By Tanesha Thompson
There is an estimate 100,000 cobalt miners in the southern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), who labour to supply the world’s demand for cobalt, a key ingredient in lithium-ion batteries. It has been reported that roughly 40,000 young boys and girls are used to hand dig in dangerous mines in southern DRC. These children dig at depths of 200 to 300 meters for 1 to 2 dollars a day.
The DRC produces more than half of the world’s supply of cobalt and many of the children exploited are as young as seven years in age. Many companies who participate in support of the mining do not respect the guidelines that have been set forth by the United Nations and care little, if not at all about the conditions that these children face on a daily bases. According to Amnesty International, many companies do not “have any strict policy of transparency with respect to the manner by which the cobalt is extracted, by whom, or the manner in which it I transported to them.” Mining is one of the worst and most dangerous forms of child labour and is prohibited by International law. According to Article 32 of the Convention on the right of the Child, “States Parties recognize the right of the child to be protected from economic exploitation and form performing any work that is likely to be hazardous or interfere with the child’s education, or to be harmful to the child’s health or physical, mental, spiritual, moral or social development.”
Apple, Samsung and Sony are among the major key players who are not doing their part to ensure that the child labour international laws are upheld. According to Amnesty International, the tech giants have failed to provide checks to ensure that children are not being used in the cobalt mining that are used for lithium-ion batteries. These batteries are sold to help supply 16 multinational technology brands and car companies, like Apple, Microsoft, Samsung, Sony, Daimler, Mercedes, LG and Volkswagen. None of the companies have an adequate trace or policy in place to track the source of the issues regarding their knowledge in the children cobalt mining.
Many of this companies have done investigations to address the issue, while others have stated that they had no clue that their batteries originated from DRC. According to CNBC, “Apple has stated that they have uncovered 16 cases of underage labour and have addressed those issues and investigated every allegation that has been presented.” Amnesty’s Dummett states, “Many of these multinationals say they have a zero tolerance policy for child labor. But this promise is not worth the paper it is written when the companies are not investigating their suppliers. Their claim is simply not credible.” “Without laws that require companies to check and publicly disclose information about where they source minerals and their suppliers, companies can continue to benefit from human rights abuses. Governments must put an end to this lack of transparency, which allows companies to profit from misery.” According to the Amnesty International, while many nations have rules that cover the conflict minerals, there are no regulation that have been set in place to regulate the global cobalt market and cobalt that fall under any existing United States conflict mineral rules that was passed in 2010. The U.S recognizes gold, coltan, tantalum, tin and tungsten.
The cobalt is the basic material that powers an electric car or a smartphone, but in reality it is also the source of a miserable life of many children in the Congo. Big Brands have the means to change the outcome but refuse to do so because of the money and the consumer craving desire to have the latest technology. All technology comes at a cost and this cost is pretty high.
Student Bio: Tanesha is a Lead Article Editor on the Journal of High Technology Law. She is currently a 3L with a concertation in Trial and Appellate Advocacy at Suffolk University Law School. She is President of Woman of Color Law Student Association and Treasurer of the Black Law Student Association. She possesses a B.A in Political Science from Clark Atlanta University.
Disclaimer: The views expressed in this blog are the views of the author alone and do not represent the views of JHTL or Suffolk University Law School.
