Supreme Court Weights Corporate Liability for Child Labor on Cocoa Farms

The Most Revolutionary Act

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By Claire Kelloway

Food and Power

Last Tuesday, the Supreme Court heard arguments about whether the world’s largest cocoa corporations are liable for child slavery in their supply chains. For 15 years, six citizens of Mali who were trafficked as children to work on cocoa farms have sought legal damages from Cargill and Nestle USA under a 240-year-old anti-piracy law.

The plaintiffs’ attorney told the court that the corporations “maintain a system of child slavery and forced labor in their Ivory Coast supply chain as a matter of corporate policy to gain a competitive advantage in the U.S. market.” Cargill and Nestle deny this charge, saying that they work to avoid child slavery in their supply chains, not aid and abet it. Those who directly perpetrate forced child labor – farmers and human traffickers, in other words – should be held liable, the defendants argue.

The case raises…

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