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Today #SCOTUS considers a lawsuit against #Nestle & #Cargill for child slavery in their cocoa supplier farms. Don't be fooled by these food giants: Brands should be held responsible for human rights abuses at all points in their supply chains. 1/ https://wapo.st/3mqTOQA
The brands' argument goes: We aren't the ones committing the crimes. The lawsuit should be brought against the direct offenders, in the country where the crimes took place, under the laws of that jurisdiction. Not so fast! 2/
Brands (located primarily in the Global North) have an immense amount of power over their suppliers & producers (located primarily in the Global South). They have the upper hand in contracts, meaning if they don't want to buy cocoa harvested by children, they don't have to. 3/
In other words: their purchasing practices can have a direct impact on whether or not a supplying farm uses, say, child labor to produce cocoa. Brands can source elsewhere & if those farms want to keep their contracts, they will cease their human rights violations. 4/
Things get confusing when brands dress their products with labels assuring "fair", "sustainable", or "ethical" certification by orgs like @FAIRTRADE. These certification orgs create industry standards that brands can voluntarily follow to receive such seals of approval. 5/
The problem is that these certifications do not guarantee human rights violations will stop. Indeed, as we've seen in the cocoa industry, they can remain rampant. One lesson: voluntary standards don't work for affected communities. 6/ https://wapo.st/33w7MZW
If you're interested in how these certification schemes work and why we say, "enough!", check out our report, Not Fit-For-Purpose, which breaks down the need for more gov't regulations & an alternative business model altogether. 7/7 https://www.msi-integrity.org/not-fit-for-purpose/
