The United Nations (UN) has selected China, a country guilty of genocide and crimes against humanity, to sit on a new commission aimed at promoting human rights in the extraction of critical minerals.
China was one of the 23 countries named On Friday, he will join the United Nations’ new Critical Energy Transition Minerals Panel, which will “develop a set of universal and voluntary principles to protect environmental and social standards” and develop the necessary energy transition minerals. It will work to “embed justice” in the extraction of key raw materials. Build green energy technology. The State Department is declared China recently announced that it will commit genocide in 2021 report Regarding human rights in China, he said that genocide was underway. US Congressional Executive Committee on China (USCC) found that China exploits child labor and forced labor in Congolese mines.
“A world powered by renewable energy is a world hungry for vital minerals,” UN Secretary-General António Guterres said of the new coalition. “For developing countries, critical minerals represent a significant opportunity to create jobs, diversify economies and dramatically increase incomes – but only if they are managed well. Competition cannot trample on the poor. There is a renewable energy revolution, but we must steer it in the direction of justice.” (Related: Chinese surveillance firm linked to Beijing’s Uyghur persecution campaign joins UN ‘human rights’ initiative)
‘It’s a waste’: Former US ambassador says UN is not holding China responsible for Uyghur genocide
https://t.co/f1wmtOJsEQ— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) September 1, 2022
According to the United Nations, the panel will specifically focus on mining copper, lithium, nickel, cobalt and rare earth elements. China dominates the mining and refining of globally important minerals, but its track record is The accession of this country may raise some questions, given the scant human rights.
According to the State Department’s 2023 Human Rights Report, genocide and crimes against humanity by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) continue today. Among other “serious human rights issues,” the Chinese government has arrested and detained more than 1 million mostly Muslim ethnic minorities in concentration camps and forced an unknown number of Uyghurs to participate in “re-education” programs. In effect, this makes labor compulsory. slave labor.
In addition, third-party analysts, Center for Strategic and International Studies and Sheffield Hallam University — also concludes that global supply chains for some green energy products, such as components for solar panels, are highly likely to be linked to forced labor among Uyghurs.
Concerns that Uyghur slave labor would contaminate the global green energy supply chain led the U.S. government to develop and enact the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act in 2021. The law aims to prevent products related to Uyghur slave labor from entering the United States. according to to that text.
China’s human rights abuses in the critical mineral sector also occur beyond China’s borders.
According to the USCC and the United Nations, Chinese companies control about 80% of cobalt production in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Cobalt is an essential element in green technologies such as electric car batteries. Cobalt Research Institute. The DRC is thought to have more cobalt than any other country in the world, and the Ministry of Labor Estimate At least 25,000 children are said to be working in Congo’s cobalt mines.
“To this day, Congolese child and forced laborers toil in dangerous conditions to extract cobalt from dangerous mines, including artisanal mines in the Democratic Republic of the Congo,” said Republican Representative Chris Smith. “There is,” he said. Said At a USCC hearing in November 2023. “Man-made mines dug in haste are always at risk of collapse, and many have collapsed, crushing, dismembering, and killing miners, including children.”
Democratic Oregon Sen. Jeff Merkley echoed Smith at the same hearing.
“Fueled by widespread corruption in the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s mining sector, Chinese companies and the Chinese government directly profit from the forced and child labor used to mine these minerals, and extend their abuses across the continent. It’s expanding,” Merkley said. Said.
The United Nations, China’s Foreign Ministry and State Department did not respond to requests for comment.
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