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Read the No Hershey’s Kisses for Children of Africa case. Using ethical theories and principles learned in this course, especially rights and responsibilities, analyze the moral worth of the decisions made in the case. Also discuss the various options open, and choose the one you think would have been the best. Justify the choice you make using resources from this course. 350 words.
Lecture:
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/03415d.htm
No Hershey’s Kisses for Children of Africa：
The town of Hershey, Pennsylvania, boasts a magnificent amusement park, a medical center, headquarters for the Hershey Foundation, and the corporate offices for the Hershey Corporation. This iconic setting is a far cry from that of western Africa where the processes of making the sweet, delectable Hershey treats are initiated. Children there are not enjoying chocolate, but the drive for greater profits is biting deeply into their lives and communities. In Ghana, on the west coast of Africa, children are being forced onto cocoa farms. Some children, as young as nine, can spend seven days a week hidden deep in the jungles of Ghana harvesting cocoa beans from pods on trees. These cocoa beans, the key ingredient in chocolate manufacturing, are then shipped to processing plants to produce the sweet chocolate so many people enjoy. Cocoa, or “black gold” as it is known in Ghana, is the nation’s biggest cash crop, employing 1.5 million people—86,000 of them children. In fact, Ghana is the world’s largest producer of cocoa after the Ivory Coast.
Because of its proximity to surrounding bodies of water and its strategic placement on western Africa’s “Gold Coast,” Ghana was regarded historically as the center of the slave trade for that part of the continent. Despite efforts to institute anti-slavery laws, child slavery continues in the cocoa fields of Ghana in modern times. In addition to the long working hours, labor conditions for these children can be quite abusive. Children are forced to work under extremely hot temperatures with no sun protection, engage in physically demanding work practices, and be exposed to all sorts of unhealthy, even poisonous pesticides. There also have been allegations on the farms of physical torture and sexual abuse.
Slavery on these cocoa farms is fueled by the practice of human trafficking in which children are sold by parents in order to generate income for their families, in spite of the fact that, by Western standards, the pay is pathetically low, averaging about 40 cents for twelve hours of hard labor. For these families in western Africa, however, it is an income they desperately need to make ends meet. Increased consumption drives up demand for cocoa, which in turn drives up demand for scarce labor. Cocoa farmers in Ghana claim that they can keep up with this demand only by resorting to child slavery and human trafficking.
Ghana’s government acknowledges that child labor on the cocoa plantations is a tragic violation of human rights that needs to be addressed. Leaders in this nation are under pressure to eradicate child labor and restore the right of human dignity to children. Because of their extensive time-consuming work on the cocoa farms, children are unable to attend school. This practice violates the International Labor Organization (ILO) child-labor standards. Human rights organizations claim that in addition to violating international law, the farmers and the political leaders of Ghana are denying enslaved children a potentially brighter future by depriving them of a proper education. It has been argued that by purchasing cocoa from Ghana and not protesting against these deplorable conditions, Hershey and other multinational corporations participate indirectly in these abuses.
The government in Ghana has made some efforts to resolve the human rights abuses associated with child enslavement. There is evidence to support its claim. In 2001, companies purchasing cocoa from Ghana signed the Harkin-Engel Protocol, which aligned corporate practices with ILO child-labor standards. Many Ghanaian children have been freed from slavery on the cocoa farms and are being placed back in schools. Additional assistance has been given to these children’s families to help them understand the value of education.
“In concert with these progressive local and international efforts undertaken by human rights organizations such as the World Cocoa Foundation, other groups are stepping up to exert pressure on Hershey and other chocolate producers that have a stake in cocoa production in Ghana (and the Ivory Coast). While there are no concrete sustainable steps that the Ghanaian government has taken to fully abolish this cache of human rights abuses, there are consolidated international efforts to mitigate the abuse of child labor. Three NGOs have formed a human rights coalition called, “Raise the Bar, Hershey!” (www.raisethebarhershey.org/) in order to hold Hershey accountable for its part in human rights violations in Ghana.
Creation of a supply chain that values human rights and corresponding responsibilities is a major challenge for any multinational company. Hershey may be tempted to model its behavior on other corporations that have overlooked similar exploitative actions in order to maintain financially lucrative supply chains. However, the “reputation of the company is at stake as more and more of the abuse and exploitation of human rights at the lower end of their supply chain is revealed. As the world’s leading confectioner, can Hershey continue to purchase cocoa from sources that have clearly violated international law, while still maintaining that it is “doing well by doing good,” as they claim on their webpage? (www.thehersheycompany.com)
Meanwhile, Hershey has made identifiable strides toward greater corporate responsibility regarding these issues. Jeff Beckman, Hershey’s spokesperson, indicated that the company was involved in partnerships with public and private groups to purge inappropriate labor practices in cocoa communities. As a testimony to Hershey’s efforts, a group called Rainforest Alliance believes it can certify that Hershey develops its Bliss chocolate line in accordance with human rights and environmental standards. For its part, Hershey announced in 2012 it was making efforts to ensure that by 2020 all of its cocoa would come from suppliers that meet international labor standards.
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