A/HRC/33/41 D. Responsibility through business relationships 90. Businesses also have a responsibility to prevent and mitigate adverse child rights impacts that are linked to their operations, products or services by their business relationships, including upstream suppliers, and after products are sold. 123 91. First, businesses must seek to “prevent” rights impacts. Only if businesses are unable to prevent, should they mitigate. If a company only mitigates, it should be in a position to explain why it was not able to prevent, and should seek to ensure that it will be able to prevent in the future. 92. The best way for companies to prevent harm is through the prevention of exposure, which is best achieved by avoiding the manufacture, use and emission of hazardous substances wherever possible. Businesses should ensure that the products they sell are used, recycled, reused and disposed of in a safe and environmentally sound manner. 93. The importance of upstream prevention is illustrated by the case of children working in cobalt mines in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Reports describe children in Indonesia124 and Peru125 poisoned by mercury and suffering from birth defects due to smallscale gold mining.Companies that purchase or invest in such commodities have a responsibility to ensure that child rights are not violated as a result of their demand. 94. The responsibility of businesses for products sold is highlighted by the persistent problem of children poisoned by highly hazardous pesticides, particularly in developing countries. Businesses continue to export to or manufacture in developing countries hazardous pesticides whose use is prohibited in various industrialized countries. Such industrialized countries often have more resources to ensure that hazardous pesticides are used in a safe and sound manner, but still have determined that the risks are unmanageable.126 95. Children die with startling regularity from pesticide poisonings. A major contributor to this problem is that a large number of hazardous pesticides that present unmanageable risks are not banned or restricted at the global level. Another significant problem is the half a million tons of obsolete pesticides scattered across developing countries, and seeping into soil and water.127 96. At the tail end of industrial activity, children are far too often found working at toxic waste dumps, burning plastics and cables to recover and recycle precious metals. 128 Electronic waste (e-waste) is of particular concern. Children, sometimes as young as five, are involved in manual dismantling and burning of electronic products at e-waste sites in Africa, Latin America and Asia. Some are described as being among the most polluted places on earth. 129 Infants living near waste disposal sites, due to their hand-to-mouth behaviour, are among the most vulnerable groups, as soils and dusts are generally 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 Guiding principle No. 13 (b). http://pulitzercenter.org/reporting/philippines-child-labor-gold-mines-indonesia. See A/HRC/18/30/Add.2, para. 39. See CRC/C/MEX/CO/4-5 and A/HRC/33/41/Add.2. See www.fao.org/agriculture/crops/obsolete-pesticides/prevention-and-disposal-of-obsoletepesticides/en. In its submission, Senegal highlighted many concerns regarding banned, restricted and obsolete pesticides. Kristen Grant and others, “Health consequences of exposure to e-waste: a systematic review”, The Lancet Global Health, vol. 1, issue 6. See www.worstpolluted.org/projects_reports/display/107. 19