Extractives & Mining

Mining is carried out in almost every country in the world and plays an important role in many economies. Though many mineral reliant countries rank low on the Human Development Index, suggesting that workers in those regions may be particularly vulnerable to exploitation. Workers, adults as well as children, are exposed to highly hazardous working conditions in this sector including exposure to harsh chemicals and lack of personal protective equipment. Several minerals are closely tied to armed conflict. In this setting workers may be forced to mine through induced indebtedness or under direct threat of violence. Mines are usually concentrated in remote areas, which leads to a high degree of isolation of workers making it physically unable for them to escape. Often mining activities create the only viable livelihood opportunity in a region, leaving workers with no alternatives even if they are facing exploitation. In some regions workers are recruited using recruitment offices who often provide the workers with misleading information. Many workers are then prevented from leaving their workplace through debt linked to their recruitment, physical isolation, and threats. Workers may also be sold to another person by a family member, who receives a payment for recruiting them, and the worker is then required to work off this fee.

World Employment and Social Outlook: Trends 2023
Publications
16 January 2023

This year’s World Employment and Social Outlook: Trends provides a comprehensive assessment of current decent work deficits and how these have been exacerbated by multiple, overlapping crises in recent years. It analyses global patterns, regional differences and outcomes across groups...

DataJam Pasos Libres Online 2021
News & AnalysisGuidancePublicationsEvents
12 August 2021

Pasos Libres, the Global Initiative against Transnational Organized Crime, the Responsible and Ethical Private Sector Coalition against Trafficking (RESPECT), the International Labour Organization (ILO) and partners invite you to participate in the DataJam Pasos Libres Online 2021, a technological innovation competition that seeks to develop data-based...

The Nexus of Illegal Gold Mining and Human Trafficking in Global Supply Chains
Publications
27 July 2021

In-depth research carried out by Verité has found that Latin American countries export staggering amounts of illegally mined gold, which is tied to human trafficking, as well as legal and reputational risk for major companies with gold in their supply...

Mapping Interventions Addressing Child Labour and Working Conditions in Artisanal Mineral Supply Chains
Publications
23 April 2021

At the request of the International Labour Organization (ILO), Levin Sources conducted this mapping (mainly desk research) of interventions (projects and initiatives) to address child labour and poor working conditions (either directly or indirectly) in the artisanal and smallscale mining...

Value Chains Assessment in the Central African Republic
Publications
01 December 2020

Conducted between February-September 2020, the assessment draws on both desk-based literature, key stakeholder interviews and field research conducted in Bangui, Bossangoa, Bocaranga and Yaloke, as well as internationally. The report presents the different stages of the gold value chain in...

Not Fit-for-Purpose: The Grand Experiment of Multi-Stakeholder Initiatives in Corporate Accountability, Human Rights and Global Governance
Publications
01 July 2020

When MSIs first emerged in the 1990s, they appeared to offer a transformative and exciting proposition. For years human rights and advocacy organizations had been investigating and naming-and-shaming companies for their connections to sweatshop labor, deforestation, corruption, and other abusive...

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