SMOTD -The Dark Side of Chocolate

In 2001, the Chocolate Manufacturers Association formed an action plan entitled the Harkin-Engel Protocol aimed at ending child trafficking and slave labor in the cocoa industry.^[9]

The documentary starts in Cologne, Germany where Mistrati asks several chocolate company representatives whether they are aware of child labour in cocoa farms. In Mali, the film shows that children, having been promised paid work, are taken to towns near the border such as Zegoua, from where another trafficker transports the children over the border on a dirt-bike. Then they are left with a third trafficker who sells the children to farmers for around 250 Euros each.

The children, ranging in age from 10 to 15, are forced to do hard and often hazardous labor, are often beaten, and most are never paid. Most of them stay with the plantation until they die, never seeing their families again. The Harkin-Engel Protocol, an agreement that was signed by the major chocolate companies almost 10 years before the film was made, promised to end the use of child labour.^[10]

When confronted with this issue, corporate representatives denied all rumors of child labor and trafficking, but the investigations of the filmmakers brought to light the continued widespread use of trafficked child slaves on cocoa plantations.

Nestle and other companies declined an invitation to watch the film and to answer questions. In response, Mistrati set up a large screen next to Nestle's headquarters in Switzerland, forcing employees to catch a glimpse of child labor in the cocoa industry.