Exploring Legal and Non-Legal Approaches to Eliminating Child Labour in the Cocoa Industry in Ghana

The problem of child labour in cocoa producing countries like Ghana and Ivory Coast has been projected into the international limelight due to coverage by notable international media organisations like CNN, BBC, and Al Jazeera. The incidence of child labour in the cocoa industry raises legal and ethical issues in the production and manufacturing processes that feed into international trade. This paper explores the international legal framework on child labour under the Minimum Age Convention and the consistency of Ghanaian domestic law with the Convention. It further discusses empirical data collected from Anyinam, a cocoa farming community in the Eastern Region of Ghana and the sustainability programme of Federated Commodities Ltd. (FEDCO), as a private sector responsible business initiative aimed at addressing the problem of child labour from a holistic approach.