tagged w/ Côte d'Ivoire
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CNN...
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THE CNN FREEDOM PROJECT ENDING MODERN-DAY SLAVERY
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January 19th, 2012
12:03 PM ET
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Child slavery and chocolate: All too easy to find
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In "Chocolate's Child Slaves," CNN's David McKenzie travels into the heart of the Ivory Coast to investigate children working in the cocoa fields.
(More information and air times on CNN International.)
By David McKenzie and Brent Swails, CNN
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CLICK ON CNN LINK (at top) TO VIEW THREE VIDEOS
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Daloa, Ivory Coast (CNN) - Chocolate’s billion-dollar industry starts with workers like Abdul. He squats with a gang of a dozen harvesters on an Ivory Coast farm.
Abdul holds the yellow cocoa pod lengthwise and gives it two quick cracks, snapping it open to reveal milky white cocoa beans. He dumps the beans on a growing pile.
Abdul is 10 years old, a three-year veteran of the job.
He has never tasted chocolate.
During the course of an investigation for CNN’s Freedom Project initiative - an investigation that went deep into the cocoa fields of Ivory Coast - a team of CNN journalists found that child labor, trafficking and slavery are rife in an industry that produces some of the world’s best-known brands.
It was not supposed to be this way.
After a series of news reports surfaced in 2001 about gross violations in the cocoa industry, lawmakers in the United States put immense pressure on the industry to change.
“We felt like the public ought to know about it, and we ought to take some action to try to stop it,” said Iowa Sen. Tom Harkin, who, together with Rep. Eliot Engel of New York, spearheaded the response. “How many people in America know that all this chocolate they are eating - candies and all of those wonderful chocolates - is being produced by terrible child labor?”
But after intense lobbying by the cocoa industry, lawmakers weren’t able to push through a law. What they got was a voluntary protocol, signed by the heads of the chocolate industry, to stop the worst forms of child labor “as a matter of urgency.” One of the key goals was to certify the cocoa trade as child-labor free.
“It was meant to achieve the end of child slave labor in cocoa fields,” Engel said.
It didn’t.
UNICEF estimates that nearly a half-million children work on farms across Ivory Coast, which produces nearly 40% of the world’s supply of cocoa. The agency says hundreds of thousands of children, many of them trafficked across borders, are engaged in the worst forms of child labor.
A recent study by Tulane University says the industry’s efforts to stop child labor are “uneven” and “incomplete” and that 97% of Ivory Coast’s farmers had not been reached. But the industry’s main representative in the country disagrees with the assessment.
“I think the situation has improved exponentially,” said Rabola Kagohi, country director for the International Cocoa Initiative, the chocolate industry’s answer to fighting child labor and trafficking. “Today, the message is physically getting through.”
Kagohi works out of a basement office with one other permanent employee.
“There are some results,” he said. “I wish that you had spoken to some planters.”
None of the farmers CNN spoke to in the heart of the cocoa production region said they had ever been reached by the International Cocoa Initiative, the government or chocolate companies about child trafficking.
Children such as Abdul don’t know anything about protocols or certification. All they know is work.
When Abdul’s mother died, a stranger brought him across the border to the farm. Abdul says all he’s given is a little food, the torn clothes on his back, and an occasional tip from the farmer. Abdul is a modern child slave.
And he is not the only youngster working in his group.
Yacou insisted he is 16, but his face looks far younger.
“My mother brought me from Burkina Faso when my father died,” he said.
Scars crisscross Yacou’s legs from a machete. He can’t clear grass in the cocoa fields without cutting himself. During harvest season, he works day after day hacking the cocoa pods.
The emotional scars run much deeper.
“I wish I could go to school. I want to read and write,” he said. But Yacou hasn’t spent a single day in school, and he has no idea how to leave the farm.
“It makes me angry,” Engel said. As far as he’s concerned, the chocolate companies haven't done enough.
“They are working with us, and we are glad that they are working with us. But they could do better.”
One of the major players in the Ivory Coast cocoa trade is, not surprisingly, the Ivorian government. Although the country has cornered a vast chunk of a lucrative market, it is considered one of the world’s poorest by any measure.
But the government leadership blames politics and war for the problems in the cocoa industry.
“Thirty years of political instability caused a lot of damage to our economy generally, and to the agricultural sector particularly, and more specifically to the cocoa industry,” said Ivory Coast’s minister of agriculture, Sangafowa Coulibaly. “Unfortunately, these years have been lost.”
After an attempted coup in 2002, the country was split in half and kept from all-out civil war by the United Nations. There was protracted violence after the last disputed presidential elections, when then-President Laurent Gbagbo refused to concede.
With the new government of Alassane Ouattara in charge, the government says it can now put much-needed reforms in place.
“Things can only get better,” Coulibaly said. “The main reason is that today, the political crisis is behind us, the armed conflict is behind us.”
But many observers believe that a new government won’t make it a priority to stop slavery in the cocoa fields.
And with peace, traffickers are free to do their work again. U.N. officials told CNN that the Ivory Coast conflict actually helped slow down trafficking because people were too afraid to move across borders.
Contrary to the promises of action, CNN’s investigation could only find promises. And those promises are empty to children like Abdul and Yacou.
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Post by: CNN's Brent Swails, CNN's David McKenzie
.CNN...
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THE CNN FREEDOM PROJECT ENDING MODERN-DAY SLAVERY
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January 19th,... more
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Laurent Gbagbo and the problems with Ivory Coast in 2004 (like you thought this just started, didn't you?)Laurent Gbagbo and the problems with Ivory Coast in 2004 (like you thought this just... more
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News reports from BBC Africa Service and RFI West Africa Service on the latest goings on in Ivory Coast. Yet another hot spot. More protests, more repression, more civil war. Welcome to the world.News reports from BBC Africa Service and RFI West Africa Service on the latest goings... more
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The Cote d'Ivoire Ambassador to the United Nations warned the council that he feared the possibility of genocide in his country. He said homes had already been marked with tribal identification, and cited recent killings of protesters as troubling signs of the future violence that is likely to come.
CURRENT READERS: This is something worth paying attention to. Though WikiLeaks and bullshit FoxNews is often more entertaining to read about, war and genocide are far more relevant and make a much bigger impact on the world. The UN has 9,500 troops in Ivory Coast, and the Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas) will send troops. The world can work together to stop a bloody conflict, to prevent a possible genocide attempt, and to set an example for the current and future generations.The Cote d'Ivoire Ambassador to the United Nations warned the council that he... more
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Loosing incumbent Gbagbo orders all UN and foreign peacekeepers to leave the country. He accused peacekeeping troops of meddlings too much with domestic affairs, and claims they are alligning with rebel forces in the country.
Mr. Gbagbo lost the international recognized fair election in late November but has refused to relinquish power. The UN, the AU, and the EU have all called on Mr. Gbagbo to step down.Loosing incumbent Gbagbo orders all UN and foreign peacekeepers to leave the country.... more
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At least seven protestors are killed, along with gun battles occuring in the North of the country and in the capital, Abidjan.
It is crucial that the world watches the events, prevent an unjust war, and prevent human rights violations from occuring. Cote d'Ivoire is a beautiful place and was has been peaceful for the last 8 years. It is next door to Liberia, which is still feeling the effects of its devestating civil war that ended 7 years ago. Don't let the region slip into war again!At least seven protestors are killed, along with gun battles occuring in the North of... more
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The Supreme Constitutional Council in Cote d'Ivoire has overturned previous election results and delcares incumbent President Laurent Gbagbo the winner. The decision defies his country's Electoral Commission and the will of his people. According to the country's official Electoral Commission and international agencies, Prime Minister Alassane Ouattara defeated President Gbagbo with 54.1% of the vote.
Mr. Gbagbo has essentially been a dictator in Cote d'Ivoire since the end of their civil war in 2002. While his attempt to sabotage the elections may not be too surprising, the decision leaves the stability and peace of the country in serious question. Small riots and violence has already started occurring in the capital, Abidjan.
Take a stand for humans around the world and stay informed. Pressure your local congressman, or senator and tell them to support any peace operations which may be required in the future. Stand for democracy and freedom!The Supreme Constitutional Council in Cote d'Ivoire has overturned previous... more
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After contesting election reults that local and international observers declared valid, the current president of Cote D'Ivoire suspended all international journalists from the country and closed all the the county's ports and borders. The elections are the first held in the country since the end of a civil war in 2002.
We cannot let the international community sit back and watch as a country slips into turmoil because of selfish and tyrannical leaders. Write to your congressman or senator to tell them to stay up do date on the conflict and do what they can to prevent war and suffering. Democracies are springing up more and more in Africa, and the international community MUSTensure that wealthy and self-interested leaders don't interfere with the people's will.After contesting election reults that local and international observers declared... more
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Two men have been jailed in the Ivory Coast over the dumping of toxic waste, which killed 17 people and made thousands ill.
In the sentencing on Wednesday, Salomon Ugborugbo, the Nigerian director of the local Tommy company which had used trucks to distribute the waste in 2006 at open sites across the Ivorian commercial capital Abidjan, was given a 20-year sentence on the charge of "poisoning".
The prosecution had asked for a life sentence. Desire Kouao, an Ivorian shipping agent, received a five-year sentence for "complicity" in the same charge.
Seven local port customs and maritime officials were acquitted of charges over their role in the toxic waste scandal which shocked the world's number one cocoa producer and raised questions about the dumping of toxic materials in Africa.
No representatives from the Dutch-based international oil trader, Trafigura, which had chartered the Panamanian-registered Probo Koala vessel that unloaded the waste in Abidjan, were accused in the trial that had opened late last month.
Trafigura had already agreed a nearly $200 million out-of-court compensation settlement with the Ivory Coast government which exempted it from legal proceedings in the West African country.
The company denies any responsibility for the deaths and illnesses suffered by Abidjan residents after the dumping.
Vincent T'sas, an independent journalist in the Ivory Coast, told Al Jazeera: "People are saying that the main culprits are not in court - the people of Trafigura - and they could have been because they have spent - right after this dumping - six months in prison here.
"One of the prisoners was the president of Trafigura, but after six months he was released because the company made a deal with the government saying OK, we will pay $200,000 million if you free us.
"That is what angers people. People are still suffering," he said.
Toxic 'slops'
When the Abidjan trial opened, Trafigura said in a statement it would present independent experts to prove the waste could not have been responsible for their illness.
The petrochemical waste was described by Trafigura as "slops", residues from gasoline mixed with caustic washings.
Defence lawyers in the Abidjan hearings had repeatedly complained that it was unfair for their clients to be in the dock when executives from Trafigura were not on trial.
But the Dutch-based company faces a possible class-action suit next year in London courts brought by a British law firm representing thousands of Ivorian victims seeking tens of millions of dollars in compensation.
Many victims have already been compensated from the out-of-court settlement, but many say they have not received enough compensation.
At the height of the scandal in 2006, Abidjan hospitals were overwhelmed as thousands sought treatment for vomiting, nausea, diarrhoea and breathing difficulties after exposure to noxious fumes.
T'sas said on Thursday: "I went to a village near the dump today and I saw a woman who was covered in sores who has had them since the dumping in 2006.
"It's raining at the moment in Abidjan and the fumes of the toxic waste are still in place. Although there has been a clean-up operation, it has not been completlely cleaned."Two men have been jailed in the Ivory Coast over the dumping of toxic waste, which... more
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West African chimpanzees have declined by 90 percent in the last 18 years in an African country that is one of the subspecies' "final strongholds," a new study stays.
Scientists counting the rare chimps in Côte d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast) found only about 800 to 1,200 of the apes—down from about 8,000 to 12,000 in 1989-90. Before the new survey, the country had been thought to harbor about half of all West African chimps.
Since 1990 Côte d'Ivoire's human population has grown by about 50 percent. This growth is the most likely cause of the decline in the chimp numbers, according to the report.
More people has led to more hunting and deforestation—key chimp threats—particularly since 2002, when a coup attempt sparked civil unrest that continues today, the study says.
One of the country's sanctuaries, Marahoué National Park, has lost 93 percent of its forest cover in the last six years, the new survey found.
Campbell said that at many of the sites her team visited, "the habitat is gone, and all the protected areas have been invaded by people."
The human "invasion" has left wide swaths inhospitable to other forms of life, she suggests.
At many of the survey sites, "it's not just the chimps—[there's] no animal at all," said Campbell, speaking by phone from Côte d'Ivoire. West African chimpanzees have declined by 90 percent in the last 18 years in an... more
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(CBS)Close ties to France since independence in 1960, the development of cocoa production for export, and foreign investment made Cote d'Ivoire one of the most prosperous of the tropical African states, but did not protect it from political turmoil.
In December 1999, a military coup - the first ever in Cote d'Ivoire's history - overthrew the government. Junta leader Robert Guei blatantly rigged elections held in late 2000 and declared himself the winner. Popular protest forced him to step aside and brought runner-up Laurent Gbagbo into power.
Ivorian dissidents and disaffected members of the military launched a failed coup attempt in September 2002. Rebel forces claimed the northern half of the country, and in January 2003 were granted ministerial positions in a unity government under the auspices of the Linas-Marcoussis Peace Accord.
President Gbagbo and rebel forces resumed implementation of the peace accord in December 2003 after a three-month stalemate, but issues that sparked the civil war, such as land reform and grounds for citizenship, remain unresolved.
The central government has yet to exert control over the northern regions and tensions remain high between Gbagbo and opposition leaders. Several thousand French and West African troops remain in Cote d'Ivoire to maintain peace and facilitate the disarmament, demobilization, and rehabilitation process. (CBS)Close ties to France since independence in 1960, the development of cocoa... more
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Twelve people have gone on trial in Ivory Coast accused of dumping toxic waste blamed for 17 deaths and led 100,000 to seek medical treatment.
Some 500 tons of chemical waste from the oil industry were dumped two years ago in the biggest city, Abidjan.
Those on trial include the head of a local company, Tommy, that signed the deal to treat the waste with the Dutch multinational, Trafigura.
They are accused of poisoning and complicity to poison.
The BBC's John James reports from Abidjan that families of the victims are happy that the trial has begun, but there is anger that no-one from Trafigura is in court - nor those government and port officials accused of turning a blind eye.
Soon after the waste was dumped, people began complaining of breathing problems and rashes.
In an earlier out of court settlement, Trafigura agreed to pay the Ivorian government about $200m (£108m) in one of the largest payments of its kind.
The company never admitted liability, saying the payment was made out of sympathy for Ivorian people.
It also disputes whether the chemical slops were the cause of the large number of medical complaints.
The firm says it contracted Tommy to handle the waste in good faith.
Two years on, much of the waste remains where it was dumped and people still complain of illnesses and abnormal births linked to the waste, our correspondent says.
Twelve people have gone on trial in Ivory Coast accused of dumping toxic waste blamed... more
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english/docs/2008/09/15/usdom19818.htm
New legislation adopted on September 15, 2008 will permit the United States to prosecute foreign military commanders who recruit child soldiers abroad, Human Rights Watch said today. The Child Soldiers Accountability Act passed the House of Representatives unanimously on September 8 and was adopted by the Senate today.
The law makes it a federal crime to knowingly recruit or use soldiers under the age of 15 and permits the United States to bring charges under the law against both US citizens and non-citizens who are in the United States. The law imposes penalties of up to 20 years, or up to life in prison if death results, and allows the United States to deport or deny entry to individuals who have knowingly recruited children as soldiers.
“The exploitation of children as soldiers persists in many armed conflicts because child recruiters are rarely held accountable,” said Jo Becker, children’s rights advocate for Human Rights Watch. “This law tells military commanders worldwide that they cannot recruit children into their forces and then seek safe haven in the United States.”
Children are currently used in armed conflicts in at least 17 countries. Recruiters prey upon children, who are often the most vulnerable potential recruits and the most susceptible to threats and coercion. Child soldiers are used as combatants, porters, guards and spies, and for other duties.
The recruitment and use of children as soldiers was recognized in 1998 as a war crime under the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court. In 2007, four former military commanders from Sierra Leone were convicted by the Special Court for Sierra Leone for recruiting and using children as soldiers. Rebel and military commanders from the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda have also been charged under the International Criminal Court with recruiting and using child soldiers, though none have yet gone to trial.
“International tribunals are beginning to prosecute individuals for recruiting child soldiers, but almost no national governments have done so,” said Becker. “The United States is giving real leadership to efforts to end the use of child soldiers.”
Senator Richard Durbin authored the bipartisan bill, which he introduced together with Senators Tom Coburn, Russell Feingold, and Sam Brownback.
Countries in which children are known to have been used in hostilities between 2004 and 2007 include: Afghanistan, Burma, Burundi, Central African Republic, Chad, Colombia, Cote d’Ivoire, Democratic Republic of Congo, India, Indonesia, Iraq, Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories, Nepal, Philippines, Somalia, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Thailand, and Uganda.english/docs/2008/09/15/usdom19818.htm
New legislation adopted on September 15,... more
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L'actualite de Cote d'Ivoire writes that twelve people, including the head of Tommy, a local waste processing company, are set to appear before a court in Abidjan later this month; they are charged with “poisoning or conspiracy to poison” for illegally dumping 500 tons of toxic waste. Tommy was under contract with Trafigura, a Dutch energy company, to process the waste after Trafigura decided it was too expensive to process in Amsterdam.L'actualite de Cote d'Ivoire writes that twelve people, including the head... more
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The Ivory Coast government is halving the salaries of its ministers to pay for a reduction in the price of fuel. Prime Minister Guillaume Soro said the managers of state-owned companies would also have their pay cut in half, to pay for a 10% cut in fuel prices. "Having heard the people's cry from the heart, the government has decided to cut the price of fuel," Mr Soro said.
The announcement comes after a strike by public transport works in the main city Abidjan last week. On 7 July, Ivory Coast increased diesel prices by 44% and petrol prices by 29%. The government attributed the increase to rising global oil prices. Mr Soro said running costs and investments in government departments would also be cut to help cope with the extra expenditure.
Overseas trips by government members would also be reduced to a "bare minimum", he said. Escalating food prices sparked violent protests in Abidjan in March and April, when housewives took to the streets banging pots and pans, youths built burning barricades and at least one man was killed.The Ivory Coast government is halving the salaries of its ministers to pay for a... more
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