.
IFRAME:
https://archive.org/includes/donate.php?as_page=1&platform=wb&referer=h
ttps%3A//web.archive.org/web/20220704102018/https%3A//www.cbc.ca/radio/
asithappens/as-it-happens-tuesday-edition-1.5399491/tech-giants-sued-ov
er-appalling-deaths-of-children-who-mine-their-cobalt-1.5399492
Wayback Machine
https://www.cbc.ca/r Go
104 captures
18 Dec 2019 - 29 Sep 2023
May JUL Aug
Previous capture 04 Next capture
2021 2022 2023
success
fail
About this capture
COLLECTED BY
Organization: Internet Archive
Focused crawls are collections of frequently-updated webcrawl data from
narrow (as opposed to broad or wide) web crawls, often focused on a
single domain or subdomain.
Collection: cbc.ca
TIMESTAMPS
loading
The Wayback Machine -
https://web.archive.org/web/20220704102018/https://www.cbc.ca/radio/asi
thappens/as-it-happens-tuesday-edition-1.5399491/tech-giants-sued-over-
appalling-deaths-of-children-who-mine-their-cobalt-1.5399492
Skip to Main ContentAccessibility Help
(BUTTON) Menu
____________________When search suggestions are available use up and
down arrows to review and enter to select.
(BUTTON) Search
(BUTTON)
Search
(BUTTON) Sign In
Quick Links
* News
* Sports
* Radio
* Music
* Listen Live
* TV
* Watch
(BUTTON)
* radio
* Top Stories
* Shows
* Podcasts
* Schedules
* Frequency
* Listen Live
* (BUTTON) More
Tech giants sued over 'appalling' deaths of children who mine their
cobalt | CBC Radio Loaded
As It Happens
Tech giants sued over 'appalling' deaths of children who mine their cobalt
A new lawsuit alleges that some of the world's largest tech companies
-- including Apple and Microsoft -- are knowingly benefiting the use of
deadly child labour at cobalt mines in Congo.
Social Sharing
Apple, Microsoft, Dell, Tesla and Google's parent company, Alphabet are named
in the lawsuit
CBC Radio . Posted: Dec 17, 2019 5:53 PM ET | Last Updated: December
17, 2019
A class-action lawsuit accuses tech giants of using exploitative child
labour in cobalt mines in the Democratic Republic of Congo. (Kenny
Katombe/Reuters)
(BUTTON)
comments
Transcript
An international advocacy group has launched a lawsuit against some of
the world's largest tech companies for the deaths and injuries of child
miners in Congolese cobalt mines.
International Rights Advocates brought the case on behalf of 14
Congolese families whose children were killed or injured while mining
for cobalt. The metal is key ingredient in the rechargeable lithium-ion
batteries that power most electronic devices.
The defendants named in the suit include Apple, Microsoft, Dell, Tesla
and Google's parent company, Alphabet.
The lawsuit accuses those companies of "knowingly benefiting from and
aiding and abetting the cruel and brutal use of young children." It has
not been tested in court.
Siddharth Kara, a public policy lecturer at Harvard Kennedy School, has
been looking into the conditions at Congolese cobalt mines for years.
His research is the foundation of the lawsuit.
He spoke to As It Happens host Carol Off about what he witnessed during
his research. Here is part of their conversation.
Has anyone ever tried this before -- suing a tech giant on behalf of
children working in mines?
This is a landmark case. No one has ever, at least prior to Dec. 16,
2019, tried to sue the largest tech companies in the world on behalf of
the children in the Congo who mine their cobalt.
[534435400.jpg]
A child and a woman break rocks extracted from a cobalt mine at a
copper quarry and cobalt pit in Lubumbashi, Congo. (Junior
Kannah/AFP/Getty Images)
Can you tell us some of the stories you have heard, some of the things
that you have found out about these children who are mining cobalt?
The research I've done ... has yielded some of the most heartbreaking,
appalling and utterly unimaginable levels of exploitation and suffering
of any sector that I've researched in almost two decades of research
into slavery and child labour.
The peasant population, and the children in particular, are eking out a
sub-human existence, caked in toxic filth and grime as they mine for
the cobalt that is used in every lithium-ion rechargeable battery on
the planet.
And I think the worst stories I heard -- and I heard far too many of
these -- involved young children and young men who would dig tunnels to
find the larger cobalt deposits, some of these up to 100 feet deep, and
then these tunnels just would collapse and bury alive everyone inside.
And you were actually there doing your research at a time when one of
these tunnels collapsed on a bunch of people, including children. Is
that right?
It's probably one of the most haunting and painful days of all my
research.
I was doing research near Lake Malo, which is not too far outside of
the city of Kolwezi, and documenting some children when we received
word that a tunnel had collapsed barely 100 metres from where I was
standing.
We rushed to the site. It had already been blocked off by Congolese
military. Family members were swarming in, swooning and howling with
with terror for any word of survivors.
It didn't take long before we received word that there were 63 people
in that tunnel, and 63 people buried alive that day.
[congo-mining.JPG]
Kara says during his research a tunnel at one cobalt mine collapsed and
killed 63 people. (Kenny Katombe/Reuters)
The children who are working, how much money do they actually make from
working in these cobalt mines?
The children, even the adults, barely eke out somewhere between 80
cents and maybe $2 a day, depending on the kind of work that they're
doing.
When you add to that the context that they're producing this cobalt
that's used in the gadgets sold by companies that are worth hundreds of
billions of dollars, if not more than a trillion dollars, run by
executives or billionaires -- that complete degrading and debasing
amount of wealth and income that is shared at the bottom of the chain
by the top is unconscionable.
It's unacceptable. It's completely indecent. And that's the remedy,
above all, that I'm after with my research and this lawsuit in
particular -- fix the conditions on the ground and pay these people
decently.
The hardest thing to do with a kind of suit like this is ... actually
prove that the cobalt that is mined by the children that you're talking
about is actually ending up in the supply chain of products made by
Apple, Microsoft, Dell, Tesla. Is there evidence that that exact cobalt
is ending up in their supply chain?
We would not have filed the lawsuit unless we did not have definitive
evidence that these children are plaintiffs and thousands of other
children and poor people in the Congo were mining and suffering cobalt
at mining areas linked directly to the supply chains of the largest
tech and automakers in the world.
You see, two-thirds of the global supply of cobalt comes from the
Congo. So already, right there, you cannot avoid Congolese cobalt.
[congodemocratic-mining-china.JPG]
People fetch water outside a copper and cobalt mine. (Aaron
Ross/Reuters)
But I'm asking you, is it possible that these companies can claim that
you can't prove that they're actually linked to the cobalt?
Certainly the supply chain is opaque. It is complex. But the plaintiffs
all were injured and killed at mines owned by companies that have been
publicly disclosed as sellers of cobalt to our defendants.
One of those companies is a mining company called Glencore. Glencore
has put out a statement to say that it "does not tolerate any form of
child, forced, or compulsory labour." What do you say to them?
I say words are all fine and good. But what you say you tolerate and
what's actually happening on the ground are two different things.
And I would encourage the people at Glencore to take this seriously, to
work constructively on solving this problem. It's been all too easy for
these companies to proclaim their zero tolerance policies and then
continue business as usual.
There are children, there are peasants, being injured and being killed
on sites they own every day. That is a fact. And that is a fact they
need to come to terms with and to address in an honest and constructive
fashion.
[534434744.jpg]
In almost two decades of research into child labour, Kara says the
conditions he witnessed at the mines had 'the most heartbreaking,
appalling and utterly unimaginable levels of exploitation.' (Junior
Kannah/AFP/Getty Images)
How much more would it cost them to actually be paying these labourers
the wages, living wages, or putting in safe labour practices for the
children and the workers in these mines?
Perhaps the only tragedy greater than the criminal destruction of the
environment and the lives of the people of the Congo by these companies
is the fact that it would be a rounding error on their income
statements to fix the problem.
It would not take much at all by way of resources or attention to sit
down and genuinely and constructively and permanently bring decency,
dignity, safety and security to the people and the communities in the
Congo where their cobalt is mined.
__________________________________________________________________
Written John McGill. Produced by Katie Geleff. Q&A edited for length
and clarity.
More from this episode
* This man is memorizing and performing all 688 pages of Finnegans
Wake
* Canadian film shortlisted for Oscar was animated with beeswax and
resin
* December 17, 2019 episode transcript
* FULL EPISODE: As It Happens: Tuesday Edition
Corrections
* An earlier version of this story misquoted Siddharth Kara as saying
the lawsuit was launched on Dec. 6. In fact, it was filed on Dec.
16.
Dec 18, 2019 2:19 PM ET
Comments
To encourage thoughtful and respectful conversations, first and last
names will appear with each submission to CBC/Radio-Canada's online
communities (except in children and youth-oriented communities).
Pseudonyms will no longer be permitted.
By submitting a comment, you accept that CBC has the right to reproduce
and publish that comment in whole or in part, in any manner CBC
chooses. Please note that CBC does not endorse the opinions expressed
in comments. Comments on this story are moderated according to our
Submission Guidelines. Comments are welcome while open. We reserve the
right to close comments at any time.
Become a CBC Member
Join the conversation Create account
Already have an account?
Footer Links
My Account
* Profile
* CBC Gem
* Newsletters
* About CBC Membership
Connect with CBC
* Facebook
* Twitter
* YouTube
* Instagram
* Mobile
* RSS
* Podcasts
Contact CBC
* Submit Feedback
* Help Centre
Audience Relations, CBC
P.O. Box 500 Station A
Toronto, ON
Canada, M5W 1E6
Toll-free (Canada only):
1-866-306-4636
TTY/Teletype writer:
1-866-220-6045
About CBC
* Corporate Info
* Sitemap
* Reuse & Permission
* Terms of Use
* Privacy
* Jobs
* Our Unions
* Independent Producers
* Political Ads Registry
* AdChoices
Services
* Ombudsman
* Corrections and Clarifications
* Public Appearances
* Commercial Services
* CBC Shop
* Doing Business with Us
* Renting Facilities
* Radio Canada International
Accessibility
It is a priority for CBC to create a website that is accessible to all
Canadians including people with visual, hearing, motor and cognitive
challenges.
Closed Captioning and Described Video is available for many CBC shows
offered on CBC Gem.
* About CBC Accessibility
* Accessibility Feedback
*
* (c)2022 CBC/Radio-Canada. All rights reserved.
* Visitez Radio-Canada.ca
(BUTTON)
now