After having seen this documentary, I put this on the same list as blood diamonds and sweat shops. We are often oblivious to the extent of labor that goes into making a product. Products that we import and we consume on a daily basis. Like in the Wizard of Oz, we do not know what is going on behind the curtain or who is pulling the strings so to speak. It is only when we are being made aware and are educated on what is really going on, can we truly learn and contribute to make a difference in this world. While we, the consumers, do not have a direct involvement into what is going on in Africa, China or any other part of the world that exploits child labor or even adult labor paying them little to no monies, and we can not directly makes changes, we do have the opportunity to make an educated decision in terms of the products we currently do consume in our life time. Even if the chocolate companies can turn their heads and profit from this $60 billion chocolate market, we can make a choice to hold these companies accountable by choosing only FTC chocolate, this will cause them to really think about their overall practices. As long as we purchase their products and they continue to make a profit, they will not make any changes. These companies might just "be buyers of a product”, however, they have obligations and social responsibility to the laborers and consumers of that product and it's time to hold them to those responsibilities.

Hello Everyone,
After seeing the documentary "The Dark Side Of Chocolate" I found it similar to the use of humans for Export of Diamonds from Columbia. It was very sad that the kids was getting very little or can say negligible help from government other than one or two organisation.
According to me the solution does not see by protecting the children by trafficking . Actually the families are allowed to take the children for money due to shortage of money ,this is revealed while asking to the girl child being rescued from trafficking she says that she will be scolded by parents for not earning any money. The root cause is that the citizens over there are not employed so they are forced to do these kind of activities. Even the govt. of Ivory coast is seen to be corrupted. The Govt. of Mali should come into role to curb these kind of activities. Mali is one of the poorest countries so the govt so take some steps so that employment is generated . No parents are in support of these kind of activities but the situation and povert drives them to do these kind of activities.

The movie showed a tragic story of making of chocolates. I have never thought of this. I personally thank Bastards Movie And Production to make these kind of Documentaries risking their lives . Through their effort we all came know about "THIS DARK SIDE OF SWEET CHOCOLATE".I am feeling very bad for the children wh in their age of playing and studying they are made to work heavily sometimes that too for no money in return.

FEELING VERY SAD>>

Hello everyone,

I just watched the documentary "The Dark Side of Chocolate" and I realized that there are actually so many issues and inhuman things happening in the world which needs a quick attention. The documentary is really eye opening because it is making us aware of things that most of us are ignorant of.

The most important issue talked about in the documentary “The Dark Side of Chocolate” is about human trafficking for child labour. The places discussed in the documentary lies in west Africa. Africa, a continent where most of the nations are under developed. People basically fight everyday to survive there. In the given documentary it showed that how children were sent from Mali to Ivory Coast. Ivory Coast is the place where cocoa plantations are present. There these children are made to work and most of them are never paid. There are so many violations of human rights that took place,in this case human trafficking, child labour and forced labour.

Law and order too is of no use there. Authorities, when asked about this, denied of these events straightaway. Even the Multinational Companies like Nestle when asked about this denied about these events.

But according to the investigation conducted by Fair Labour Association(FLA) and report given by CNN Freedom Project for ending modern day slavery in 2012, it stated that Nestle the largest food company in the world and one of the biggest producers of chocolate has allowed its procurement system of cocoa to be completely traced and assessed which means that Nestle is the first chocolate-maker to comprehensively map its cocoa supply chain – and can work on identifying problems areas, training and educating workers and taking action against child labour violations.

These events are really disheartening. What we need is not new laws but new ways to implement them and one of them is to make people aware of these issues. When these things come out and people come to know about it, good things starts happening like change in the adamant attitude of Nestle when rather than denying the problems, sooner or later it took a step to solve it.

The documentary reiterates that enacting laws/protocols/legislation doesn't mean much as there are multiple ways by which the corporations counter them. The mere fact that the ‘Harkin–Engel Protocol’ exists acknowledges the presence of Child labour, slavery and trafficking in the Chocolate Industry.
Most of the corporate personnel Miki Mistrati interviews are either unaware or deflect the questions raised, Ali Lakiss, CEO and owner of SAF-CACAO, bluntly rejects even the notion of Child labour, slavery and trafficking in Ivory Coast and Tohe Adam Malick, Chief Secretary - Department of Labour Ivory Coast, says, “Child labour is not a problem, we know what is happening and to deal with it so it’s no longer a problem” and goes on to say that, ‘the children are on Vacation’.
On the other hand, the people on the ground level are well aware and try to curb it even Henri Blémin, Head of Interpol Ivory Coast, wasn’t surprised when asked. As shown in the video it’s not a secret the way the nexus operates and it’s fairly easy to get in touch with the right people. A trafficker who is interviewed takes it as any other job and has qualms in doing it. He also states that, ‘anyone at the border who doesn’t know about the trafficking is lying’ and admits that the plantation owners pay them to transport the children.
The children being trafficked are either misled or do it because they think it will help their families. When Mariam Mario, a 12 year old, is rescued she more concerned about her parents anger for returning without money than what might have happened to her.
Frank Hagemann, Director ILO, after viewing the documentary agreed that even with the awareness not enough progress is being made to tackle child labour, slavery and trafficking and the fact that the corporations don’t even want to discuss these issues is deplorable. When Miki resorted to the use of a large screen to show the video at Nestlé’s headquarters in Switzerland the police were called to subdue the matter at once.
Child labour won’t go away easily as it is primarily driven by survival instincts for self and/or family and till such time that there is no one below the poverty line it won’t happen but child trafficking and slavery needs not be stopped as the children are subjected to all kinds of abuse which harms them at both a physical as well as a psychological level.
After watching the documentary, it’s clear that further progress cannot be made in tackling child labour, slavery and trafficking until the consumers are directly involved to indirectly motivate the corporations into taking action that will have the desired effect.

After watching the documentary "The Dark Side of Chocolate" it is hard to choose which parts of the video were the strongest, as most of it was equally disturbing. First of all I was shocked by the the man who they referred to as "The right hand of the Ivory Coast's president" and his apparent denial of child trafficking. Similarily, I was shocked by Ali Lakiss's dismissal of the claims of child slavery/trafficking.

I find it unbelivable that these people, who are clearly aware of the crimes that are happening, are playing dumb. To be able to do these things to children and lie about it straight to someone's face takes a serious lack of character and any type of ethics. I can't believe that these are the people who are in power in these countries. Ali Lakiss is making millions of dollars in profits every year off of child slavery, and no one is stopping him. In fact the people who should be looking into solving the problem are denying that there is a problem in the first place. The Ivorian government man tried to explain away the situation by saying that the kids were not being trafficked but were actually on "Vacation"

Another and totally different thought I had about the documentary was when they were interviewing the kids working on the plantation and the kid they found at the bus stop after being trafficked into the Ivory Coast.

Why did these guys making the documentary not try and help these kids? At the bus stop there was a kid who had just been kidnapped and trafficked across the border all by himself and they left him there? That does not make sense to me. I would like to think that if I ran into several children being held as slaves working on a plantation I would try and get them out of there as quickly as possible. I understand that these men are making a documentary but that dosen't relieve you of your duty as a human being to stop slavery that you are witnessing firsthand and any harm that is being done to children.