WHAT IS FAIRTRADE DOING FOR CHILD LABOUR?
30.04.2011 - Fairtrade prohibits child labour as defined by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) minimum age and the worst forms of child labour conventions. No person or product certification system can, however, provide a 100% guarantee that a product is free of child labour. What Fairtrade guarantees is that if we find beaches in the child labour standard, we take immediate action to protect children. We prevent the impacted farms using child labour from entering the Fairtrade system, and support them and their communities to tackle the problem. Fairtrade has chosen to work in products and regions with known risks of child labour because this is where our work is most needed.
In the past two years, Fairtrade International (FLO) has focused on strengthening Fairtrade's work to protect children. Here are some of the highlights:
- FLO hired a full time staff member to work on child labour and related issues.
- FLO gave introductory child labour and child protection training to all Fairtrade's field officers in North, West and Eat Africa, Middle East, South and Central America, the Caribbean and Asia.
- FLO gave introductory child labour and child protection training to all Fairtrade cocoa producer organisations in the Ivory Coast and attended the launch of Kuapa Kokoo farmer cooperative's child labour programme in Ghana in November 2010.
- Internationally, Fairtrade is building partnerships with expert organisations. The West African producer services team met with representatives from the Ghana offices of ILO, Ministry of Employment and Manpower and local based NGOs to discuss possible joint programmes.
- FLO briefed government officials in the US and EU on Fairtrade's approach to child labour elimination. It also provided input to the US Government Cocoa Oversight Body, Tulane University, on assessments of Fairtrade's approach to addressing child labour issues in the West African cocoa sector.
- With the support of Kuapa Kokoo and PLAN Canada, FLO held focus groups with 48 school children in cocoa growing communities in western Ghana and Asia to learn about their education, work, future aspirations and the impact of Fairtrade on their well being.
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