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employment relations and health inequalities: a conceptual and empirical overvieW
Case study 6. A wealthy country with poor workers: the role of power relations in the Democratic Republic of Congo. -
Joan benach
the democratic republic of congo is one of the richest countries in africa. minerals like cobalt, copper, zinc,
manganese, uranium, niobium, and cadmium are abundant, and the country has vast reserves of other strategic minerals
such as cassiterite, a tin ore used in computer circuitry, and coltan (a contraction of columbium-tantalite), a heat-resistant
mineral vital for making superconductors and transistors in cell phones, laptops, playstations, automotive electronics, and
missile guided systems. in congo, however, most people live in complete misery, many are undernourished, and the
mortality rate is very high, with one in five newborn children never reaching the age of five. how a country can be so wealthy
and have people living at the margins of survival is a paradox that can only be explained through a deep examination of its
international power relations.
congo's wealth mainly serves the interests of Western governments and corporations such as sony, microsoft, ibm,
nokia, motorola, hewlett-packard, dell and intel. the u.s. government, for example, has for decades spent millions of
dollars in securing access to these minerals by training and arming human-rights abusers and undemocratic regimes like
mobutu's dictatorship, while the wealth of congo is used to enrich high-technology and mineral companies profiting from
the cheap extraction and exportation of minerals (montague & berrigan, 2001). the exploitation of the country's natural
resources by governments and western companies has fuelled a war that has engaged various countries (congo, angola,
namibia, Zimbabwe, rwanda, and uganda), producing a frightening human catastrophe with widespread hunger, violence,
malnutrition, infectious diseases, and four million deaths between 1998 and 2004, more than any other conflict since World
War ii (coghlan et al., 2006). in addition, the war has spread the use of child soldiers, of child slavery in mines, a mass
displacement of people, and the widespread use of rape as a weapon of war.
the working conditions of most congolese people look grim. most workers are in the informal sector, in subsistence
agriculture with an average income that is insufficient to sustain a family. child labour is common, and many children have
to support their families instead of attending school. child mining in coltan mines, stone crushing, and prostitution are
some of the worst forms of child labour. many studies have also reported the forced or compulsory recruitment of children
as soldiers by different armed groups. although few women actively participate in the war itself, women and girls are also
victims of the conflict. sexual violence has been used as a weapon of war by most of the forces, which are involved with
large-scale rapes and abductions. Women serve as forced labourers performing domestic labour, including finding and
transporting firewood, cooking, and doing laundry for the same men who held them captive and sexually assaulted them
(human rights Watch, 2003; 2007). a 1967 labour code provided guidelines for labour practices, including the employment
of women and children, anti-discrimination laws, and restrictions on working conditions. however, the unfair power
relations portrayed above, the collapse of the economy and the corruption of the government destroyed the enforcement of
such laws. today there is a vital need for the international monitoring, regulation, and certification of natural resource
extraction and sale. such a goal, however, will only be accomplished by a mobilised public bringing pressure to bear on
governments to create the necessary institutions for such a response.
References
coghlan, b., brennan, r. J., ngoy, p., dofara, d., otto, b., clements, m., et al. (2006). mortality in the democratic republic
of congo: a nationwide survey. The Lancet. 367(9504), 44-51. erratum in: The Lancet, 2006; 367(9510), 568.
human rights Watch. (2003). Child soldier use 2003: A briefing for the UN Security Council Open Debate- DRC. retrieved
october 8, 2008, from http://hrw.org/reports/2004/childsoldiers0104/6.htm
human rights Watch. (2007). DR Congo: Army should stop use of child soldiers. retrieved october 8, 2008, from
http://hrw.org/english/docs/2007/04/19/congo15732.htm
montague, d., & berrigan, F. (2001). the business of war in the democratic republic of congo. Dollars and Sense Magazine,
235.
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