Companies accounting for 75% of the global battery market, including its penetration in the automotive and energy sectors, have connections to one or more companies in the supply chain facing allegations of severe human rights abuses.

This is according to research by London-based AI supply chain risk platform Infyos, finding that most major battery manufacturers and end batteries applications are exposed, including many of the world’s largest automotive, energy storage and electronics brands.

These companies were found to have connections to one or more companies in the supply chain facing allegations of severe human rights abuses.

The abuses identified range from people being forced to work in lithium refining facilities under the threat of no or minimal pay to five-year-old children mining cobalt materials out of the ground in hazardous conditions.

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Allegations of human rights violations

According to the platform, most of the allegations of severe human rights abuses involve companies that are mining and refining raw materials in China that end up in batteries around the world.

This is particularly the case in Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) in northwest China, where the battery, automotive and solar industries have been hit with public allegations of widespread forced labour from journalists,...

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