COMMISSION OF HUMAN AND PEOPLE’S RIGHTS

TOPIC: ERADICATING CHILD LABOUR

COUNTY: REPUBLIC OF COTE D’IVOIRE

Ivory Coast is the world’s largest exporter of cocoa beans and also boasts the
largest church in the world, The Basilica of Our Lady of Peace of Yamoussoukro.
In 1977, the country became the first black Republic nation and non-English
speaking country to win an Academy Award for its French-Ivorian movie “Black
and White in Colour.” It won the award for Best Foreign Language film. Ivory
Coast is also one of only four countries on the African continent that boasts five
beautiful UNESCO World Heritage Sites. French is the official language in Cote
d’Ivoire. However, it is one of many languages spoken in the country. There are at
least 75 local languages in the country. The country is also one of 4 African
countries with two capital cities; Yamoussoukro and Abidjan. Yamoussoukro
became the official capital in 1983 after the country’s independence. However,
Abidjan has remained the country’s official administrative capital. Most countries’
embassy in Ivory Coast is situated in Abidjan.

In 2013, there were an estimated 1.4 million children (5-17-year-old) working in

Côte d’Ivoire (Enquête nationale sur le travail des enfants (2013)), of which 49 %
in the agriculture sector. Most of these child laborers come from farming families
and live and work on the land with their families. Many of them have come over
generations from neighboring countries such as Burkina Faso, Mali, Togo, Benin,
Niger, Guinea and Ghana. A smaller, but unknown number of children migrate
alone from neighboring countries, posing a higher potential for exploitation and
abuse of children, who could be separated from their parents. A smaller number
may even be victims of child trafficking. Children who work in cocoa production,
are oftentimes deprived of adequate schooling. Further, due to carrying heavy
loads of cocoa from the farms to the assembly points, they are exposed to
different types of risks and hazards, including exposure to pesticides, insect and
snake bites, machete wounds, fatigue and back problems.

In 2016, in light of the Harkin-Engel Agreement, the National Plan for fighting
Against Child Labour and Child Trafficking and the focus of the industry on
sustainable cocoa production and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR),
numerous Government, NGO and private sector initiatives and projects were
being implemented in Cote d’Ivoire to improve productivity, community
development and child rights in cocoa producing areas. These include initiatives
focused primarily on productivity issues facing farmers, such as the African Cocoa
Initiative and the Dutch Sustainable Trade Initiative. There were also initiatives
focusing primarily on child labour, such as projects implemented by CARE and the
International Cocoa Initiative(ICI). Others use a combined approach to improved
agricultural practices and larger community development interventions, including
interventions which directly impact children, such as access to primary education
or birth registration. However, the impact of these interventions is yet to be
demonstrated and coordination among these initiatives and projects remains
weak