Making Mining Safe and Fair: Artisanal Cobalt Extraction in the Democratic Republic of the Congo
September 2020
More than 70% of the global production of cobalt takes place in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), of which 15–30% comes from so-called artisanal and small-scale mines. This white paper assesses recent approaches to formalizing artisanal and small-scale mining of cobalt. The learnings from the cobalt context in the DRC can help guide companies on how to address human rights issues in their global mineral supply chains and improve working conditions of more than 40 million people in artisanal mining worldwide.
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A Broken Partnership: How Clothing Brands Exploit Suppliers and Harm Workers –And What Can Be Done About It
Ten years after the Rana Plaza factory collapse, a new report from the NYU Stern Center for Business and Human Rights calls for a reformed collaborative approach to the outsourced manufacturing of apparel—one that does not create unfair economic pressure on factory owners, who all too often respond to such exploitation by reducing wages and benefits for their poor employees.
Cobalt Mining in the Democratic Republic of the Congo: Addressing Root Causes of Human Rights Abuses
Research director Dorothée Baumann-Pauly published a white paper in collaboration with the Geneva Center for Business and Human Rights which assesses ASM formalization projects. Her work highlights that the extraction from open pits and the integration of women are key success factors for addressing root causes of mine safety risks and child labor.
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