See also:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Columnists/Column/0,5673,1503527,00.html
Comment
A noose, not a bracelet
Africa is a rich continent made poor by rapacious western
corporations. G8 leaders must be forced to deliver justice
Naomi Klein
Friday June 10, 2005
The Guardian
"Here is a better idea: instead of Saudi Arabia's oil wealth being
used to "save Africa", how about if Africa's oil wealth was used to
save Africa - along with its gas, diamond, gold, platinum, chromium,
ferroalloy and coal wealth?"
-----
USA: Companies sued over child labour claims
ADM, Cargill and Nestle sued to end trafficking, torture and forced
child labor on African cocoa farms
Gina Keating, Reuters, July 16, 2005: A human rights group has sued
three U.S. companies in federal court in Los Angeles to force them to
step up efforts to end child labor on African farms that supply cocoa
beans used to make chocolate products.
The International Labor Right Fund filed suit on behalf of former
child laborers against Nestle, Archer Daniels Midland Co. (ADM) and
privately held Cargill Inc. on Thursday claiming the companies are
involved in trafficking, torture and forced labor of Mali children
who were enslaved to work on Ivory Coast farms.
The lawsuit comes soon after U.S. and European chocolate and cocoa
industry missed a July 1 deadline imposed by federal law for adopting
protocols to eliminate child labor from the West African cocoa supply
chain.
U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin, one of the protocol's authors, said earlier
this month he was disappointed that the industry had been unable to
certify that its chocolate products were not made with child labor
but was satisfied it was "committed to moving forward."
In a statement, the International Labor Rights Fund blasted the
industry for dragging its feet and refusing "to exchange a small
portion of its massive profits to ensure sufficient return for
farmers and workers."
Representatives for Archer Daniels Midland of Decatur, Illinois, one
of world's largest agricultural processing companies, and Cargill, an
agricultural products and services provider, had no comment on the
lawsuit.
A Nestle spokeswoman also would not comment on the lawsuit, but said
the company was working with the International Cocoa Initiative
foundation created by the Harkin-Engel protocol.
"Obviously we strongly believe it is important to make sure that
cocoa is grown responsibly without abusive labor practices," Nestle
spokeswoman Barb Skoog said.
The lawsuit claims the Mali children were beaten and forced to work
12 to 14 hours a day with no pay and little food or sleep.
The three main plaintiffs said they were ages 12 to 14 when were
taken from their homes, but the lawsuit covers "thousands" of
children who were allegedly enslaved from 1996 until the present to
work in the Ivory Coast region.
The claims were brought under the Alien Tort Claims Act, which has
recently been used by human rights groups to sue multinational
corporations for violations of international law in countries outside
the United States.
Similar lawsuits were brought against Unocal Corp by villagers who
claimed they were enslaved by Myanmar's military government to work
on a pipeline for Unocal and other entities.
Settlements in those cases were finalized earlier this year. [ July 16, 2005 ]
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