In July of 2005, the International Labor Relief Fund filed a lawsuit against Nestlé for allegedly using child laborers. Almost 70% of the company’s cocoa is purchased from and processed in the Ivory Coast, a site to which ILRF attorney Natasha Thys visited and discovered that — despite Nestlé’s claims of working to monitor and reduce the issue — child labor was prevalent. Many of the approximately 378 000 children working in the Ivory Coast are forced to work up to 14 hours per day and 6 days a week with threats of beatings and torture.

An 11 year-old child working in the blazing African heat at one of the cacao plants in the Ivory Coast.

While it is true that Nestlé does not personally own these plantations that enforce child labor, the company provides financial support and monitors the activities of these areas. Being the largest chocolate company to do business in the area, Nestlé sets an example to the other industries, and when they support this trampling of human rights by funding it, they prove to be a stubborn obstacle in the face of organizations, like the ILRF, that are working to provide ethical and fair conditions to employees around the world.