Nestle USA and Cargill face child slavery case

The Supreme Court, currently has been leaning towards not accepting the case for Nestle and Cargill. The lawsuit claims that the companies knowingly bought cocoa beans from farms in Africa that used child slave labor.

The case is acting out the 1789 Alien Tort Statute made by Congress, which doesn’t allow foreign citizens to sue in U.S. courts for human rights abuse. The justices are being asked to rule on whether it permits lawsuits against American companies.

Attorney of Nestle, Neal Katyal argued that the Alien Tort Statute doesn’t apply to the lawsuit because the alleged damage “occurred halfway across the globe.”

If the court were to accept Nestle and Cargill’s arguments, that could further limit the ability of victims of human rights abuses abroad to use U.S. courts to sue.

Apparently, the case has been going on for 15 years. Six adult citizens of Mali, referred to as John Does, says that as children they were taken from their country and forced to work on cocoa farms in neighboring Ivory Coast. They said that they worked 12 to 14 hour days and were given little food and were beaten if they were working slow.

Human rights advocates are seeking to hold Nestle USA and Cargill responsible for the mistreatment of children.

The citizens of Mali says that Minneapolis based Cargill and the American arm of Switzerland based Nestle “aided and abetted” their slavery by buying cocoa beans from farms that used child labor and other things. They want to bring a class action lawsuit on behalf of themselves and the thousands of other former child slaves who were working in those conditions. 

Both companies, Nestle and Cargill, claimed that they have taken steps to combat child slavery and have denied any wrongdoing.

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Kiara Desirai

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