In our everyday lives, we are constantly surrounded by electronic devices, the presence of which is becoming more and more normalized to us. Yet, we rarely think of the materials which were used to make them. Raw materials such as cobalt and copper are required to produce electronic devices – and with more devices being produced and consumed every day, the demand for such materials, which are mined in resource-rich regions, only increases.

The first image that comes to mind in the context of mining is usually a large industrial site full of heavy machinery. However, almost 90% of the world’s mining workforce do not work in such large-scale industrial mines, but rather in what is called artisanal mining (ASM) – small-scale extraction of resources using rudimentary tools and basic equipment. Artisanal mining usually takes place in informal and often illegal settings in countries of the Global South, where settlements are rapidly established around mining sites. ASM is especially attractive to the rural poor of those regions, to whom it offers a rare opportunity of comparably well-paid employment.

There are, however, various issues surrounding ASM. Due to the informal nature of the work, working conditions are poor and dangerous, environmental pollution is rampant and toxic substances used in processing ore pose a serious health risk.

Women in the ASM sector face even more severe difficulties – and yet, many women are compelled to work in artisanal mining, since viable employment opportunities for women tend to be scarce, especially for those who are socially stigmatised, such as single mothers. Thus, as the scale of mining decreases, the role of women becomes more important. Around the world, women are involved in small scale mining as processors, panners and ore carriers, but also as providers of services within the mining community such as cooking, cleaning and domestic duties.

Most women in ASM earn only a fraction of what men are making. In combination with the unequal distribution of care work, this results in women having to work up to 8 hours more per day than men. Despite this, profits from artisanal mining almost always go to men, as most of the land, the shops and the tools are owned by men.

In addition, the combination of processing work and domestic duties exacerbates dangers to health caused by toxic substances. For example, in places where mercury is used to extract gold from ore, many women perform this task in their own home. Exposure to mercury is especially dangerous to pregnant women, since it increases the danger of miscarriages.

Another major issue is forced prostitution. In many cases, promises of money and well-paid work are used to lure young women to mining settlements and subsequently force them into prostitution. Additionally, since most mining settlements are outside the control of the law, there is also a high risk of sexual violence and drug abuse.

At the same time, the presence of women is essential for community stability and morale. Since women are in charge of domestic duties and provide many essential services within the communities, they are vital to the functioning of all mining settlements. Despite this, in most countries where ASM takes place, there is no special protection for women, legislative or otherwise. Policies concerning ASM and those who work as artisanal miners continue to be gender blind, as do many development initiatives, leaving women vulnerable to danger and oppression. Responsibility for women’s safety is thus relegated to NGOs, mining cooperatives and civil society organisations.

Still, the solution is not to prohibit ASM, which would push artisanal miners into illegality and insecurity and deprive poor regions of an important source of income. Instead, it has to be better regulated to guarantee the safety of workers, and workers have to be organized. There are already successful cases of women workers coming together in cooperatives to demand better safety equipment and better pay. To improve the situation and bolster the agency of women in artisanal mining, such organisations have to be strengthened and the networks between cooperatives, NGOs and civil society organisations have to be expanded. Just as importantly, gender mainstreaming needs to be incorporated into all relevant policy frameworks and development initiatives, both in the Global South and in the Global North, where most companies profiting from exploitation of women in ASM are based.

Within the context of the Electrònica Justa campaign, SETEM Catalunya is working towards achieving those goals by pushing for responsible public procurement and stricter due diligence laws, by raising awareness about the conditions faced by women in ASM and by working together with other initiatives and organisations advocating for fair working conditions in the mining sector. To end exploitation, technology companies need to be held accountable – and a different vision of digitalisation needs to be built, centred not on profit and consumption, but on the well-being of human beings.

Sources:

LandLinks: Gender Issues in the Artisanal and Small-Scale Mining Sector, 2020, https://www.land-links.org/issue-brief/gender-issues-in-the-artisanal-and-small-scale-mining-sector/

Bester, Vidette: Breaking gender stereotypes. The role of women in artisanal mining, SLR Consulting 2023, https://www.slrconsulting.com/insights/breaking-gender-stereotypes-the-role-of-women-in-artisanal-mining/

Eftimie, Adriana; Heller, Katherine et al.: Gender Dimensions of Artisanal and Small-Scale Mining. A Rapid Assessment Toolkit, World Bank 2012, https://documents.worldbank.org/en/publication/documents-reports/documentdetail/644761468157780524/gender-dimensions-of-artisanal-and-small-scale-mining-a-rapid-assessment-toolkit

Hinton, Jennifer; Veiga, Marcello et al.: Women and Artisanal Mining. Gender Roles and the Road Ahead, in: The Socio-Economic Impacts of Artisanal and Small-Scale Mining in Developing Countries, Swets Publishers 2003, https://prod-edxapp.edx-cdn.org/assets/courseware/v1/6913dd84795c217cc1c8c05358d8e782/asset-v1:SDGAcademyX+NR001+2T2019+type@asset+block/Women_and_artisanal_mining_-_gender_roles_and_the_road_ahead.pdf

Image source:

Laura Lartigue, Technical Writing Specialist for USAID/Guinea, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Guinea_Siguiri_miner_woman.jpg

The MSC, which will take place from February 26 to March 2, will kick off with an artivism action at the gates of the MWC and throughout the week will host panel discussions, talks, family games and a live podcast.

The Mobile Social Congress (MSC), held in Barcelona at the same time as the Mobile World Congress (MWC), will emphasize the real costs of the technology we consume, especially the social and environmental costs currently caused by the production of phones and tablets. The MSC will begin February 26th at the gates of the Fira de Barcelona with an artivism action aimed at raising awareness about the effects of the technology industry not addressed at the MWC.

With this same objective, a live episode of the podcast Carne Cruda will be held on February 27 at Paral·lel 62, on the 29th there will be live and online panel discussions in the Auditorium of the Espacio Calabria 66, and on Saturday March 2 a talk and children’s games for the whole family will take place in the courtyard of the Aigües School.

The MSC is a space open to citizens, which offers a critical look at the current model of production and consumption of electronic devices and information and communication technologies, as well as an opportunity to learn about alternative models and projects based on technological sovereignty, sustainability and respect for human rights.

The electronics industry is one of the most dynamic and important sectors of the world economy and Barcelona becomes its main showcase every year with the Mobile World Congress, where transnational companies in the sector present their technological advances. At the same time, it is also necessary to draw attention to the social and environmental costs currently involved in the production of new phones and tablets.

The Mobile Social Congress was created as an alternative space to the Mobile World Congress, the objective of which is to promote reflection and awareness about the impacts caused by the production and consumption of electronics, as well as engaging in critical analysis from the points of view of ecology, feminism and human rights. At the Mobile Social Congress, the goal is to denounce the injustices of a model of global production and consumption based on extractivism and the externalization of social and environmental impacts in the Global South; to highlight projects and initiatives that propose new ways to produce and consume electronic devices, respecting the rights of people and the environment and making responsible use of resources, in order to last until future generations without violating the fundamental rights of other peoples and territories.

What scenarios of the future can be proposed in the face of this growing digitalization?

This year, industry impacts in different areas will be addressed  and there will also be a reflection on what future we want: do we have to accept digitalization at any price? What alternatives can we propose?

Electronics and in particular information technologies have gained increasing prominence in recent years. However, what do we know about how this technology is produced, what future scenarios are emerging in the face of this growing digitalization, and what challenges are posed from a human rights and environmental perspective? These and other questions will be addressed, bringing together different voices to provide a critical outlook, in order to be able to take an active role as citizens in choosing policies and consumption options that contribute to a more sustainable, healthier and fairer world.

On the afternoon of 24 December 2023, a fire broke out in the nickel smelter PT ITSS (Indonesia Tsingshan Stainless Steel), one of the companies in the PT IMIP (Indonesia Morowali Industrial Park) area. So far, the death toll is 19, plus 32 workers who have been seriously injured and are currently being treated in hospital.

The Fair Electronics Campaign denounces the facts and the lack of measures to ensure health and safety at the mine by PT ITSS, as well as the complicity of the Indonesian government with extractive companies, which is not properly monitoring the implementation of the law on health and safety in the country, nor is it being transparent with the investigation processes of incidents like these, which continue to occur at the mine since the start of this project. Twenty incidents have been recorded up to December 2023.

We also denounce a transition model based on growth, the continued extraction of raw materials and the establishment of ‘sacrifice zones’ that does not take into account the damage caused to people and territories.

The Morowali nickel mine and smelter are part of President Jokowi’s National Strategic Project, and is projected as an industry that supports the energy transition. Nickel is one of the raw materials considered critical by the EU for the ecological transition, as it is a key mineral for the manufacture of electric batteries for electric vehicles.

We express our condolences to the families of the victims and our support for the statement and demands issued by the Indonesian Centre for Labour Struggle (Gabungan Serikat Buruh Indonesia – GSBI), a fellow member of the Good Electronics network.

The demands are:

1. PT ITSS – IMIP and the Government of Indonesia must take full responsibility for the recovery of all victims of the PT ITSS Nickel smelter furnace explosion, and provide adequate compensation as well as livelihood guarantees, and education for the children of victims who died. As well as the certainty of getting a job for the future of the children of the victims who die
2. Immediately form an Independent Investigation Team involving elements of Trade Union Organizations, NGOs, Komnas HAM, and ILO to ensure the results of the investigation into the deadly work accident tragedy at PT ITSS get objective results.
3. Stop the intimidation carried out by PT ITSS against workers who want to report or provide information freely on the working conditions that caused the tragedy of 19 workers dead and dozens of workers moderately-heavily injured due to the Deadly Tragedy of Work Accidents at PT ITSS – Morowali.
4. Guarantee and Respect the basic rights of workers, including the right to freedom of expression, the right to organize, including the right to strike! All of this is guaranteed by Indonesian legislation and also the ILO Convention.
5. Fully implement and enforce the OHS system in the workplace and ensure the availability of complete and appropriate PPE in accordance with the law.
6. Impose strict sanctions against OHS violations that are alleged to have become a long-standing practice of PT ITSS.
7. We demand, stop claiming the nickel downstream project is a clean energy transition project. And we also demand that the Climate Crisis and a just energy transition be resolved fundamentally. Namely, changing the agricultural production system as a whole which requires the elimination of the monopoly power of landlords over rural farmers, and build of national industrialization that serves the advancement of agricultural production systems and increased agricultural productivity for food security and the opening of the widest possible employment opportunities free from foreign investment intervention.

READ GSBI COMPLET STATEMENT IN ENGLISH HERE

We, movements, Indigenous Peoples, and Civil Society Organizations, particularly but not exclusively from resource-rich countries in the Global South, are very concerned due to the lack of strong due diligence terminology and safeguards for the sourcing of raw materials in the Critical Raw Materials Act and other related legislation.

We, in resource-rich countries, are already experiencing the double impacts of the climate crisis, on one hand via the effects of climate change itself and on the other hand from the increase in mining and renewable technologies infrastructure resulting from decarbonisation plans of rich countries. The EU’s decarbonisation ambition is laudable, but to be just and fair, it has to follow the rule of law and its associated legislations have to adhere to the highest standards, including the respect of human
rights, Indigenous Peoples’ rights and environmental protection, not only within the European Union, but in other resource-rich countries – including our lands and communities.

The Critical Raw Materials Act and other related legislation, such as the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive, among others, will have a direct impact on our health and well-being, cultural practices, traditions and values, livelihoods, and environment. People are regularly killed attempting to safeguard the environment we rely on.

For this reason, we ask you to take a human rights-based approach to decarbonisation and ensure that all rights holders and stakeholders in resource-rich countries, not only governments and the private sector, are involved in the process in a full and meaningful way. More specifically, we ask you to set the following minimum conditions for strategic projects and the sourcing of raw materials from resource-rich countries:

1) Respect human rights, Indigenous rights and adhere to international human and environmental rights legislation, agreements, and standards, including the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, ILO Conventions as well as the full Aarhus convention, the Escazú agreement as well as the EU Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive. The CRMA should ensure that companies adhere to strict mandatory Human Rights and Environmental Due Diligence.

2) Ensure that strategic partnerships are formed and run in a democratic manner
Negotiations for strategic partnerships should be announced in a timely fashion and agreements with resource-rich countries should be disclosed prior to approval. The CRMA should address the high corruption risk in the mining sector.

3) Meaningful participation and accountability
Rights holders, especially Indigenous Peoples, civil society organisations and local communities, must have a stake in the governance of the CRMA and should be able to participate in the definition and monitoring of strategic projects and partnerships.

4) Minimum requirements for strategic projects
The environmental and social impacts of mining and other projects related to the energy transition should be assessed during the permitting process and projects cannot go ahead without concerned Indigenous Peoples’ Free, Prior Informed Consent.

Companies participating in strategic projects should have in place a clear, easily accessible, and safe grievance mechanism and a history of human rights abuses or environmental destruction should lead to the exclusion of companies. There should be a mechanism to facilitate access to justice for victims of corporate abuse and strict
sanctions for companies that fail their due diligence obligations. Instead of using self-regulation through certification schemes, companies must be monitored by governments and a neutral third party.

5) Respect our cultural practices, traditions and values, our lifestyles, and our environment
Strategic projects should respect no-go zones, including protected areas, the deep-sea, and sacred sites. Regulations on conflict minerals and minerals extracted through forced or child labour must be enforced and adopted respectively.

6) We should not just be treated as raw material suppliers
Set clear goals and clarify what it means to add value through strategic partnerships. Furthermore, support the development of our countries through climate finance, knowledge and technology transfer, the provision for local procurement and ensuring that companies pay taxes in host countries and create decent jobs.

7) Take responsibility for reducing the EU’s own consumption
In turn, this will reduce the demand for raw materials from our countries. Taking these concerns into account will be crucial to ensure climate and resource justice on a global scale. The CRMA could be an opportunity for the European Union to promote a just energy transition that pays off the historical ecological debt owed to the countries of the Global South and respects their
development models.

We urge you to take these recommendations into consideration, as the policy decisions regarding the Critical Raw Materials Act will have a large impact on our lives.

Sincerely,

Signatories:

– AbibiNsroma Foundation
– Action Mines Guinée
– African Resources Watch (AFREWATCH)
– Aksi Ekologi & Emansipasi Rakyat (AEER), Indonesia
– Alliance Voahary Gasy (AVG)
– alterNativa Intercanvi amb Pobles Indígenes
– Alyansa Tigil Mina (ATM)
– Asia Dalit Rights Forum (ADRF)
– Bench Marks Foundation
– Cadre de Concertation de la société civile de l’Ituri sur les Ressources Naturelles
– CartoCrítica (México)
– Centre congolais pour le droit du développement durable (CODED)
– Centro de Análisis Socioambiental (CASA}, Chile
– Christi – Perú
– Coalition des Organisations de la Société Civile pour le Suivi des Réformes et de l’Action Publique
(CORAP)
– Coalition Nationale de Plaidoyer Environnemental (CNPE)
– Coalition Publiez Ce Que Vous Payez-Mali (PCQVP-MALI)
– Comité Nacional pro Defensa de la Fauna y Flora
– CooperAcción
– Cordillera Women’s Education Action Research Center (CWEARC)
– Corporate Europe Observatory
– Crudo Transparente
– Cultural Survival
– Debt Observatory in Globalisation (ODG)
– Derecho Ambiente y Recursos Naturales
– Ecosistemas
– Engenera, A.C.
– Enginyeria sense Fronteres
– Focus Association for Sustainable Development
– Forest Peoples Programme
– Forests of the World
– Fundación Ciudadanía y Desarrollo – TI Ecuador
– Fundación Foro Nacional por Colombia – Capítulo Suroccidente
– Fundación Terram
– Funprosperiti Guatecivica
– Future-Prenuers Zambia (FPSZ)
– Global Witness
– Grupo Propuesta Ciudadana
– Indonesia for Global Justice (IGJ)
– Interamerican Association for Environmental Defense -AIDA
– Lafede.cat – Organitzacions per a la Justícia Global
– Legisladores x el Ambiente ALC
– Natural Resource Governance Institute (NRGI)
– Observatoire d’Etudes et d’Appui à la Responsabilité Sociale et Environnementale (OEARSE)
– Observatorio Petrolero Sur
– Pakistan Development Alliance
– Perkumpulan HuMa Indonesia
– Philippine Rural Reconstruction Movement
– Pole Institute (DR Congo)
– Policy Forum Guyana
– Publiez Ce Que Vous Payez Madagascar
– Publish What You Pay Zambia
– Red de Información y Acción Ambiental de Veracruz, México
– Réseau panafricain de lutte contre la corruption “UNIS”
– Resource Matters
– Satya Bumi
– Securing Indigenous Peoples Rights in the Green Economy (SIRGE) Coalition
– SETEM Catalunya
– Solidaritat Castelldefels Kasando
– Southern Africa Human Rights Defenders Network
– Spaces for Change
– TAFOMIHAAVO
– Transparency International Initiative Madagascar
– Transparency International Zambia
– Trend Asia
– Universidad nacional de Colombia, Facultad de minas Medellín, Centro de pensamiento responsabilidad y sostenibilidad minera