In early June, the Working Group on Child Labour and Living Income organized a webinar on children’s rights in the cocoa sector. First focusing on the broad corporate responsibility towards children’s rights, the webinar then looked more deeply into children’s rights within cocoa-growing communities and the root causes of child labour. An adequate standard of living, child protection, education, and child survival were highlighted as the most salient children’s rights issues in the cocoa context. A further presentation looked more deeply into the relationship between farmers’ income and child labour, concluding that the effects of income changes on child labour vary widely and depend on a variety of mediating factors, which may influence the extent and direction of the effects. Finally, the webinar focused on concrete actions and the development of community child protection systems, among others highlighting the crucial role of women for the children’s wellbeing in cocoa-growing communities.
The content of the webinar sparked many questions and comments, of which only a part could be taken up in the scheduled time. As a follow-up to and building up on the inputs of the webinar, a workshop on practical approaches regarding businesses’ impacts and activities on children’s rights in and around cocoa producing communities will be planned.