Human rights organization Amnesty International recently released a report tracing cobalt, an essential element in the production of lithium-ion batteries, back to mines in the Democratic Republic of Congo that practice child labor. According to UNICEF estimates, around 40,000 children work in mines across southern DRC. During the course of its research, Amnesty discovered 16 multinational corporations listed as customers of Huayou Cobalt, which has been known to utilize child labor. Among those multinationals are Apple, Sony and Samsung, all three of which claim to have a zero-tolerance policy in regards to child labor. What actions, if any, should these multinationals take in response to Amnesty’s findings, and how should consumers react?

Prof. Alain Lempereur (HS)

Siemens CEO in China, John Rabe, endorsed the responsibility to protect the poorest of the poor in Nanking when he created an International Safety Zone in 1937: “Anyone who has ever sat in a dugout and held a trembling Chinese child in each hand through the long hours of an air raid can understand.” Though he was a foreigner, Rabe felt responsible for his Chinese employees and their families, and helped save 250,000 lives.More than ever, today CEOs need to make Corporate Social Responsibility their priority and fight child labor. The mining industry, especially in the DR Congo, must prove most vigilant. In Confucian wisdom, Zengzi, said: “Every day I examine myself once and again: Have I tried my utmost to help others?” When abuses are committed, everyone in the supply chain, from the DRC to us as mobile phone users, via all corporations, should become more responsible.

Alain Lempereur is the Alan B. Slifka Professor and Director of the Graduate Program in Coexistence and Conflict at the Heller School for Social Policy and Management.


 Prof. Detlev H. Suderow (IBS)

A zero-tolerance policy for child labor is not worth the paper it is written on unless there are economic consequences. In the consumer products industries the customer is “king” but also bears the responsibility of being an ethical buyer and consumer. Don’t buy anything you feel was produced in a manner that does not match your personal values or beliefs. If you buy the “cheapest” product while knowing it was probably produced by child labor in impoverished countries, you are part of the problem. If that “cool” new shirt you just bought was produced in Vietnam, it may have been produced by underpaid labor. Nike learned years ago to pay attention to child labor abuse when consumers boycotted their products for their failure to monitor child labor practices in Bangladesh. Don’t ask what other people should do, ask what you can do to create sustainable change in the corporate world supply chain.
Detlev H. Suderow (IBS) is a senior lecturer in the Brandeis International Business School. 


Vice Provost John Unsworth

Well, it’s complicated, as all the conflict mineral issues are.  It’s a livelihood for people who don’t have a lot of alternatives. That’s why STAND and other organizations advocating on these issues don’t recommend boycotts. There are alternate possibilities (Canada is probably now going to gear up their cobalt mining following this reporting), but will that be a completely good thing? The DRC cobalt gets into a supply chain like Apple’s indirectly, by way of China in many cases, so Apple isn’t a direct actor in this case, but they have been able to change practices in their Chinese suppliers in the past, so perhaps they will be able to do so this time as well.  Unfortunately, the best answers here are not immediate ones: resolve conflicts, build civil societies, eradicate corruption, reduce the alienation of value from the people who initially create it. But really, those are the things to work on if you want to make the world a better place. Or, in a more succinct formulation, if you want peace, work for justice. 
University Librarian, Vice Provost and Chief Information Officer John Unsworth worked with STAND to develop a review policy on conflict minerals and electronics from the DRC. 

Divanna Eckels ’18

Hopefully, Amnesty International’s findings will lead these corporations to actually adhere to the standards that they say they follow. Companies have a responsibility to, at the very least, be true to the promises they make to consumers. It is clear that these corporations have little to no actual commitment to labor justice and human rights but instead just claimed to have a zero-tolerance child labor policy in order to appeal to their consumers’ sentiments. Upon hearing about Amnesty’s findings, I think consumers should stop perpetuating these humans rights violations by continuing the use of products from Apple, Sony, and Samsung. Ultimately, though the majority of consumers may say that they oppose child labor on paper, I do not think the majority of consumers would be willing to change their lifestyles by not using Apple, Sony or Samsung products.  This demonstrates the apathy of corporations to conduct clean business (which, in my opinion, is not actually possible) and an equally apathetic consumer base. Capitalism and labor justice cannot coexist. I am glad that organizations like Amnesty International are keeping corporations accountable for what they say.

Divanna Eckels is a member of the Brandeis Labor Coalition.