Slavery
How Does Fair Trade Help The Poor?
USING TRADE TO BALANCE EQUALITY IN THE DEVELOPING WORLD
Fair Trade farmers and producers are guaranteed a fair price for their crops and goods. They are empowered to compete in the global marketplace through direct, long-term contracts with international buyers. This market access lifts farming and producer families from poverty through trade.
Keeping food on the table, children in school and families on their land. Workers doing business within the Fair Trade model are also guaranteed fair wages and safe working conditions, and forced child labor or any human exploitation is strictly prohibited. In many situations, workers are paid an additional Fair Trade premium for use on long-term social and business development projects such as healthcare, scholarships, women’s leadership initiatives and micro- finance programs.
The Fair Trade model is a viable option to empower the developing world thus creating safe, thriving communities where equality can be found. When you purchase Fair Trade products, you are not only acknowledging the hard work performed in the developing world, but you can also know that the producers of that product have been treated fairly and are living slave free lives.
WATCH FOR THE LABELS
The Fair Trade labels offer consumers a simple way to know that their products were produced in a socially-responsible manner. The third-party verification guarantees that strict social, economic and environmental standards have been met. Now more than 11,000 different products can be found in over 70,000 retail locations across the United States.
Partners with Fair Trade USA
Accountability
How many times has the question been asked when purchasing a Fair Trade product, how do I really know that my dollars are helping people in the developing world?
Fair Trade USA is a 501 (c) (3) nonprofit organization, they are the leading third-party certifier of Fair Trade products in the United States. They provide farmers in developing nations the tools to thrive as international business people. Instead of creating dependency on aid, they use a market-based approach that gives farmers fair prices, workers safe conditions, and entire communities resources for fair, healthy and sustainable lives. They seek to inspire the rise of the Conscious Consumer and eliminate exploitation.
It is this organization that Fair Trade World is accountable! We are a Licensed Partner with Fair Trade USA, and that means that they monitor our supply chains. This ensures that the farmers are receiving the proper Fair Trade wage and the many community benefits that the Fair Trade model provides.
Without accountability, you would never truly know that your dollars are making a difference! So please buy Fair Trade Certified goods and help change one life at a time!
Licensed Partner Link: View this link to verify that Fair Trade World is a licensed partner with Fair Trade USA.
Thank you for helping fight poverty and slavery!
A Slave Free Valentine’s Day
It’s that time of year again when we get to indulge in chocolate and romance. However, the chocolate has a dark side that many of us are unaware of. The majority of our chocolate is sourced from the cocoa plantations on the Ivory Coast, and unfortunately these plantations often utilize child slavery. As hard as it is to believe, the majority of the chocolate we buy in gas stations and grocery stores are sourced from these child slaves.
Now if your Valentine is anything like my wife, they love chocolate! But how do we purchase chocolate that is guaranteed to be slave free? Well, there is a wonderful solution… fair trade! Fair trade products are often promoted as being helpful to the farmers and artisans because they get paid a good wage and the model of fair trade impacts communities. While this is absolutely true, there is another benefit to it… slave free! By default (based upon regulations and requirements) fair trade products are slave free!
What a wonderful thing to be able to purchase chocolate for the one you love with a clear conscience! Any health food store in your area will most likely carry fair trade products. So, will you do the world a favor this Valentine’s day by purchasing products that do not support child slavery?
If you have any questions, please feel free to comment or contact us directly at info@FairTradeWorld.net.
Justice Matters
Human Trafficking is a modern-day form of slavery. Victims of human trafficking are subjected to force, fraud, or coercion, for the purpose of sexual exploitation or forced labor. Victims are young children, teenagers, men and women.
After drug dealing, human trafficking is tied with the illegal arms industry as the second largest criminal industry in the world today, and it is the fastest growing.
The Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 (TVPA) defines Severe Forms of Trafficking in Persons as:
• Sex Trafficking: the recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision, or obtaining of a person for the purpose of a commercial sex act , in which a commercial sex act is induced by force, fraud, or coercion, or in which the person forced to perform such an act is under the age of 18 years; or
• Labor Trafficking: the recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision, or obtaining of a person for labor or services, through the use of force, fraud or coercion for the purpose of subjection to involuntary servitude, peonage, debt bondage or slavery.
If you are in the Southern California area, please consider attending the “Justice Matters” conference on February 16th. This conference will help you to understand more about the injustice of human trafficking, and what you can do about it!
For more info visit:
The Super Bowl of Sex Slavery
When it came time for the Super Bowl, Clemmie Greenlee was expected to sleep with anywhere from 25 to 50 men a day. It’s a staggering figure, but it doesn’t shock advocates who say that the sporting event attracts more traffickers than any other in the U.S.
“The Super Bowl is the greatest show on Earth, but it also has an ugly underbelly,”Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott told USA Today in 2011 when his state was gearing up to host the event. “It’s commonly known as the single largest human trafficking incident in the United States.”
The influx of fans fosters the optimal breeding ground for pimps looking to boost their profits. Experts say that the sheer number of men looking to pay for sex substantially increases demand and the massive crowds allow for pimps and victims to essentially go unnoticed.
“It’s not so much that you become a victim at the Super Bowl, but that many victims are brought in to be used for all the men at the Super Bowl,” said Stephanie Kilper, a representative for Operation Freedom Taskforce in Akron, Ohio.
According to Forbes, 10,000 prostitutes were brought to Miami for the Super Bowl in 2010 and 133 underage arrests for prostitution were made in Dallas during the 2011 Super Bowl.
Greenlee, a former sex trafficking victim who was abducted and raped by her captors at 12, told the Times-Picayune that she was shuttled around cities in the South to work as a prostitute at large-scale events. The 53-year-old, who now works as an advocate for sex trafficking victims in Louisiana, said there was immense pressure to meet her traffickers’ demands at events like the Super Bowl.
“If you don’t make that number (of sex customers), you’re going to dearly, dearly, severely pay for it,” Greenlee said. “I mean with beatings, I mean with over and over rapings. With just straight torture. The worst torture they put on you is when they make you watch the other girl get tortured because of your mistake.”
As of Friday, five women were rescued and eight human-trafficking related arrests were made in New Orleans, according to FOX 8.
To help crack down on the number of sex trafficking cases , law enforcement agencies and advocacy groups are collaborated with local businesses.
They handed out pamphlets to local clubs and bars, explaining what to look out for and advocacy groups handed out bars of soap to hotels that have hotline numbers etched on them so that victims in need of an escape know where they can turn for help.
“We treat these people as victims,” Ray Parmer, the local special agent-in-charge withImmigration and Customs Enforcement told FOX 8. “They are not arrested, they are not removed from the United States, we treat them as victims.”
Jada Smith Joins the Fight Against Human Trafficking
Actress Jada Pinkett Smith was driven to campaign against human trafficking after her young daughter drew her attention to the terrifying plight of women and girls across the U.S. who are regularly forced to have sex for profit.
The “Collateral” star was stunned to hear her daughter bring up the topic one day and as the Mom of two researched further into the subject, she felt compelled to try and help put a stop to the sick practice.
During an interview on “Katie” on Monday, she explained, “It’s bizarre and it tripped me out that my 11-year-old daughter, at the time, came to me with this information (about human trafficking) and I had no idea.
“She came to me and she said, ‘Mommy, there are girls in this country that are my age that are being sold for sex’, and I said to her, ‘I don’t think you have your information correct; let me go onto the Internet and check this out.’ She says, ‘I’m telling you that this is true and I want to lend my voice to this cause’, and I was like, ‘Woah, OK’. You can’t tell her no! …Even though it was a heavy subject matter, I didn’t want to put her on pause (stop her) and I said, ‘OK, let me investigate it so I can help you with this’, and this is how it all started.”
Pinkett Smith took young Willow with her last summer when she headed to Washington, D.C. to testify before Congress about the illegal human trade and urge legislators to step up their fight.
Speaking to officials during a Senate Foreign Relations Committee meeting in July, she argued, “Slavery robs us of the thing we value most: our freedom.”
Pinkett Smith has since launched a new campaign to help victims, titled Don’t Sell Bodies, which fights against the exploitation of women and children around the world.
Why Fair Trade Makes Sense
While there is much skepticism around Fairtrade and all that it entails, I see wonderful things happening despite those criticisms. There will never be a quick or easy fix to the slavery that many face today, but there are certain avenues that clearly help make a difference in lives around the world. The article below is a wonderful example showing how Fairtrade is helping fight slavery and unfair work conditions in the mining of precious metals. This is an area where injustice is rampant and Fairtrade has once again stepped up and helped remedy the issue. The Fairtrade model helps communities like this have a fighting chance at living a fair life, to provide for their families, and to help them maintain their dignity and rights while making a living that is free from slavery.
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Please join us and discuss your thoughts on how Fairtrade can help fight slavery at: Fairtradeforums.net
Protecting Children Through Fairtrade
Below is a fact sheet from FLO on how Fairtrade fights child labour. We appreciate their commitment to protecting the rights of children and using Fairtrade as a platform to help fight modern day slavery. Thank you from your friends at Fair Trade World!
The Challenge
An estimated 218 million children aged 5-17, or one child in seven, are involved in work around the world. According to the United Nations, 126 million of them are occupied in the worst forms of labour affecting their health or education, e.g. in mines, with chemicals and pesticides in agriculture, or with dangerous machinery. Of these, 50 million work in Sub-Saharan Africa alone.
Fairtrade differentiates between working children and child labourers. Fairtrade recognizes that children work to combat their own or their family’s poverty. It defines child work as work that still allows children to attend school and doesn’t destabilize their education. In addition, children are not allowed tasks hazardous to their health and development. In contrast, Fairtrade defines child labour as work that is hazardous, exploitive or that undermines a child’s education or its emotional and physical health. The most harmful forms of child labour include children being removed from their families, trafficking, and living in slavery-like conditions. To prevent this, Fairtrade for example calls for remediation action from employers who have previously engaged children in labour to correct the problem.
Fairtrade is committed to child protection
Fairtrade prohibits child labour as defined above, which includes the worst forms of child labour and forced (bonded) labour. It considers the International Labour Organization (ILO) Conventions 29, 105, 138 and 182 as the relevant standards on child labour – and has developed its own standards, compliance procedures and audit tools in accordance with these conventions. This means Fairtrade expects all its producers (small producer organizations as well as hired labour organizations) to meet the relevant requirements. To ensure the system works, FLO-CERT – an independent certification body – conducts regular audits. If FLO-CERT detects child labour in any of the Fairtrade producer organizations, this is considered to be a major non-compliance in the Fairtrade System.
Fairtrade is working to find solutions
Fairtrade is committed to actively protecting children in Fairtrade certified groups and organizations from abuse and/or exploitation, and taking measures to ensure their safety. It is mandatory for all Fairtrade staff and those who represent FLO and FLO-CERT to report incidents of child abuse and exploitation, or violation of its child protection policy, to a Fairtrade designated staff member who oversees the implementation of this policy. This staff member will in turn report it to an authority or designated child protection agency ensuring the prolonged safety of the impacted children.
Child labour abuses continue to be a potential problem in desperate economic circumstances and need to be handled with sensitivity and in collaboration with the farmer and producer organizations. Fairtrade producer groups work hard to ensure their members understand what is not permitted with regard to child labour, and the FLO-CERT auditing process is an independent check to ensure these standards are adhered to. A recent audit did in fact find evidence of the worst form of child labour on a small number of individual farms. The FLO-CERT auditing process ensured this instance was discovered, and that measures were promptly taken to alleviate the situation. Instead of administering harsh punitive measures that could push children and their families into deeper poverty, the goal is to assist in solving the problem. Through FLO’s Producer Services and Relations Team, FLO assists cooperatives to overcome breaches of the standards through advice, and by enabling them to access skills and resources from other experts as needed.
New Partnerships
In order to strengthen its own capacity, and extend more support to cooperatives, Fairtrade is building partnerships with leading international development organizations specializing in projects on location to protect children from the worst forms of child labour. Fairtrade is also working with more companies to ensure that farming families can benefit from fairer prices and stable trading agreements. In countries with a low Human Development Index this often means families can afford to send their children to school.
Strengthening FLO’s Capacity toward more Support for Farmer Groups
FLO has recruited new staff with expertise in child protection, workers rights and trade unions. As part of Fairtrade’s support system, FLO provides training on a Child Protection Code of Conduct that regulates how assessment and research into allegations of the worst forms of child labor, including child trafficking, is conducted and stipulates clear procedures pertaining to the reporting on infractions. This will lead to more direct support to producers within the system who are on the frontline of tackling the global challenge of the worst forms of child labour. At the same time, Fairtrade recognizes that governments, NGOs, UN bodies and community members need to work together to find sustainable solutions to child labour.
Fairtrade upholds Child Safety
As an essential part of the Fairtrade Child Protection Code of Conduct, Fairtrade understands that its first and foremost obligation is toward the safety and welfare of impacted children. Internationally, child rights organizations and experts agree that exposing the identity of impacted children, their location, or the organizations or individuals working with them can result in threats to their health and safety, the worst forms of physical abuse, re-trafficking or detainment in even more clandestine and dangerous situation, and, in some cases, death. Therefore, Fairtrade is committed to protecting the identity of impacted children at all cost. It also calls upon every individual, entity or organization outside of the Fairtrade system that encounters the worst forms of child labor to immediately report these to the nearest designated child protection agency for immediate action and remediation.
Fair Trade Working Conditions
Fair Trade means a safe and healthy working environment free of forced labor. Throughout the trading chain, Members cultivate workplaces that empower people to participate in the decisions that affect them. Members seek to eliminate discrimination based on race, caste, national origin, religion, disability, gender, sexual orientation, union membership, political affiliation, age, marital, or health status. Members support workplaces free from physical, sexual, psychological, or verbal harassment or abuse.
Example: Global Mamas
Global Mamas, a women-run cooperative of individually-owned business, assists women in Africa to become economically independent.
The perspectives of women are traditionally undervalued in Ghanaian society, but Global Mamas includes the women in the decisions that affect the organization. They convene regular meetings of all the Mamas in a geographic area to discuss important issues and decide the future of the organization on the ground. They also work with each Mama to understand how to implement Fair Trade practices and expectations in their own workshops and with their own staff, so that the practice of Fair Trade is not only between Global Mamas and the heads of each business, but between all of the women involved. At the same time, the women are encouraged to maintain their independent businesses, initiate projects, and take on clients outside of the Global Mamas umbrella.
To learn more about their work in Principle 6 and all the Principles, visit http://www.GlobalMamas.org
Example: Andes Gifts
Andes Gifts recognizes the importance of providing artisans with healthy working environments in which workers are treated fairly, given safe work spaces, and are empowered to pursuer their artisan passions.
Unlike the working conditions of sweatshops, the knitters who work with Andes Gifts are allowed to work the amount that they desire and at their own pace in clean, spacious, and safe environments.
Andes Gifts’ production model respects and reinforces local traditions and the family structure. Since many knitters work from their home and workshops in their community, they can share stories, ideas, tools and materials among each other. These working conditions empower the members of the community to continue participation in local traditions and customs, while still providing for their family.
To learn more about Andes Gifts, visit http://www.andesgifts.com
Or visit http://www.fairtradefrederation.org
Join us on the Fair Trade Forum for further discussions on labor conditions and how Fair Trade can help address these issues in the developing world.
Fair Trade History ~ Initiated to Help Fight Slavery
Fair trade principles have deep roots in European societies long before the first structured alternative trading organizations (ATOs) emerged following World War II. Many of the fundamental concepts behind fair trade actually show a great resemblance with pre-capitalist ideas about the organization of the economy and society.
The notion of the ‘old moral economy’ is a fitting example of such conceptions. E. P. Thompson, in his work on 18th century England, described a society where “notions of common well being, often supported by paternalistic traditional authorities, imposed some limits on the free operations of the market”. Farmers were then not allowed to manipulate prices by withholding their products to wait for price increases. The actions of the middlemen were always considered legally suspect, were severely restricted and the poor were provided opportunities to buy basic staple foods in small parcels. Fair trade was already seen as a way to address market failures; although the concept mainly revolved around consumer, rather than producer, rights.
In 1827 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, a moral and economic boycott of slave-derived goods began with the formation of the “Free Produce Society”, founded by Thomas M’Clintock and other abolitionist members of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers). In the Free produce movement, they sought to fight against slavery with a new tactic, one that emphasized the value of the honest labor of free men and women, and to try and determine the unseen added costs to goods such as cotton and sugar which came from the toil of slaves. In 1830, African Americans formed the “Colored Free Produce Society”, and women formed their own branch in 1831. In 1838, supporters from a number of states came together in the American Free Produce Association, which promoted their cause by seeking non-slave alternates to products from slaveholders, forming non-slave distribution channels, and publishing a number of pamphlets, tracts, and the journal Non-Slaveholder. The movement did not grow large enough to gain the benefit of the economies of scale, and the cost of “free produce” was always higher than competing goods. The national association disbanded in 1847, but Quakers in Philadelphia continued until 1856.
Fair Trade is much deeper than most would think having a very long history and deep roots in helping to fight for those without a voice! Join in with the Fair Trade movement and begin learning how you can help fight this fight on slavery and poverty.
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