Imagine yourself biting into a savory-sweet piece of Hershey’s chocolate bar, one that you have been craving for ages to eat. Here’s the thing though, that chocolate probably came from one of Ivory Coast’s cocoa plantations, which produce over 55% of the world’s cocoa. from a child under 16 years old swinging a machete in a plantation to harvest the chocolate you have in your hands. Children working long hours every day in hazardous fields produce Hershey’s chocolate. Do you still see chocolate the same way now? 

Cocoa plantations treat their child workers like slaves. 8 children who were human trafficked by cocoa plantations and forced to work, made a lawsuit against Hershey’s; the court documents report, “being fed little and working long hours. Often, they claim they were kept alone and isolated from other child workers.” in addition to that, they also claim they rarely got breaks and were not paid, breaking several UDHR articles such as article 4, “freedom from slavery,” and article 24, “right to rest and leisure.”

In 2001 Hershey’s Pledged to end child labor in their plantations after being exposed, but over the last 2 decades since that pledge, child labor has increased in their cocoa plantations in Ivory Coast.  According to The National Opinion Research Center (NORC) at the University of Chicago “children in child labor in cocoa production in agricultural households of Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana increased​ from 31% in 2008/09 to 44% in 2018/19.” With that in mind, Hershey’s lied to the public about reducing child labor but instead increasing their profit off of it. We cannot afford to trust Hershey's again if they make any more pledges as nothing guarantees they won’t break it like this one.

Children working in cocoa farms share deadly risks, such as handling razor-sharp machetes to chop cocoa beans, resulting in many of them injuring themselves while doing so. The eight children who used to work in Hershey’s cocoa plantation, states in the lawsuit, “they routinely found children using machetes, applying chemicals and undertaking other hazardous tasks on cocoa plantations.” Furthermore, many children in cocoa plantations suffer from, inhaling harmful pesticides, encountering wild poisonous snakes, falling cocoa pods, and unsanitary workspaces. All of these hazards are serious work health and safety violations that could lead to even more legal consequences.

Without a doubt, Hershey’s had 2 decades to come up with a solution to child labor in their plantations in Ivory Coast. With that amount of time, you would think something drastic would have happened, but Hershey’s still have yet to show a shred of care for the issue. It is now our responsibility to take action for the rights of those children, and stop companies from taking advantage of them in any way we can. Through social media or public speaking, we must stand up for them as equal human beings, if we don’t no one will for us if our human rights get violated.