When you bite into a bar of chocolate, you may not realise that the cocoa was probably harvested by child labour. But, from this Summer, your bar of Cadbury’s Dairy Milk will use only Fairtrade cocoa in the UK and Ireland. You’ll only have to compromise your diet and not your conscience.

We’ve been enjoying Cadbury’s Dairy Milk in this country since 1905! But it has long been known that thousands of children are being trafficked onto the cocoa plantations in the Ivory Coast and across West Africa to harvest the cocoa that makes the chocolate that the world consumes.

Despite the fact the industry committed in 2001 to remove all forms of exploitative child labour from the chocolate supply chain, little progress had been made until now.

STOP THE TRAFFIK, the anti-human trafficking campaign established by Oasis founder Steve Chalke, began a Chocolate Campaign two years ago. STOP THE TRAFFIK has been calling for individual companies to take responsibility for the chocolate they sell, and has been asking for it to be traffic free. Steve, who is also a United Nations Special Advisor on Community Action Against Trafficking, said of Cadbury’s decision,
’This is a very significant step in our campaign, We congratulate Cadbury on their commitment to justice, and now look to their policy being adopted across their entire product range as well as to their lead being followed by other manufacturers.’

STOP THE TRAFFIK CEO, Ruth Dearnley added,
Cadbury’s decision demonstrates the power of ordinary consumers to bring about change and freedom. Two years ago, when STOP THE TRAFFIK met with Cadbury, we were told that the decision we have witnessed today was impossible and impracticable. This is a victory for every person who has complained, campaigned and spread the message. But most of all, it is a victory for every child held in exploitative labour on the cocoa farms of West Africa.
However, let us not snatch defeat from the jaws of victory – they will not be set free until Mars, Nestlé, Lindt and Hershey and all the others have the integrity to put human rights before profit and make similar announcements.’

Just weeks after Cadbury’s announcement there was more good news. STOP THE TRAFFIK were delighted to announce that Mars has committed to ‘certifying its entire cocoa supply by 2020’. As a first step, one of Mars’ leading brands, Galaxy bars, in the UK and Ireland, will be certified from early 2010, through the Rainforest Alliance as, ‘Free from trafficked and exploited labour’.

Attention now turns to Nestlé to see if they have any response to their competitors pledging to end child exploitation in their supply chain.

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STOP THE TRAFFIK – A global coalition of over 1000 charities in 60 countries that is working to stop the buying and selling of people. For campaign details see: www.stopthetraffik.org