IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/cup/buhurj/v9y2024i2p308-314_7.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Blood Cobalt Narrative: Addressing Human Rights Concerns or Scaremongering?

Author

Listed:
  • Umpula, Emmanuel
  • Dummett, Mark

Abstract

Batteries containing cobalt will play a central role in the global transition to cleaner energy. Most of the world’s cobalt comes from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). However, the negative human rights image of the minerals sector in the DRC, and the emergence of an inaccurate and exploitative “blood cobalt” narrative risks harming small-scale, ‘artisanal’ producers who rely on this industry for their livelihood. The DRC government, civil society and small-scale producers already have a roadmap for ending child labour and improving working conditions. Countries and companies whose economies and business interests rely on these precious natural resources should engage with this roadmap rather than disengaging from the country’s mining sector altogether.

Suggested Citation

  • Umpula, Emmanuel & Dummett, Mark, 2024. "The Blood Cobalt Narrative: Addressing Human Rights Concerns or Scaremongering?," Business and Human Rights Journal, Cambridge University Press, vol. 9(2), pages 308-314, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:cup:buhurj:v:9:y:2024:i:2:p:308-314_7
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S205701982400004X/type/journal_article
    File Function: link to article abstract page
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:cup:buhurj:v:9:y:2024:i:2:p:308-314_7. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Kirk Stebbing (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.cambridge.org/bhj .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.