Secondo Amnesty International il cobalto utilizzato nelle batterie dei dispositivi elettronici e nelle auto verrebbe estratto e lavorato anche da minori.
We find it in every lithium-ion battery contained in our smartphones, computers, electric vehicles. It is cobalt, mineral mostly coming from the Democratic Republic of Congo. It’s extracted in mines where often minors are employed, collecting, cleaning and transporting this precious mineral.
This is what revealed the latest report by Amnesty International, This is What We Die For, drafted in collaboration with the NGO Afrewatch. The association deals with human rights and operates in Congo since 2011, where it visited numerous mines and interviewed hundreds of minors.
It carried out a research backwards, retracing cobalt’s entire supply chain, from mines to the Chinese mining giant Zheijang Huayou Cobalt Ltd and three other companies manufacturing batteries: Ningbo Shanshan and Tianjin Bamo, China, and L&F Materials, South Korea.
Such batteries end up in electronic devices of the major smartphone and computer producers: Ahong, Apple, Byd, Daimler, Dell, Hp, Huawei, Inventec, Lenovo, Lg, Microsoft, Samsung, Sony, Vodafone, Volkswagen, and Zte.
Amnesty International contacted 16 multinationals to verify their cobalt supply. Many were unable to say for certain whether they were buying cobalt, whilst others denied sourcing cobalt from these manufacturers. However, as reported by Amnesty, “none provided enough details to independently verify where the cobalt in their products came from”.
The report explains that the Democratic Republic of Congo is one of the world’s poorest countries, affected by poverty and civil wars. And small mines are often the only source of survival for entire families.
I would spend 24 hours down in the tunnels. I arrived in the morning and would leave the following morning.
Paul, 14
It is confirmed by children’s voices: “I would spend 24 hours down in the tunnels. I arrived in the morning and would leave the following morning. I had to relieve myself down in the tunnels,” said Paul, 14-year-old orphan and cobalt miner. “My foster mother planned to send me to school, but my foster father was against it, he exploited me by making me work in the mine”.
It’s a global market lacking any kind of control, which should be unavoidable for the entire electronic supply chain. It thus conceals tens and tens of people victim of terrible and inhuman health and working conditions.
Siamo anche su WhatsApp. Segui il canale ufficiale LifeGate per restare aggiornata, aggiornato sulle ultime notizie e sulle nostre attività.
Quest'opera è distribuita con Licenza Creative Commons Attribuzione - Non commerciale - Non opere derivate 4.0 Internazionale.
The European Parliament has voted in favour of the European Citizens’ Initiative My Voice, My Choice, calling for safe and accessible abortion across Europe. The next step now lies with the European Commission, which is expected to develop concrete measures.
Montevideo’s Senate has passed a new law allowing ‘death with dignity’ (but not assisted suicide), with the procedure permitted even just a few days after the request.
From Nepal to Morocco, from Madagascar to Peru, many antigovernamental protests that took place these weeks were led by Gen Z protesters.
As per tradition after 12 years India held Mahakumbh, the world’s largest spiritual congregation that has been attracting pilgrims from across the globe.
Workers in tea gardens of West Bengal, India, that produces Ctc tea for domestic consumption complain that they have been devoid of basic facilities while political parties make hollow promises during every elections which are never fulfilled.
India is in the middle of the elections, but sadly none of the politicians have uttered a word on man-animal conflict that has been devouring several lives every year.
Manipur, a state in north-east India, is still reeling under the tremors of violence that broke out last year devouring lives and paralyzing the economy.
The government of Tanzania is currently planning to evict more than 80.000 indigenous Maasai people from their ancenstral land
A new UNU-INWEH report on the global bottled water industry reveals the massive scale of this market and the lack of strict quality controls.
