WHO SHOULD TAKE STAND AGAINST ABUSIVE CHILD
LABOR BEING USED IN CONGO TO DIG COLTAN

In 1979,the United Nations established a global law to ban child labor in all its forms.It was a concerted move that was welcomed by various international organizations.However until 1979,human rights organizations had been fighting to stop this most shamful way of abusing innocent children many of whom come from families living in the informal sector.Some with very little source of income to survive.The question who should take stand against abusive child labor being used in the Congo to dig coltan may sound a simple question but it is a very tough one to answer.The United Nations human rights branch and the government of the Democratic Republic of Congo are the only hope that can end this unlawful practice which has not only violated the international law,but totally traumatized many of the children working at the coltan mines in Congo.

Imagine of being a child and your entire siblings are all killed in a civil war and left with just grand parent who could hardly walk on their feet.Imagine of being a child with no parental guide such as take bath put on your cloths and get ready for school or imagine of being a child with one bad relative who uses you as his source of income in selling you labor to a rich person by working on their mines.If you imagination corresponds with mine then this is simply the reason why the abusive child labor is rampant in the Democratic Republic of Congo.These are children marginilized by the after match of the civil war and are therefore left with no option but to work in the mines with or against their will.They spend the entire day digging basins in streams and scraping off surface of mud and sloshing water
around craters to get the coltan ore.These is how they mine the coltan.
The only way to end this illigal employement of children is the join efforts by the UN and the government of the Democratic Republic of Congo.The UN should deploy security forces along the mining sites.If that is done they could track down all the childern and send them back to school rather than spending their entire life in the mines.Companies that buy the raw coltan ore should also refuse buying from dealers that employes children in their mines.Without this steps,the abusive child labor in the Congolese mines is far from over.Until then as we wait in bated breath we hope the United Nations and the Congolese government will be able to hear the voice of those concern much about the feature of children in Congo.Every child deserve a normal childhood for children today are the leaders of tomorrow.

Learn more about this author, Karamo Nimaga.
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