BEIJING, Sept. 29, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Recently, the
British TV station Sky UK reported a piece of video news that
showed that there was a huge problem of illegally using Child
Labour in the mining industry, especially the cobalt ore industry,
in DR Congo. Many Chinese enterprises located in DR Congo
were involved in the problem. After the news was released, it led
to a public outcry, and DR Congo got the world's attention once
more. In the middle of June this year, in DR Congo, Z.J.OMNIMEDIA
issued a report for the problem of child labour with Chinese
enterprises locates in Congo. The
following is the original text of this report:
Is there Child Labour in DR Congo?
In Lualaba Province in the south of DR Congo, the economic
development mainly relies on mineral resources. Richard Muyej
Mangeze Mans, the governor of Lualaba Province, said, "Actually,
that is a normal phenomenon in DR Congo. Overall, the mining
industry provides the maximum employment positions in DR Congo, and
other industries only provide very little employment positions. If
people don't work in the mining industry, do they have any other
options? The agriculture and industry in our country are fairly
deficient, thus the mining industry is the key to solving the
problem of employment. The main resources and endowment
that DR Congo can use concentrates on the mining
industry."
In the mining industry in DR Congo, cobalt ore occupies the
majority. Li Li, the associate
research fellow of the Institute of International Economy of the
University of International Business and Economics and the director
of the Technical Trade Measure Research Center, told "The latest
data shows that DR Congo is the main source of cobalt. The
cobalt output of Congo occupies
over 70% of the output of the world." Therefore, the development of
cobalt ore industry becomes an epitome of the economic operation in
there, and it also drives every link in relative and
upstream-downstream derivative industries. However, the Child
Labour problem in those links has become a focus of the world and
it receives a lot of criticism.
Edyrem, a mining expert in DR Congo, said the government of DR
Congo has prohibited hiring child labourers. "Actually, there is
mining police sent by the government to guard every digging. If
children go near, the police would stop them. It is impossible to
have children working in mines."
The repeated orders and strict supervision measures of the
government of DR Congo had done much in management and
regulation upon Child Labour problems, but it could not eradicate
them. Now, some diggings are still hiring child labourers. What
needs to be discussed is the proportion that those diggings occupy
of all the diggings in DR Congo.
In 2016, Amnesty International published a report naming The
Truth of Working to Death: The "Driving Force" of the Cobalt Ore
Trade of the World Comes from Abusing Human Rights in the Territory
of Democratic Republic of the
Congo. The report says, "Researchers from Amnesty
International Organization and African Resource Observation
Organization interviewed 17 boys and girls that were engaged with
exploiting, gathering, and processing cobalt ore in Kolwezi and
Kambove. The youngest of them was only 7 when he started working in
the mine. All of them except one are working on the ground. They
are either gathering minerals from tailing heaps in privileged
industrial diggings that are or has already stopped operations, or
cleaning ores in the rivers or lakes near privileged diggings. One
of the boys said that he also did underground mining."
The report released by the United Nations Children's
Fund in 2012 also shows that there are about 40 thousand child
labourers working in the mine field, and their daily working
hours are mostly over 12 hours.
We never accept ores gathered by child labourers. But we can do
nothing if those ores go to other collectors," said the responsible
person Liu Fujian of Jiangzhi warehouse. Jiangzhi warehouse is an
ore collecting warehouse inside DR Congo. That means it
is an ore collecting spot that is equivalent to a place of
purchasing. "Diggings are in charge of mining, and we purchase
those minerals. That is the approximate logical relationship," the
responsible person Liu Fujian said.
All the evidence shows in different dimensions that Child Labour
phenomenon truly exists in DR Congo and it can never be
ignored.
Are China-invested
enterprises involved in it?
The unique geographic position and industry agglomeration of DR
Congo makes it have frequent industry tie-ins and resource
interchange with China.
Li Li said that for cobalt industry,
relative industry cooperation mainly refers to the application of
cobalt. "There are reports saying that 80% of cobalt is used in the
battery industry, including mobile phone batteries, new energy
automobile, and others. The output of cobalt in China is not much, so it mainly relies on
import. One of the important origin countries is DR Congo.
Some reports say that over 90% is from DR Congo. In such
cooperations, China mainly acts as
a "second transmitter", "we import huge amounts of cobalt ores and
process it to batteries, then sell to other countries and provide
to the downstream of the supply chain," Li
Li said.
Then, were those Chinese enterprises in DR Congo involved in
Child Labour transactions?
As the demand side, Chinese enterprises, in their operating
process, could not avoid the problems of the supply side. However,
the Child Labour problem is in the supply side. Before the Child
Labour problem was exposed, many Chinese enterprises did not know
the exact source of the cobalt ores from the supply side, and they
did not know that there is problem of illegally hiring child
labourers behind some supply sides, either. When Child Labour event
appeared, Chinese enterprises reacted quickly and did strict
control and supervision to the cobalt ore source. Moreover, many
downstream companies of other countries also reacted quickly and
declared that they refuse to use cobalt from DR Congo. "However, if
Child Labour problems are not dealt with and solved, it would
cause a huge impact on Chinese enterprises, because it is
impossible for Chinese enterprises to transfer the whole source of
cobalt ores quickly. To be fair, as the cobalt output of DR Congo
occupies the most proportion in the world, it is very difficult to
find an alternative country. Therefore, Child Labour
problems are not only an impact to Chinese enterprises but
also an impact to the whole cobalt industry," Li Li said.
However, the cobalt industry and other mineral industries are
the only businesses that Chinese enterprises have in DR Congo.
Richard Muyej Mangeze Mans thinks that, take Lualaba Province as an
example, Chinese enterprises contributed to help the province build
public road, and also gave a lot of help using advanced technology
and facilities to Lualaba on many big national projects. "For
example, we just finished a meeting with La Sino-congolaise des
Mines S.A. and they said they would help Lualaba Province do other
constructions, including roads, water and electric stations,
hospitals, and schools, etc. Those projects are predicted to be
finished in one or two years."
"The development plan and goal of Chinese enterprises in Lualaba
Province is an epitome of relevant conditions in the DR Congo. The
ambassador of China in
Congo visited Lualaba not long
ago. I also told him the contributions that Chinese enterprises did
here. DR Congo has a very good
relationship with China. The
reason that the policy that DR Congo published can be executed
quicker is much because of the help from Chinese enterprises. Those
Chinese enterprises are the cooperative partner of DR Congo, we
need to make sure they can do their business successfully in our
country." Richard Muyej Mangeze Mans is very confident.
Poverty is the root of the problem
What is the root cause of Child Labour problem in DR Congo?
It's poverty.
In DR Congo, a lot of people are still fighting for food and
clothing every day. "My farm is co-founded with Huayou Company and
Zhejiang University in
China, mainly in vegetable
cultivation, fruit cultivation and animal husbandry products
processing and processing-based. The farm has helped about 120
people to get a job." A farmer Richard in DR Congo aid. Even so,
it's only a drop in the bucket, there still exists a lot of poverty
in DR Congo, and it needs much time to develop economy.
In the eyes of Li Li, an
associate researcher at the Institute of International Economy of
the University of International Business and Economics and director
of the Center for Technical Trade Measures Research, the root is
"poverty". "This poverty comes from two aspects. The first reason
is the poverty of DR Congo, which directly leads to inadequate
investment in the field of compulsory education in DR Congo, which
has also created difficulties for children to attend school; the
second reason is poverty from the Child Labour's families in DR
Congo. Amnesty International's report has mentioned that many
families are unable to support the tuition for their children under
survival pressure; so many children are required to earn their
tuitions while working. So the poverty is the root cause of Child
Labour problem."
Liang Xiaohui, the deputy general
economist of China Textile Information Center and international
problem expert, believes that the root cause of Child Labour in DR
Congo is mainly due to the failure of national governance, which is
closely related to the historical development of DR Congo. "In the
view of history, there are several issues that are still important.
Firstly, the lengthy time of colonization led to the plundering of
local resources, but it was important to establish a sufficient
system. After the colonial era, the DR Congo was caught in Ethnic
Conflict, and did not establish a social consultation and
coexistence mechanism, that is, the system of social common
governance, which led to Ethnic Conflict, corruption, and the
government could not operate for a long time, and finally, the
vulnerable groups cannot get the ultimate protection such as
children. From the macro-venation of world history, the vacuum of
national power caused by colonization has led to struggles among
different ethnic groups and it has continued to these days, and
this historical legacy has been integrated into the global system
by a lot of multinational corporations, so that enterprises cannot
have their own right to speak," Liang
Xiaohui said.
"I remember two very famous sentences, one is to say: 'Poverty
is the cause of Child Labour', but there is another sentence is
'Poverty is the result of Child Labour'. These two sentences are
justified. If we say that the failure of national governance has
led to the lack of educational opportunities for children, then the
nation will have little chance of future development, because there
will be no talent gathering, it is difficult to attract talents,
and then the nation will be poorer. From this standpoint, if the
level of national governance in this country was not improved, it
is difficult to take care of vulnerable groups, and there will be a
large number of Child Labours entering the labor market. Poverty
has caused the failure of national governance. The failure of
national governance, in turn, has led to more poverty which has
created a vicious circle," Liang
Xiaohui said.
At the enterprise perspective, firstly, it is possible to create
opportunities for solving the problem of child labour through the
optimization of commercial contracts."After the emergence of the
child labour problem, in order to get rid of suspicion, many
commercial brands directly said that they do not use cobalt
produced by Child Labour in DR Congo, but if so, those children
still have no other source of income. These children may wish to
keep their life through the income of cobalt, and if the road does
not work, it cannot solve the incident from the root cause. But, if
the enterprises could optimize the terms of the contract on the
basis of maintaining the existing commercial contract, add some
appropriate regulatory measures in the contract to help the
Congo (Kung) children's family to
improve life and education, it will be able to gradually resolve
this problem," Li Li said.
Next, the enterprises that invested to local places in DR Congo
should also actively assume the corresponding responsibility and be
aware of their responsibilities to respect some rights of the local
people, "This naturally includes the right of local children to
develop in the future, it means that these children should not
enter the labor market and digging, they should not engage in such
heavy work and be the Child Labours who have unsound intelligence,
spirit and body. If the enterprises are responsible, it is
necessary to take full account of the risks of Child Labour in the
supply chain and in the operational relationship. And then come up
with specific measures to prevent and treatment," Liang Xiaohui said.
From the level of national comprehensive governance, it should
be improved from two directions. Firstly, it is the duty of the
nation to protect, and the nation remains the first person
responsible for human rights obligations, "As the failure of the
national governance mentioned before, it will inevitably lead to
the occurrence of Child Labour, the nation must protect its
children and provide them with human rights obligations like
educational opportunities, this is its duty to these children,"
Liang Xiaohui said.
Secondly, the nation should formulate policies to help those
children to participate in the education system, so that children
leave the original harsh working environment and get more growth
opportunities, "This is the usual responsibility for relief or
rescue, and it is the nation's protection obligations that bear the
brunt. If the protective measures are perfect, there will be no
Child Labour naturally. To give a very simple example, it is
difficult for you to find child Labour in Beijing or Shanghai, children who have registered
permanent residence in Beijing
will not be Child labourers, because the government has a very good
protection mechanism, and also have sufficient educational
resources, parents of these children will not let them enter the
labor market to earn money to support the family."
"These measures have helped to solve the conflict between the
industry and commerce and the human rights in DR Congo, and to
disperse the 'haze of Child Labour' in DR Congo," Liang Xiaohui said.
The Link of the Original Chinese Press Release:
http://finance.ifeng.com/a/20170919/15681984_0.shtml
Contact:
Hu Wen Jing
Cell Number: +86-10-85717366
Email: 49831790@qq.com
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