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  • Essay / Alleged violations of children's and human rights by British American Tobacco

    British American Tobacco has set itself the goal of becoming the leading company in the sector, knowing that it must be in able to select and apply the best business strategies. But being one of the leading tobacco companies in the UK, British American Tobacco is known to purchase tobacco from Indonesia, where it cannot guarantee that the tobacco is not made using child labour. Although all tobacco companies around the world have a responsibility to monitor and investigate how their tobacco is harvested on their farms, they still cannot control the actual process applied in agriculture. According to Independent.co.uk, Human Rights Watch conducted research in 2014 and 2015 on tobacco farming in Indonesia, where they interviewed more than 100 children under the age of 18 who worked there. These children put their health and well-being at risk by working in manual tobacco harvesting, Human Rights Watch said. Many of these children have indeed suffered from nausea and vomiting due to smoking. Children are known to work long hours on these farms, without even wearing protective clothing when handling this tobacco. This surely sounds terrible, especially when it is the company's responsibility to ensure that no child under the age of 18 works directly with tobacco. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why violent video games should not be banned”?Get the original essayBritish American Tobacco is one of the multinational companies that have committed to upholding the conventions of the International Labor Organization (ILO ). These companies signing the conventions have agreed that the minimum age for children to work is 15, while the minimum age for hazardous work is 18. Yet they still can't guarantee, because they claim they can't be "everywhere at once." British American Tobacco mentioned that its subsidiary Bentoel takes the issue of child labor very seriously. “We do not employ children in any of our operations worldwide and we make it clear to all our contracted farmers and suppliers that child labor will not be tolerated. In Indonesia, however, children often participate in agriculture to help their families and to learn farming methods and skills from their elders,” BAT said. The International Labor Organization (ILO) also knows that working while children are at school can be a normal part of life in poor communities, due to the rural environment in which they are located. British American Tobacco would work with the Eliminating Child association. The Labor in Tobacco Growing (ECLT) Foundation to combat extreme child labor in these parts of Indonesia. Not only in Indonesia, British American Tobacco also pledged in 2016 to investigate some of its farms located in Bangladesh after Swedwatch, a Swedish campaign group uncovered the truth that the farms were using workers to grow and process the tobacco, carrying loads, cutting the stems and curing the tobacco. These children would be taken out of school to work on the farm for up to 16 hours a day. These professional activities surely increase the health risk of these children, because they are very exposed to tobacco plants, dust and smoke. Simon Cleverly, head of corporate affairs at British American Tobacco Group, said the company had in fact investigated the report's findings but found no evidence of.