Should Australian Business be Made Responsible for Addressing Human Rights Issues? 澳大利亚企业是否应该负责解决人权问题？
Businesses play an instrumental role in supporting the growth and development of economies across the globe. As such, over the years, governments and other stakeholders in the trade industry across the globe have formulated and enacted trade policies that promote international trade as a way to enhance economies of scale. In the modern world, multinational corporations across the globe have increasingly relocated their manufacturing and production process to developing world such as in Asia as a way to improve their economies of scale through taking advantage of cheap labor and readily available raw materials (Giuliani, 2016). One of the industries that have effectively managed to relocate its manufacturing and production to overseas countries is the technology industry. Whereas this has significantly reduced the costs of production of technology products such as smartphone, there are concerns that the entire or part of production and manufacturing processes undermines human rights. Speaking from this point of view, this paper provides a solution to child labor and lack of a safer working environment as human rights abuses in the supply chain of the technology industry. The paper will talk about how the firms that multinational technology corporations contract to carry out their manufacturing and production processes engage in human rights violation such as failure to provide safer working environment for their employees as well as the increasing use of child labor. The paper will then offer solution on how these human rights abuses can be addressed. Importantly, the analysis of these human rights abuses and the solutions provided is significant since it lays a foundation for emphasis on why Australian government should task Australian businesses with the responsibility of addressing human rights issues.
企业在支持全球经济增长和发展方面发挥着重要作用。因此，多年来，全球各国政府和贸易行业的其他利益攸关方制定和颁布了促进国际贸易的贸易政策，以此作为提高规模经济的一种方式。在现代世界，全球的跨国公司越来越多地将其制造和生产流程转移到亚洲等发展中，以通过利用廉价劳动力和现成的原材料提高其规模经济（Giuliani，2016）。其中一个有效地将其制造和生产转移到海外的行业是技术行业。虽然这大大降低了智能手机等技术产品的生产成本，但有人担心，整个或部分生产和制造过程损害了人权。从这一观点出发，本文提出了解决童工和缺乏安全工作环境的问题的方法，这些都是在技术行业的供应链中侵犯人权的问题。该文件将讨论跨国技术公司签订合同执行其制造和生产过程的公司如何侵犯人权，例如未能为其员工提供更安全的工作环境以及越来越多地使用童工。然后，该文件将提供如何解决这些侵犯人权问题的解决方案。重要的是，分析这些侵犯人权和提供的解决方案是重要的，因为它奠定了基础，强调澳大利亚政府为什么要对澳大利亚企业负责处理人权问题。
To begin with, child labor in the supply chain of the technology industry still persists across the globe. In this regard, firms that have been contracted by multinational technology corporations in developing countries often employ children as a way to maintain low labor costs, thus undermining the human rights of these children. Studies reveal that in case whereas children were employed in the supply chain of the technology industry, most were subjected to torture, forced labor, and low or no wages at all (Giuliani, 2016; Kelly, 2016). Whereas Giuliani (2016) argues that most multinational corporations have focused over the years to disassociate themselves from suppliers who use child labor, there are still numerous cases of child labor in the technology supply chain across the globe. In a 2016 report, Amnesty International reported that children as young as 7 years were working in cobalt mines in the Democratic Republic of the Congo to mine cobalt, which is used in the manufacturer of different smartphone and computer components across the globe (Kelly, 2016). The report further indicates that the cobalt minerals that mined using child labor often end up technology products of multinational corporations such as Vodafone, Apple and Microsoft. For instance, in its 2016 supplier responsibility report, Apple noted that it has uncovered 3 cases of child labor among its suppliers in 2015. Note that these children have no opportunity to attend school or engage in a socialization process as children. Furthermore, they are forced to work for up to 12 hours a day and paid only $1 or less per day.
首先，全球科技行业供应链中的童工现象依然存在。在这方面，与发展中的跨国技术公司签订合同的公司往往雇用儿童，以此维持低劳动力成本，从而损害这些儿童的人权。研究表明，如果儿童受雇于技术行业的供应链，大多数儿童会遭受酷刑、强迫劳动以及低工资或根本没有工资（Giuliani，2016；Kelly，2016）。Giuliani（2016）认为，大多数跨国公司多年来一直致力于与使用童工的供应商脱钩，但全球技术供应链中仍有大量童工案例。在2016年的一份报告中，大赦国际报告称，7岁的儿童在刚果民主共和国的钴矿山工作，开采钴，全球不同智能手机和计算机组件的制造商使用钴（Kelly，2016）。该报告进一步指出，使用童工开采的钴矿最终往往是沃达丰、苹果和微软等跨国公司的技术产品。例如，苹果在其2016年供应商责任报告中指出，2015年，它在其供应商中发现了3起童工案件。请注意，这些儿童没有机会上学或作为儿童参与社会化过程。此外，他们被迫每天工作12小时，每天的工资只有1美元或更少。