Main Title of the Case Study Sub-title (Year, State, Country) Small image representative of the case study, if you like Date of submission UDC First Name Last Name I. Introduction This report summarizes …[State what is in the report. Say what you are talking about in the report, briefly what the case is, how you are going to analyze the case, and what your conclusions are. No more than ½ a page] II. Case Study [What is case study – describe briefly about its significance, who were involved, what went wrong, and why it is important? Where it happened, when, main issues, what is the status of the case now ] III. Ethical Issues Raised in the Case Study Why it is important from ethical viewpoint? Is there any ethical dilemmas? Who are persons that experienced ethical dilemmas? IV. Resolution of Ethical Issues and their Impact to Society What was the conclusion from the case study? Did the case study led to new changes (laws, policies made)? V. Lessons Learnt - Discussion What you learned from the case study? If you face the same situation what the steps you will take to solve the ethical issues. VI. Summary This report summarized …[State what is in the report. What the ethical issues were, how it resolved and briefly, what your conclusions were. In today’s world, one would believe that people from all over the world would stand against the use of child labor to produce its good. However, we all have in one way or another supported businesses that enslaves children for labor. The problem of child labor has become an increasing concern among many nations. Many of the worst child labor offenses take place in third world countries. There are many faces to child labor in various industries, however, for the sake of this report, I will only focus on child labor and slavery in the chocolate industry. Chocolate is a product of the cacao bean, which grows primarily in the tropical climates of Western Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Western African countries, mostly Ghana and the Ivory Coast, supply more than 70% of the world’s cocoa (FoodisPower, 2014). In the past years, investigators along with journalists have exposed the use of child labor on cocoa farms in Western Africa. Most of the children that are used for labor are slaves which creates a huge systematic, corporate and ethical issues. Poverty surrounds the children of Western Africa, and that forced many to start working at a very young age to support their families. Promises of good pay drive many to end up at cocoa farms. The absence of strong and effective authority drives relatives or farm owners to sell children to traffickers, and the chain goes on and on. The discussion of child slavery and its process among traffickers will take me on a different path, away from topic of this report. However, known chocolate brands have their hands dirty, and their share of child slavery for labor. Third world countries offer child labor, because they’re cheap as competitive advantage in the world market. Well-known companies from the west let the low cost and profitability blind their morality. Rather than making sure no child labor is involved in the production of their product, companies have embraced it by running their operations in countries that allow it to occur (UNICEF). “Most of the children laboring on cocoa farms are between the ages of 12 and 16, but reporters have found children as young as 5. In addition, 40% of these children are girls, and some stay for a few months, while others end up working on the cocoa farms through adulthood” (FoodisPower, 2014). The media coverage of child labor attracted the attention of U.S. politicians. “Former Sen. Tom Harkin, a Democrat of Iowa, and Rep. Eliot Engel, a New York Democrat, pushed the big chocolate makers to agree to eradicate the worst forms of child labor, as defined by the International Labor Organization’s Convention No. 182, by July 1, 2005” (O'Keefe, 2016). The Harkin-Engel Protocol, facilitated by Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA), Rep. Eliot Engel (D-NY), and Senator Herb Kohl (D-WI), aimed at eliminating the worst forms of child labor by 2005. “It was signed by the Chocolate Manufacturers Association and the World Cocoa Foundation. It was also signed by the major manufacturers, including Hershey’s, M&M Mars, Nestlé, World’s Finest Chocolate, Blommer's Chocolate, Guitars Chocolate, Barry Callebaut and Archer Daniels Midland.” The Harkin-Engel Protocol commits the chocolate industry to work with the nongovernmental organizations to monitor and remedy abusive forms of child labor in the growing and processing of cocoa beans. However, this is not a fight to be fought by politicians only; people from all over the world must recognize the issue, especially the families of the young enslaved boys and girls. A child’s workday typically begins at six in the morning and ends in the evening. Some of the children use chainsaws to clear the forests. Other children climb the cocoa trees to cut bean pods using a machete. These large, heavy, dangerous knives are the standard tools for children on the cocoa farms, which violates international labor laws and a UN convention on eliminating the worst forms of child labor. Reports have shown that “hundreds of thousands of children are used as free labor by their own families and often asked to take on dangerous tasks like harvesting with machetes or hauling 100-pound bags of beans” (O’Keefe, 2016). Aly Diabate, a former cocoa slave, said, “Some of the bags were taller than me. It took two people to put the bag on my head. And when you didn’t hurry, you were beaten.” In addition to the hazards of using machetes, children are also exposed to agricultural chemicals on cocoa farms in Western Africa. “Tropical regions such as Ghana and the Ivory Coast consistently deal with prolific insect populations and choose to spray the pods with large amounts of industrial chemicals” (FoodisPower, 2014). In Ghana, children as young as 10 spray the pods with these toxins without wearing protective clothing. The farm owners using child labor usually provide the children with the cheapest food available, such as corn paste and bananas. In some cases, the children sleep on wooden planks in small windowless buildings with no access to clean water or sanitary bathrooms. We can only imagine how horrible their lives conditions are treating them. A child who was rescued by a nonprofit organization told the media that he was living hell, beaten every day, starved (form of punishment), and limit access or no access at all to see his family who are not far away. As for education, 10% of child laborers in Ghana and 40% in the Ivory Coast do not attend school; which violates the International Labor Organization’s (ILO) Child Labor Standards. “Depriving these children of an education has many short-term and long-term effects. Without an education, the children of the cocoa farms have little hope of ever breaking the cycle of poverty” (O’Keefe, 2016).