Grievance mechanisms allow individuals to raise complaints about actions that may have impacted their human rights or labour rights. They can be used to resolve disputes, investigate allegations of abuse, provide solutions for those affected, and ultimately prevent further harm.
To address forced labour risks in cocoa production, many actors in the sector are establishing community-based grievance mechanisms. These rely on committees of trained community volunteers who receive and record grievances, help resolve disputes, and refer cases to the relevant authorities or services when necessary.
ICI has developed a practical handbook to support committee members in their work. It provides step-by-step guidance on handling grievances, recording cases and protecting confidential information. It also explains how to recognise possible cases of forced labour, provides examples of common grievances, and offers practical guidance on conducting prevention activities.
This resource is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC 4.0). This means you are free to share it with others and adapt it for your own use, as long as you give credit to ICI and do not use it for commercial purposes. For more information, please refer to this document.
