https://padlet.com/cristina_bogi/fxce0rk9n68q3pe9 en-us 2023-02-11 12:09:24 UTC 2025-11-19 03:35:29 UTC hello@padlet.com cristina_bogi https://padlet.com/cristina_bogi/fxce0rk9n68q3pe9/wish/2477273607 Coltan is one of the world’s most vital minerals, and 60 per cent of reserves globally are found in the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s (DRC) Kivu province. 
○ Use: The mineral is used in cell phones, laptops and other devices because of its particular ability to store and release electrical energy. 
○ Extraction method: Coltan is extracted using the labour of over 40,000 child and teenage miners, who drop out of school or have never had the opportunity to attend. ○ Consequences: Children work as washers and diggers in dangerous conditions. They also engage in petty smuggling, selling coltan for a pittance in towns along the borders with Burundi, Rwanda and Uganda. Many child miners face harassment, abuse, ill health, prostitution, sexually transmitted diseases and rape. Occupational hazards include daily exposure to radon, a radioactive substance associated with coltan, which has been linked to lung cancer. 
○ Steps of the DRC government: Coltan mined using child labour remains uncertified, untraceable, is traded and funnelled into the global supply chain. The DRC government has taken several steps: laws have been passed, like the reform of the DRC’s mining code, and the country has signed some of the certification standards but all these commitments have not prevented children from being exploited in the DRC’s coltan mines. Mineral certification schemes are not properly implemented, nor is the law regarding child labour and associated hazardous working conditions. 
○ Illicit coltan mining and trading in the DRC is enabled by the weak implementation of certification schemes, ongoing attempts to bypass regulations, and inadequate law enforcement. 
○ Suggestions: A different approach is needed = 
- The Congolese government should constitute and fund an independent task force with a mandate to prosecute private and corporate businesses culpable of recruiting child miners. 
- The enrolment of vulnerable children in school should be incentivised through ring-fenced funding and awareness campaigns to limit their recruitment into mining work.
- International pressure groups can advocate for the various certification schemes to be harmonised. 
- Development partners should help train and equip civil society observatory groups to monitor and submit regular incident reports, to validate or invalidate the certification audits carried out by state officials. ]]> 2023-02-11 12:24:31 UTC https://padlet.com/cristina_bogi/fxce0rk9n68q3pe9/wish/2477273607