At Easter, many people will eat a lot of chocolate. What they won't necessarily know is that much of it is produced using child slave labour in Third World countries.
Poverty and a lack of basic human rights force many children around the world to work.
About 70% of cocoa for the world's chocolate comes from West Africa, mainly the Ivory Coast and Ghana.
The US State Department's Human Rights Report, released in 2007, said between 5000 and 10,000 children were trafficked into and within the Ivory Coast to work in the cocoa sector.
According to Fairtradefederation.org, the average annual income of a cocoa farmer in Africa is US$30-$108. Some children don't get paid at all.
There is no minimum standard for labour on imported chocolate coming into Australia. Large chocolate companies continue to exploit workers in the Third World.
Buying chocolate with the Fair Trade label on it is a step in the right direction, ensuring a minimum standard of labour set by the Fairtrade Labelling Organisations International. Its standards require that products aren't produced by child labour and are produced in environmentally friendly ways.
However, it is questionable how strongly the Fair Trade standards are enforced.
Buying Fair Trade products doesn't change the situation of extreme poverty that drive children to work, or adults to enslave children.
On April 3, Perth Resistance will hold an action to raise awareness of the issue and demand action to ensure minimum labour standards. Phone (08) 9218 9608 for more information.