San Francisco-based human rights organization Global Exchange and Harrington Investments presented a resolution to create a board-level human rights committee at the Hershey's Corporation.

In response to media exposes and the resulting public outcry starting eight years ago, in 2000, the House of Representatives passed legislation that would require slave-free labels on all chocolate products. In lieu of this legislation, Hershey's and other major chocolate manufacturers signed the voluntary Harkin-Engel Protocol, in which they committed to certifying cocoa as free of the worst forms of child labor by July 2005. When industry missed this deadline, it extended the deadline to July, 2008 and is set to miss the deadline once again. The resolution seeks to create a forum for the board to address these issues.

"As shareholders, we were quite surprised to see Hershey's board recommend against a resolution that would help them protect children," said Adrienne Fitch-Frankel, Economic Justice Campaigner for Global Exchange.