"Child Labour in the Supply Chain of LafargeHolcim in Uganda: Unresolved Issues"

For more than 10 years, LafargeHolcim and its suppliers benefited from child labour among artisanal miners who supplied raw materials...to the company in Uganda. Following a public scandal...LafargeHolcim stopped buying [from] artisanal miners and decided to work only with mechanised mines.

Bread for All and...Twerwaneho Listeners' Club (TLC) carried out an investigation following this scandal. Our investigation found out that...since Hima Cement stopped buying raw materials from artisanal miners, most children who dropped out of school lost their income. The increased unemployment led to higher [incidences of] theft in the communities and...more school drop out...

In this respect, LafargeHolcim does not meet the minimum requirements of the UN Guiding Principles on Human Rights...according to which companies should use their leverage on the suppliers to provide remediation in the case of negative human rights impacts...LafargeHolcim should work with its suppliers to implement programmes that enable former child labourers to return to school or receive vocational training in order to generate another source of income.