Catherwood LibraryILR School

The International Labor Organization (ILO), prior to the beginning of a global conference on child labor in Argentina that ended late last week, reminded attendees that one out of 10 children are victims of child labor, with almost half of them carrying out dangerous work. While the number of child workers had decreased by 100 million since the late 1990s, this has slowed significantly in recent years. The ILO estimates that there are 152 million child laborers and 25 million victims of forced labor worldwide; Amnesty International had reported earlier this year that companies such as Microsoft, Apple, Samsung, Sony, Renault, and Huawei have been beneficiaries of cobalt metal mined by children in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Other companies, such as BMW, have “improved in some areas” but still face significant shortcomings also shared by competitors Volkswagen and Daimler. The demand for cobalt comes from the growth of battery use in electric cars, smartphones and renewable energy.