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Valentine's Day: Attention! Child labor behind flowers and chocolate!
Pay attention to fairly traded chocolate and flowers on Valentine's Day: child labor in production often remains unnoticed.
Valentine's Day: Attention! Child labor behind flowers and chocolate!
The upcoming Valentine's Day on February 14 not only brings joy and gifts for loved ones, but also raises urgent questions about the origin of these products. More and more people in Austria are planning to give away flowers and chocolate that day. According to a current survey by the Austrian trade association, flowers and sweets are the favorites among the gifts. But behind this romantic gift there is often a cruel secret: child labor. Reinhard Heierer, Managing Director of the Development Aid Organization Jugend A Welt, urgently warned against buying products that were manufactured under exploitial conditions, especially those in which children are employed, as in the chocolate and flower industry, as on Aktiv- against-kinderbearung.de is reported.
a hidden problem
The report of the Bureau of International Labor Affairs (Ilab) shows alarming numbers: More than 1.5 million children work in the cocoa farms of the Ivory Coast and Ghanas alone. Almost 60 percent of global cocoa production comes from these countries. These children are not only forced in dangerous working conditions, but often have no access to education. Heierer emphasizes that awareness of child labor in Austria is too low and asks consumers to pay particular attention to the seal of approval of fair trade when buying. "Nobody wants gifts that contain child labor on Valentine's Day," says Heierer.
To counteract the problem, not only consumers are required, but also politics. Heierer calls for the quick implementation of the EU Lief chain law in Austria. This law could make a decisive contribution to ending the exploitation of children in the global supply chains. Without measures, he warns 160 million children without any chances and Austria could unintentionally become part of this urgent problem, which comes from the shadows of the chocolate factories and flower plantations. The "Stop child labor" initiative has been committed to the comprehensive protection of children in global supply chains for years, because education is the only way to overcome poverty and end the exploitation, as can be seen on juTeeinwelt.at