A report recently released by Amnesty International alleges some devastating truths about companies like Samsung, Apple, and Sony — ones that indicate these companies are either directly or indirectly responsibile for facilitating the use of child labor on the African continent by way of global trade agreements.
Compiled in collaboration with African Resources Watch (Afrewatch), the report, titled "This is What We Die For: Human Rights Abuses in the Democratic Republic of the Congo Power the Global Trade in Cobalt," accuses the multinational tech companies, along with 13 other corporations, of failing to properly check if cobalt mines in countries like the Democratic Republic of the Congo exploit child laborers, some of whom are as young as seven years old.
Other big names listed in the report include Huawei, Lenovo and Microsoft.
Cobalt is imperative to the chemical and mechanical makeup of many tablets and smartphones: the compound is used to manufacture lithium batteries for a litany of surface devices.
"The glamourous shop displays and marketing of state of the art technologies are a stark contrast to the children carrying bags of rocks, and miners in narrow, manmade tunnels risking permanent lung damage," said Mark Dummett, the business and human rights researcher at Amnesty International, in an official statement released by the organization on Jan. 18.
"Millions of people enjoy the benefits of new technologies but rarely ask how they are made. It is high time the big brands took some responsibility for the mining of the raw materials that make their lucrative products," he added.
Amnesty International and Afrewatch named Congo Dongfang Mining, a supplier owned by a Chinese parent mining company called Huayou Cobalt, as the major perpetrator. Using a paper trail of investor documents, both organizations uncovered how the company and its subsidiary "process the cobalt before selling it to three battery-component manufacturers in China and South Korea," as well as peddling it to tech conglomerates and car companies like Volkswagen.
The report was also quick to point out the enormous disparities, both economic and social, between those who mine for the compound to power the manufactured devices, and those who end up with them.
"It is a major paradox of the digital era that some of the world's richest, most innovative companies are able to market incredibly sophisticated devices without being required to show where they source raw materials for their components," said Afrewatch executive director Emmanuel Umpula.
The Democratic Republic of the Congo produces cobalt used by roughly half of the world, but at no small cost: 80 miners have died in the country's mines between September 2014 and December 2015, along with a devastatingly high number of injuries, some fatal, that simply go unrecorded.
"The abuses in mines remain out of sight and out of mind because in today's global marketplace consumers have no idea about the conditions at the mine, factory, and assembly line. We found that traders are buying cobalt without asking questions about how and where it was mined," he concluded.
While many of the companies have not commented at this time, Apple more or less denied any knowledge of child labor use in its supplier's mines, stating, "Underage labour is never tolerated in our supply chain and we are proud to have led the industry in pioneering new safeguards."
Apple also cited its auditing process, and added it is "currently evaluating dozens of different materials, including cobalt, in order to identify labour and environmental risks as well as opportunities for Apple to bring about effective, scalable and sustainable change."
Samsung also addressed the report, asserting its "zero tolerance policy" against child labor practices.
Via: Engadget
