Chocolate exposes that the chocolate business
continues to deny its massive labour exploitation problem. Stopping slavery would
be a messy, unprofitable endeavour, therefore no one is willing to take on the
challenge. It argues for corporate social responsibility, in which businesses are only
concerned with one element of their business: their economic obligations, which are
solely concerned with making money. They don't recognise or follow their other
obligations, such as ethical, legal, and humanitarian ones. Corporations should not
promote or purchase products from companies that use child labour. They should
not accept it based on their profitability or their desire to maintain a good
reputation.
The government also plays a significant role in the entire ethical problem, as they do
nothing while being aware of the situation. They should give a good education and a
stable economy so that the citizens of the country may enact change and live better
lives. It is the obligation of the government to educate the citizens of their country
about the laws and human rights. This contributes to the lack of knowledge and
provides a reason for child trafficking, since those involved in the process are
desperate for money and survival. Even though the common person has no
involvement in the chocolate business, we can still oppose child labour. Instead of
utilising underage labour, we may buy from ethical chocolate firms who pay and
respect their workers properly. In this approach, we're refusing to support brands
that don't go far enough to safeguard human rights. By lobbying and raising
awareness, we can exert pressure on the chocolate business to reform. However, we
must first educate ourselves using tools such as the Global Slavery Index, the US
Department of Labor, and this documentary. Because successful advocacy requires a
thorough grasp of the subject.
 
 
 Reference:

Works Cited
Gage, S. (n.d.). THE DARK SIDE OF CHOCOLATE: A DOCUMENTARY REVIEW. Retrieved from
Dressember: https://www.dressember.org/blog/chocolateindustry
Rakestraw, M. (2017, June 1). 10 TIPS FOR HELPING END CHILD LABOR. Retrieved from
Institute for Humane Education: https://humaneeducation.org/10-tips-for-helping-
end-child-labor/
Mistrati, M. (Director). (2010). The Dark Side of Chocolate [Motion Picture].