FORCED LABOUR In 2024/25, we continued to work with ICI to train and strengthen Human Rights Committees across all partner cooperatives in Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana. The Human Rights Committees are responsible for addressing grievances raised amongst their members and their members’ workers. But an effective response to forced labour requires ensuring support to vulnerable workers beyond our own supply chain, whilst also taking a community- based approach. In Ghana, we supported the creation of Community Child & Labour Protection Committees (CCLPCs) through a pilot project (CIRCLE 89 ) with partners ICI and Fairtrade Africa, funded by Finland’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. 90 The same approach will be rolled out to Côte d’Ivoire next season. The role of the Community Child & Labour Protection Committees is to: • Raise awareness on labour rights and forced labour risks • Witness formal contracts between farm owners and workers • Facilitate the signing of agreements and the registration of new workers • Link foreign workers to immigration for proper registration • Receive grievances from workers and complaints from farmers • Monitor worker–farm owner relations • Address grievances at the community level • Refer unresolved cases to the district level/assess and address committees • Provide remedies (e.g., mediation, contract signing) • Follow up on resolved cases to ensure conditions are met In collaboration with ICI, Fairtrade, and partner cooperatives, we are engaging with community committees to identify and support income-generating initiatives that will enable the group to become self-sustaining and financially independent over time. The CCLPCs at 1 cooperative in Ghana received 40 grievances. Of these, 4 were referred to local labour officers (Labour
Department) and related to threats of dismissal. Two raised more serious labour abuse claims, which, per the established protocols, were referred to the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice, the body in Ghana responsible for addressing human rights violations. One case was in relation to the farmer threatening the farm worker with dismissal, and the other involved poor working conditions. In the first case, CHARJ and labour department mediated a contract signing between the farmer and the worker. In the second case, CHARJ ordered the farm owner to revise the working conditions, and a contract was signed to document the agreement made. Both cases followed the proper referral mechanisms to the responsible state actors and were resolved to the satisfaction of all parties involved, including the partner cooperative. The remaining cases were mediated effectively by the committee, resulting in the signing of a labour contract, without requiring onward referral. The cooperative was pleased with the work of the committees as they have established themselves as a trusted and respected authority in the community, working effectively with traditional offices, local leaders and district stakeholders. We will extend this pilot to all communities in Tony’s Open Chain’s supply chain in Ghana in the coming years. GRIEVANCE MECHANISMS To supplement the efforts of the Human Rights Committees and broaden the scope of our work on forced labour in particular, Tony’s Open Chain has joined a pilot to develop a Cross-Company Grievance Mechanism in the cocoa sector in Côte d´Ivoire. Together with other chocolate brands, retailers, and supply chain actors, the pilot seeks to develop a locally hosted mechanism that will supplement traditional conflict resolution structures and existing systems, providing multiple grievance channels and avenues for remedy at village, subprefecture and national levels. Read the Feasibility Study underpinning the pilot here. Tony’s Open Chain has also set up SpeakUp, a grievance mechanism which is publicly available in multiple languages, on its website. All stakeholders, including employees, suppliers, partner cooperatives, cocoa farmers and Mission Allies, can raise work-related grievances through this platform.
89. CIRCLE: Children In Rural Communities Are Learning and Empowered. 90. Fairtrade Africa. DONUTS CIRCLE Project Brochure. October 2023.
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Ending exploitation in cocoa together
Living income
Climate, environment & productivity
Human rights
Governance & finances
Interesting appendices
Scaling for change
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