And don't forget to boycott Coca Cola as well, and all sugar that is not organic and fair-traded, because this is another industry where child labor is used extensively.
El Salvador: Hazardous Child Labor on Sugar Plantations
What You Can Do
FULL REPORT
Map of El Salvador
Glossary
Summary
Recommendations
The Use of Child Labor in Sugarcane Cultivation
The Role of Sugar in the Salvadoran Economy
An Overview of Sugarcane Cultivation
Beginning Age of Work
Health Risks
Work with Dangerous Tools
Exposure to Hazardous Substances
Herbicide Application
Cutting and Planting Unburned Cane
Working with Burned Cane
Access to Medical Treatment
Hours of Work
Wages
Access to Water and Food
The International Prohibition on Harmful or Hazardous Child Labor
The Relationship Between Child Labor and Education
The Effect of Work on Education
The Cost of Education
The Right to Education
The Complicity of Sugar Mills and the Responsibility of Multinational Corporations
The Role of the Sugar Mills
Providing Transport: Ingenio San Francisco
Recruitment: Ingenio La Cabaña, S.A. de C.V.
Administration of and Technical Assistance to Sugar Plantations: Compañía Azucarera Salvadoreña, S.A. de C.V.
Following the Supply Chain: The Link Between Child Labor and The Coca-Cola Company
The Responsibility of Multinational Corporations
The Response of the Salvadoran Government and the International Community
The Lack of Inspections
The International Community
Conclusion
Acknowledgments
Appendix A - Correspondence Between Human Rights Watch and the Coca-Cola Company
.pdf file ( 4 Mb, 18 pages)
Appendix B - Correspondence Between Human Rights Watch and the Salvadoran Sugar Association
.pdf file ( 1.7 Mb, 34 pages)
Appendix C - Sample Letter Sent to Other Sugar Mills Mentioned in this Report
.pdf file ( 97 Kb, 6 pages)
Appendix D - Sample Letter Sent to Other Multinational Corporations Mentioned in this Report
.pdf file ( 96 Mb, 5 pages)
Child labor is pervasive on sugar plantations in El Salvador. Children as young as eight use machetes to cut cane, working for up to nine hours each day in the hot sun. Gashes on the hands and legs are common. Medical care is often not available, and when it is, the cost is usually borne by the families of injured children. Children frequently do not attend school during the harvest, which runs through the first few months of the academic year.
El Salvador’s sugar mills and the businesses that purchase Salvadoran sugar use the product of hazardous child labor, a fact they know or should know. Even though many of these businesses, including The Coca-Cola Company, do not condone or permit child labor in their own or their direct suppliers’ operations, child labor is widespread on the plantations that supply the country’s sugar mills.
The Salvadoran government and the businesses that use the product of hazardous child labor must do more. The government should strengthen existing efforts to move children out of hazardous work and into educational and vocational training programs, and it should enforce laws that guarantee universal access to basic education. Coca-Cola and other businesses must monitor labor conditions on sugar plantations and provide assistance to plantations that fall short of international standards. Coca-Cola and other businesses should also recognize their responsibility to ensure respect for human rights, including the prohibition on the worst forms of child labor, throughout their supply chains. In particular, they should support programs and services that offer children and their families alternatives to child labor; they should not simply fire children who are found to be working in hazardous occupations.
You can help. Write to The Coca-Cola Company and the Salvadoran Sugar Association.
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