The U.S. Supreme Court decided today that 6 former child slaves who were kidnapped at a bus station in Mali, driven across the border to the Ivory Coast, then sold to farmers for $40 apiece to harvest cocoa beans had no grounds to bring a lawsuit against Nestle for human rights violations. The claim was that Nestle and others “aided and abetted” these human rights violations by buying these beans that they knew were low cost and tainted by enslaved children. 

The U.S. Department of Labor estimates that there are 1.58 million children working harvesting cocoa beans in Ghana and Ivory Coast where Nestle, Cargill, Hershey, Mars, Barry Callebaut and others get most of their beans. They estimate that 48% of them are performing “hazardous labor.” Rest assured that this is not your grandparents family farm situation when you might have helped them bail hay, break ice, or deliver a calf. This is brutal, inhumane and sad. 

The children in today’s case were tortured and treated like animals. Let’s look directly at the brief they filed in the Supreme Court:

Respondents are six former child slaves who were trafficked from Mali and subsequently held for years in slavery on Ivorian cocoa plantations. Between the ages of twelve and fourteen Respondents were forced to work on Ivorian cocoa farms for twelve to fourteen hours per day, at least six days per week. They were not paid and were given only scraps of food to eat. Respondents were beaten with whips and tree branches when their overseers felt that they were not working quickly enough. They were forced to sleep on dirt floors in small, locked shacks with other children, and were guarded by men with guns to prevent them from escaping. Respondents witnessed other children who tried to flee the plantations being severely beaten and 4 tortured. One Respondent, John Doe IV, tried to escape, and when the overseers caught him, they cut the bottoms of his feet and rubbed chili pepper into his wounds. He was also tied to a tree and beaten until his arm was permanently damaged. John Doe III witnessed small children who tried to escape being forced to drink urine.  John Doe VI was severely beaten for working too slowly when he was sick and, like the other Respondents, his arms bear multiple scars from machete cuts he incurred while being forced to use the sharp tool to cut down and open cocoa pods.  


I’d like you to read that paragraph again and let it sink in. Nestle responded to this lawsuit when it was filed in 2005 and have been blocking these children from their day in court for 16 years. They won today. This means that their human rights lawyer – Terry Collingsworth – has not been able to present any evidence, no jury, no discovery, no chance for the children to be heard. Terry founded and runs the non-profit law firm International Rights Advocates fighting the fight against these abuses. It is David v Goliath IRL. Terry is a hero and selfless advocate who is not letting this ruling slow down his work on behalf of his clients. 

The sad headline is this: the highest court in our land said that cheap chocolate made on the backs of child slaves will remain cheap for now. I say “for now” because the complicated and divided opinion left the door open a tiny crack that the plaintiff children can amend their charges in the U.S. District Court in California and maybe just maybe have a cause of action that will pass Supreme Court muster. It’s not over. 

Why did the Supremes reverse this case and hand Nestle a temporary child slave permit? This gets complicated even for me and I spent nearly 20 years in the courtroom and getting ready for trials as a criminal defense lawyer. I spent a short lifetime reading Supreme Court cases and doing my best to interpret their meaning and impact. Justice Thomas said that the former child slaves did not adequately allege that Nestle’s conduct was inside the United States. Speaking for the Court he also said (and here’s where it might be argued otherwise) that there is not a cause of action at all under the Alien Tort Statute which is the anchor for these plaintiffs. The New York Times, less biased than me, did a nice job of explaining it. For a deeper dive check out this well respected blog on all things Supreme Court. 

What do we have to do with this you ask? You might recall from other posts that Askinosie Chocolate, along with 17 other small chocolate companies, filed an Amicus Brief in the Supreme Court last year supporting the rights of these child slaves to have their day in court. Our lawyers at Corporate Accountability Lab argued that there are other ways to make chocolate without using slaves. The best background primer on this litigation and the issue itself is this article by journalist Simran Sethi in The Counter from last week. Chocolate industry expert Clay Gordon interviewed me last week, before the case was decided, but it’s a good conversation if you’re interested in checking it out. We’ve been on this issue for years and will continue to advocate for children and tell our story. I wrote an extensive post when the Washington Post broke the story 2 years ago about the pervasive problem in the chocolate industry. 

What’s next? Another lawsuit was filed this past February in federal court on behalf of other former slaves under a different statute. I think this has a great chance of success. There is another case pending in front of the Customs and Border Protection agency asking that they not allow cocoa beans in this country that have been harvested by child slaves. Stay tuned. In the meantime, we will keep working with farmers directly, profit sharing, paying way above farmgate price and engaging in their communities. They are our friends. 

My call to action: please consider donating to the International Rights Advocates, a 501(c)(3) human rights law firm run by Terry Collingsworth so they can keep fighting this important fight. And for those of you who know me, I am not letting this go and will do everything I possibly can in my chocolate making lawyer powers to help Terry stop Big Chocolate from using enslaved children. And of course when it comes to our chocolate, we’ll keep living what you’ve come to expect from us because remember, it’s not about the chocolate, it’s about the chocolate.