Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Rome (Fides Service) – Each year in Ivory Coast alone 615,000 children are forced to work in cacao fields and it is estimated that in the world 1.2 million children are victims of trafficking and that 5.7 million are in conditions of forced labour. These are only some of the figures in the first Italian national Dossier on production cycles of chocolate and violation of children’s rights which will be presented on 10 October in Perugia.
The first dossier, born two years after the campaign "Chocolate positive: more rights more cacao” promoted by the Save the Children and TransFair Italia presents information on exploitation of child labour and the trafficking of adolescents in Ivory Coast, the main producer of cacao in the world with Ghana, Cameroon, and Nigeria. Save the Children is the largest international independent movement for the protection and promotion of children’s rights. It operates in more than 120 countries in the world with a network of 29 voluntary organisations and an office for international co-ordination. It brings immediate aid to children in emergency situations, such as war, natural calamities, and develops projects for sustainable and lasting improvement for the benefit of future generations. TransFair FairTrade is a consortium which opens possibilities for new contacts and markets to little producers in the South of the World.
The meeting will also discuss situations in Mali and Burkina Faso and of the children and adolescents victims of trafficking and exploitation in cacao fields in Ivory Coast. AP (Fides Service 3/10/2003 EM lines 26 Words: 288)
