[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 90 (Monday, July 8, 2002)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1205]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[[Page E1205]]
  IN RECOGNITION OF THE EFFORTS TO ELIMINATE THE WORST FORMS OF CHILD 
                          LABOR IN WEST AFRICA

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. ELIOT L. ENGEL

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                          Monday, July 8, 2002

  Mr. ENGEL. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to inform you and our colleagues 
about the progress that has been made toward ending a shameful practice 
of child slavery. Just one year ago on June 28th, the House of 
Representatives voted 291-115 to set aside funding within the Food and 
Drug Administration to develop a labeling program for products made 
with cocoa. The label was intended to distinguish between cocoa 
products made with child slave labor and those that were not.
  As you may recall, last summer we all became aware of this problem 
through media reports, such as those in the Knight-Ridder Newspapers, 
that told the stories of children being kidnaped from their home 
countries, such as Mali, and then sold into slavery in the Ivory Coast. 
The stories were horrifying. Children as young as 9 years of age are 
being forced to work without pay, live in squalor, and fear for their 
physical safety.
  Last year, the House of Representatives resoundingly said ``This is 
not acceptable.'' Chocolate is one of our most beloved treats, but it 
doesn't taste as sweet with the bitterness of child slavery in its mix.
  Since that day last year much has happened. I am pleased with and 
proud of the enormous progress that has been made toward ending this 
terrible situation. First, let me congratulate the chocolate industry 
for so quickly deciding to tackle this problem head on. The industry 
joined a number of non-governmental organizations in signing an 
agreement, now known as the ``Harkin-Engel Protocol,'' which set up a 
framework for dealing with the problem of child slavery in the cocoa 
fields. The protocol is a serious commitment by the stakeholders to 
create an historic effort to end child slavery in this industry.
  This effort is not just the result of the United States Congress 
though. Our colleagues in the parliament of Great Britain have also 
been working on this issue. On May 20, 2002 the House of Commons held 
what we would call a special order on the specific issue of child 
slavery in the cocoa fields of West Africa. During the debate, the 
Honorable Tony Colman of Putney quoted his constituent who is an expert 
on the problems of child trafficking and slavery, Professor Kevin 
Bales, as saying ``The Protocol . . . is a very good thing. It is the 
first time that an industry has taken social, moral and economic 
responsibility for their entire product chain. The Anti-Slavery 
movement has been seeking such an agreement for 160 years.''
  Throughout the past year, the world's cocoa producers and users have 
met and signed onto agreements that commit everyone to ending this 
practice. For example, on November 30, 2001 a wide array of 
organizations from around the globe signed a joint statement regarding 
their efforts toward eliminating child slave labor in the cocoa fields. 
The list of organizations is very impressive: the Association of the 
Chocolate, Biscuit, and Confectionary Industries of the European Union; 
the Chocolate Manufacturers of Association of the USA; the 
Confectionary Manufacturers Association of Canada; the Cocoa 
Association of London and the Federation for Cocoa Commerce; the Cocoa 
Merchants Association of America; the European Cocoa Association; the 
International Office of Cocoa, Chocolate, and Confectionary; the World 
Cocoa Foundation; the Child Labor Coalition; Free The Slaves; the 
International Union of Food, Agricultural, Hotel, Restaurant, Catering, 
Tobacco and Allied Workers Associations; the National Consumers League; 
and the Government of the Ivory Coast. The joint statement recognized 
the ``urgent need to identify and eliminate child labour in violation 
of the International Labour Organization (ILO) Convention 182 with 
respect to the growing and processing of cocoa beans and their 
derivative products.''
  Furthermore, in January of this year the Government of the Ivory 
Coast ratified two important international labor agreements governing 
child labor--Conventions 138 and 182 of the International Labor 
Organization. By becoming signatories to these conventions, the 
Government of the Ivory Coast took a huge step forward toward 
implementing responsible labor standards for children within its own 
borders. In part, because of this step, the Bush Administration in May 
2002 granted the Ivory Coast eligibility status under the African 
Growth and Opportunity Act.
  Finally, last week the efforts of dozens of organizations and 
hundreds of people culminated in the creation of an international 
foundation that will ``oversee and sustain efforts to eliminate abusive 
child labor practices in the growing of cocoa.'' In future years, the 
foundation, with assistance from the governments of the world, will put 
in place ``credible standards of public certification that cocoa beans 
have been grown without any of the worst forms of child labor.''
  These are not easy problems to remedy. Many of these children do not 
speak French, the main language of the Ivory Coast. Many parents 
willingly let them go, believing their children will be learning a 
trade as part of an apprenticeship. Many children are orphaned. How we 
deal with these children on an individual basis will be difficult. 
Repatriating the children, reunifying the families, finding 
alternatives for orphaned and abandoned children all must happen. It 
will take hard work. It will not happen overnight. But we must try and 
we must succeed.
  In declaring our own independence and throwing off the shackles of 
tyranny, our forefathers wrote ``We hold these truths to be self-
evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their 
Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, 
Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.'' Never once in the history of 
our great nation have we ever believed that these rights were reserved 
to the people of the United States. In fact at the core of our beliefs 
is that all people everywhere have the unalienable right to liberty. 
The problem of child slavery in West Africa is as much the 
responsibility of the governments there as it is our own.
  Today, I am pleased and proud to report that we here in Congress are 
a part of the movement to put an end to one of the most egregious ills 
in the world today--child slavery.

                          ____________________