Are Human Rights Abuses Powering Your Smart Phone?
Amnesty
traces the sale of cobalt, used in batteries for cell phones and electric cars,
from mines where children work in 'perilous conditions'
Charles, 13, sorts stones before taking them to a nearby trading house that buys the ore. Charles goes to school each morning, and works in the afternoon. (Photo: Amnesty International) |
A damning new report issued
Tuesday accuses Apple, Samsung, Sony, and Volkswagen, among other major
multinational corporations, of failing to do basic checks to ensure that cobalt
mined by child laborers has not been used in their products.
The investigation by Amnesty
International and Afrewatch (Africa Resources Watch), an NGO based in the
Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), traces the sale of cobalt, used in
lithium-ion batteries for cell phones and electric cars, from mines where
children as young as seven and adults work in "perilous conditions."
"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." —Mark Dummett, Amnesty International
In the DRC—by far the single most
important source of cobalt in the world, the report states—"the vast majority of
miners spend long hours every day working with cobalt without the most basic of
protective equipment, such as gloves, work clothes or facemasks to protect them
from lung or skin disease," according to Amnesty.
But from cobalt traders on up the supply
chain, there appears to be little to no concern—or awareness—about such human
rights abuses. Unlike gold, tin, tungsten, and other raw materials, cobalt does
not fall under existing "conflict minerals" rules in the U.S.
"The glamorous 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, business and human rights researcher at
Amnesty International.
By interviewing traders and following
vehicles of miners and traders as they carried cobalt ore from mines to markets
where larger companies buy the ore, Amnesty was able to document how the
mineral ends up in the hands of Congo Dongfang Mining (CDM), a wholly-owned
subsidiary of Chinese mineral giant Zhejiang Huayou Cobalt Ltd (Huayou Cobalt).
The organization then used investor
documents to show how Huayou Cobalt and its subsidiary CDM process the cobalt
before selling it to three battery component manufacturers in China and South
Korea. In turn, they sell to battery makers who claim to supply technology and
car companies, including Apple, Microsoft, Samsung, Sony, Daimler, and
Volkswagen.
Amnesty then contacted those and 10
other multinational consumer brands listed as direct or indirect customers of
the three battery component manufacturers. Just one company admitted the
connection, while the others issued various forms of denial.
"Crucially, none provided enough
details to independently verify where the cobalt in their products came
from," Amensty declares.
"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 Emmanuel
Umpula, Afrewatch executive director.
"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."
Added Amnesty's Dummett: "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."
"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," he continued. "Governments must put an end to this lack of
transparency, which allows companies to profit from misery."