French NPO invites cartoonists to stand against child labour
Cartoons for Change, a French non-profit organisation, has sent out an international invitation to cartoonists around the world to protest against widespread child labour, through cartoons.
DURBAN, November 6 (ANA) – Cartoons for Change, a French non-profit organisation, has sent out an international invitation to cartoonists around the world to protest against widespread child labour, through cartoons.
The interested participants will get an opportunity to exhibit their artworks at the Berlin Wall in Germany, under the #cartoons4change title, on November 20, which is also International Children’s Day.
“Seventy years after the Declaration of Human Rights and 30 years after the Convention of the Rights of the Child, there are nearly 300 million children working. This is unacceptable, cruel and illegal.
“2021 is the International Year for the Elimination of Child Labour. We can’t remain indifferent,” said the founder of Cartoons for Change, Fernando Morales-de la Cruz, on Thursday.
According to reports online, child labour is most prevalent in the cocoa and tea industries.
A report by Food Empowerment Program, an American-based NPO, found that western African countries, mainly Ghana and the Ivory Coast, supply more than 70% of the world’s cocoa.
Furthermore, 60% of the Ivory Coast’s export revenue comes from its cocoa.
The cocoa grown and harvested in these countries is then sold to some of the largest chocolate companies in the world at dirt-cheap prices.
“On average, cocoa farmers earn less than US$2 per day, an income below the poverty line. As a result, they often resort to the use of child labour to keep their prices competitive,” the report said.
“The farms of western Africa supply cocoa to international giants such as Hershey’s, Mars and Nestlé, revealing the industry’s direct connection to the worst forms of child labour, human trafficking and slavery.
“Most of the children labouring 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,” the report explained.
De la Cruz said that despite talks of sustainable growth and development, national governments and multinational corporations do nothing to put an end to child labour.
“Child labour continues to grow in coffee, in cocoa, in tea and that’s only breakfast. Multinationals profit from child labour and this has to stop,” De la Cruz said.
– African News Agency (ANA); Editing by Yaron Blecher
