Child labor due diligence act adopted!
Remember? Almost two years ago we went to the Dutch Senate to plead for legislation against child labor. With our campaign on social media we collected almost 13.000 signatures from choco fans and 42 companies signed a letter asking for legislation. We supported the due diligence-act that was first adopted by the House of Representatives.
The child labour due diligence-act was adopted on April 14.. turn on the discoballs!
Remember? Almost two years ago we went to the Dutch Senate to plead for legislation against child labour. With our campaign on social media we almost collected 13.000 signatures from choco fans and 42 companies signed a letter asking for legislation. We supported the due diligence-act that was first adopted by the House of Representatives.
On May 14th the final vote of the Dutch senate took place. And guess what? Political parties D66, 50Plus, PvdA, SP, ChristenUnie, GroenLinks, PvdD, 50PLUS and OSF all voted in favour. VVD, CDA, PVV, SGP and Fractie-Duthler all voted against the proposed legislation. The law was adopted! That means companies are obligated to make their industries fairer and more transparent. It applies to companies that are physically selling products and services (so not just chocolate!) and are located in the Netherlands, and all companies that sell online and focus on the Dutch market. Hurray, we’re a step closer to 100% slave free chocolate!
20 years in the works
In 2001 the Harkin-Engel protocol was already passed but it was all just talk and deliberation.
No child labour anymore in 2025?
It’s not okay that child labour still exists. The standard for all products and services on the Dutch market should be 100% child labour free. In the Sustainable Development goals of the VN, the Netherlands agreed that by 2025 all forms of child labour should come to an end. But that takes waaaay too long.
There's still a lot of work to be done
But hey, Rome wasn’t built in a day! And a 100% slave free chocolate value chain isn’t either. We took years to develop our five sourcing principles and now we're well trained on the subject, we like to share what we've learned with other chocolate companies. Want to learn more? Read all about it on www.tonysopenchain.com.
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