Stop The Traffik! Campaign: Actions

Send a Message to Chocolate Manufacturers

After international campaigns targetting Cadury and Mars both companies have agreed to stop using cocoa produced by abusive child labour. Cadbury Australia's Dairy Milk chocolate will be Fairtrade certified by Easter 2010 and Mars chocolates will be progressively Rainforest Alliance certified starting next year. Now it's time to target Nestle. 

Get members of your church, your family and friends to send postcards to Nasking them to Nestle to act on slavery. Listed below are details on the cards, why this action is necessary, how to order cards, and how to use them.

The Card

"Dear Mr Campbell,

I am deeply concerned that thousands of children have been trafficked onto cocoa plantations in the West African country of Ivory Coast. Further, it has been found that tens of thousands of children are trapped in forced labour in the West African cocoa industry. I note that 75% of the world's cocoa supply comes from West Africa.

While I note that Nestle has taken some small actions to discourage the use of exploited child labour in cocoa production, you have not joined Mars and Cadbury in declaring you will use cocoa which is independently certified as being free of exploited child labour.

I want to be certain that the chocolate I buy from you is free of cocoa that has been produced by children trapped in slave-like conditions or who have been the victims of trafficking. Therefore,I ask that Nestle announceand commit to your full range of  it will use only Fairtrade certified cocoa in all its chocolate products, starting with at least one product line by 2010.In this way I will know that you have paid a fair price for the cocoa used in the production of your chocolate products.

Wherever possible I will give preference to purchasing chocolate that is Fairtrade certified."

How to Do This Action

1. As part of a church service
   
   
   1. Get permission from your church leadership to run the action in a church service.
   2. Order postcards for your church. You'll need one of each card for each person at church. You can order by sending an email to Scott Higgins via the contact page on this website. Let us know how many postcards you want and an address to mail them to. If you are ordering more than 100 a donation of $10.00 per hundred plus $5 for postage would be appreciated to help us cover costs. We can let you know how to make this.
   3. On the day of the service arrange for the postcards and pens to be distributed to each person. Spend a few minutes explaining what the action is and why it is needed, then ask people to sign the postcards. If possible show the video "Slavery in Cocoa" (see below. To download to your computer as a word movie file right click here and select "save target as"). Allow people time to sign the postcards and then collect them (if you send the postcards home with people your response rate will be very low). Explain that you will arrange for the postcards to be sent.
   4. Mail the completed postcards to Scott Higgins, Baptist World Aid Australia, Locked Bag 122, Frenchs Forest, NSW, 2086. We will forward the cards on to Nestle.
   5. Take a copy of each card, a copy of the 'Slavery in Cocoa' movie and some Fairtrade chocolate to the office of your local MP. Tell him/her about the action your church has taken, how many cards were signed by your church, and ask him/her to pick this issue up in his/her party room.
2. As part of a chocolate fondue party - download a chocolate fondue party kit from stopthetraffik.org.au and follow the instructions.
3. In your workplace
   1. Buy a few blocks of Fairtrade chocolate and place them on your desk at work;
   2. Ask people to have some of the chocolate and explain why you are using Fairtrade chocolate. If there is a lunch break on you may even be able to show the Slavery in Cocoa video;
   3. Ask people to sign a postcard while they are eating the chocolate;
   4. Mail the completed postcards to Scott Higgins, Baptist World Aid Australia, Locked Bag 122, Frenchs Forest, NSW, 2086. We will forward the cards on to Nestle.

Why Is This Action Necessary?

At the turn of the millennium a documentary, Slavery. A Global Investigation, made the Western world aware of slavery in the cocoa industry in the Ivory Coast. The footage below is taken from this documentary (with permission). In it some liberated slaves tell their story.

How can this occur? A 2003 report by Antislavery International outlines the problem:

Many of those who grow cocoa [in the Ivory Coast] do not own the land they farm. These sharecroppers hand over between 50 and 66 per cent of their crop to the landowner, putting severe pressure on them to keep their own costs as low as possible. One way to keep costs down for both sharecroppers and smallholders is to use their own children and other family members as their workforce. For this reason, the use of child labour is widespread, and in the more isolated areas, many of these children have little or no access to schooling...It is difficult to gather precise information about the extent of such child labour, but recent estimates suggest that two-thirds of farms have children working...

Though child labour is widespread, it is still not enough to meet the demand, and this is where slavery can enter cocoa. A recent study by the International Labour Organisation suggests that perhaps one-third of cocoa farms use non-family labourers. Some of these are paid, others are abused and enslaved, still others are terribly exploited but may not be enslaved. These other workers come to the farms in several different ways. As is often the case in West Africa, traditional forms of labour migration, or the ‘placement’ or ‘apprenticeship’ of children are misused and can lead to abusive working conditions...

At present there is no reliable estimate of the numbers of children enslaved on West African cocoa farms. It appears to be part of a wider trafficking problem in Cote d'Ivoire. The 2008 US Department of State Report on Trafficking in Human Persons said:

Cote d’Ivoire is a source, transit, and destination country for women and children trafficked for forced labor and commercial sexual exploitation. Trafficking within the country is more prevalent than international trafficking and the majority of victims are children. Women and girls are trafficked from northern areas to southern cities for domestic servitude, restaurant labor, and sexual exploitation. A 2007 study by the German government’s foreign aid organization on child sex trafficking in two Ivoirian districts found that 85 percent of females in prostitution are children. Boys are trafficked internally for agricultural and service labor. Transnationally, boys are trafficked from Ghana, Mali, Burkina Faso, and Benin to Cote d’Ivoire for forced agricultural labor, from Guinea for forced mining, from Togo for forced construction labor, from Benin for forced carpentry work, and from Ghana and Togo for forced labor in the fishing industry. Women and girls are trafficked to and from other West and Central African countries for domestic servitude and forced street vending. Women and girls from Ghana and Nigeria are trafficked to urban centers in Cote d’Ivoire for sexual exploitation.

One way to combat child slavery (and other forms of abusive child labour) in the cocoa industry this is to ask chocolate companies to buy cocoa that is certified child and forced labour free. Three certification systems currently exist for doing this: Fairtrade, Rainforest Alliance, and Utz. Each of these requires farmers in their program to guarantee they will not engage in abusive forms of child labour and slave labour and regularly audit the farms to ensure they are complying. If chocolate manufacturers use cocoa certified through one of these systems we can be confident it is free of slavery. Catalyst and the Stop the Traffik campaign believe that of these three systems Fairtrade is the best as it guarantees farmers receive a fair price for their produce. This enables farmers to send their children to school and employ adult workers rather than slaves. Without a fair price guarantee we are asking farmers to eliminate abusive child and forced labour but are not giving them the financial means to do so.

Are actions like these effective?

On their own, no. As part of an ongoing campaign, yes. Stop the Traffik is an international campaign that has been working on slavery for a number of years. The Australian arm brings together groups that have independently been campaigning on slavery. Our campaigning to Cadbury and Mars has already proven successful. During 2009 Cadbury Australia announced its Dairy Milk chocolate in Australia will be Fairtrade certified by Easter 2010 and Mars announced that all their chocolate products would be switched to Rainforest Alliance certified cocoa over a 10 year period, commencing in 2010.

Campaign Actions

Thanking Cadbury

Now that Cadbury's switched their Dairy Milk milk chocolate to Fairtrade, we're urging all those that lobbied them to make this change to now say thank you.

Campaign Achievements

Preventing Slavery
Australian companies have taken steps to prevent slavery occuring in their supply chains. Read more

Protection of Victims
In 2008 the Australian Government took action to improve the way Australia responds to victims of trafficking. Read more

Promoting Fair Trade
Catalyst groups successfully promoted Fairtrade in their churches and communities. Read more

Campaign Resources

Bible Studies
Let My People Go! is a four part bible study series for small groups that explores the issue of slavery. Download the studies and print them out for use in your local church. More Info | Download

Bonded Labour Role Play
Bonded labour is the most common form of slavery in the world today. This role play shows how people can become trapped in it. More Info | Download

Campaign Poster
An A3 size poster you can print out and use to promote the campaign. More Info | Download

Child slaves in West Africa
Short film slavery in the cocoa industry More Info | Download

MP Talk Sheet
A talk sheet to help you speak with your MP about the global slave trade.  More Info | Download

Not for Sale Movie
A three minute film that tells the stories of four modern day slaves and calls people to join the campaign to end slavery. More Info | Download

Paper: A Plan to End Slavery
A plan to end the modern day slave trade within 25 years. More Info | Download

Paper: Background Briefing
A paper that overviews the modern day slave trade and what we can do about it. Includes a number of stories of people trapped in slavery. More Info | Download

Paper: Policy Proposal
A policy proposal outlining the steps required to improve Australia's treatment of trafficking victims. More Info | Download

Paper: Preaching Guide
Some background notes and sermon suggestions for those who are delivering a talk on the bible and slavery. More Info | Download

Paper: Slavery Fact Sheet
A two page fact sheet about modern day slavery. You can print it out for people in your family, church, workplace, community group, etc. More Info | Download