The controversy of child labor within the Cocoa Industry remains prevalent in world news. An ethical dilemma arises whether Americans should support chocolate companies that use chocolate made with child labor. In June of 2021, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that corporations cannot be sued for child labor used on the farms from which they collect cocoa beans (BBC, 2021). 

 

This ruling arose from a lawsuit started by eight African men who claimed they had been trafficked from Mali (as children) to work on cocoa farms for 12-14 hours and were not allowed to leave. They made the claim that cocoa companies such as Cargill and Nestle continue to allow the trafficking and enslavement of Africans to produce cheap cocoa. 

 

The supreme court decided 8-1 that this did not happen in the U.S. and therefore the cocoa companies cannot be liable for the trafficking of labor. It remains uncertain how the court will consider the Alien Tort Statute, from the 1700s, because U.S. companies can be liable for abuses in the “supply chains abroad” (BBC, 2021). 

 

Clearly, this decision is a disappointed for anti-child labor activists in the U.S. and it remains to be seen how the Supreme Court will react in future situations. For now, it appears that cocoa corporations are not held accountable for neglect. 

 

Taken directly from the BBC article, 

 

"They decided on the budgets, they decided on the planning, on the business aspects - all those things were done from the US," said Terry Collingsworth, executive director of International Rights Advocates, speaking to Fortune Magazine.

Mr Collingsworth said his legal team would file a new lawsuit, alleging that many decisions made by Nestlé and Cargill in the US helped to pave the way for the use of child slaves in Ivory Coast.

 

This continues to show that companies are not taking accountability for their actions. Make sure to keep reading the news because this issue is far from over. Here are a few more links related to this recent ruling so that you can understand the perspectives from multiple news sources. 

 

This one from BBC: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-57522186

 

Fortune Magazine: https://fortune.com/2021/06/17/child-labor-case-supreme-court-big-chocolate-nestle-cargill-scotus/

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