Conflict Minerals: A bureaucratic Solution

[Arecidea Kwilemie]

Enough offer a solution specific to the Congo, but which can also be used for other countries.


Building a campaign

Because we are all unconsciously part of the problem in Congo, all of us can consciously become part of the solution. Collectively, consumers have enormous leverage over the companies from which we purchase our electronics. We can marshal that power to press them to play a positive role to protect and empower Congo’s women.

A century ago, thousands of people across the globe joined together in what became one of the 20th century’s first great international human rights movements in protesting the bloody reign of Belgium’s King Leopold II over the Congo. In a murderous effort to exploit the vast natural resources of the country, half of the Congo’s population was decimated by King Leopold’s personal rule—an estimated 10 million people holocaust. The resulting public outcry helped curb the worst abuses of that period.

This was before the Internet. Before television. Before the widespread use of telephones.

A century later, the people of the Congo need a new popular movement to end the atrocities once and for all. Today, we can use the very technologies that have fueled Congo’s fighting to put an end to these crimes against humanity and help build a hopeful future for Congolese families that have suffered too much. It is up to us.


Government and corporate action

In order for real change to occur—and to help create space for Congolese civil society and others fighting for peace—requires action from three actors: Our heads of state, electronics companies, and Congress.We need presidential action. Our governments must make a clean break with past policy toward Congo, which has too often been designed to half-heartedly manage the symptoms of the crisis through humanitarian aid, erratic diplomacy, and peacekeeping assistance.


Electronics companies

None of the big electronics companies want to fuel the deadliest war in the world. But at a time of financial crisis, when every penny of profit counts, corporation may continue to turn a blind eye toward Congo’s conflict mineral trade. Therefore, we need to use our considerable market muscle to demand evidence from companies such as Apple, Nokia, Hewlett Packard, and Nintendo that their products do not contain conflict minerals. This will require them to change their procurement practices and demand that their suppliers provide proof of where their minerals are sourced from. The electronics companies are powerful actors in their supply chains. If they show leadership, they can fundamentally change the way these minerals are bought and sold, ensuring that the minerals don’t contribute to armed conflict and the continuation of the worst violence against women and girls in the world. As consumers, we can compel them to exercise that leadership. Governments and companies have developed sophisticated approaches to staunch international money laundering and terrorist financing and corporations should capitalize on those advancements to ensure that we are not financing crimes against humanity.




Conflict minerals pledge

Companies manufacturing, retailing, or trading in materials containing tin, tantalum, tungsten, or gold that may originate in the Democratic Republic of the Congo have an obligation to ensure that they are not financing armed groups and military units or contributing to human rights abuses at any point along the supply chain. As consumers and suppliers of these products, we are united in our belief that we can be part of the solution to this deadly conflict.



FOR COMPANIES TO SIGN:
By signing the Conflict Minerals Pledge, the company commits to ensuring that its products will be conflict-free.
In support of this goal, companies commit to the following steps:

1. Trace the supply chain for all tin, tantalum, tungsten, or gold in their products to verify their mines of origin.
2. Conduct independently verifiable supply chain audits to document the routes taken, intermediaries involved, and transactions made from mine of origin to final product.

FOR INDIVIDUALS AND ORGANIZATIONS TO ENDORSE:
By endorsing the Conflict Minerals Pledge, organizations and individuals commit to using their voices and consumer power to influence companies to sign the pledge. Specifically:

1. Contact the largest makers of cell phones, portable music players, digital cameras, PCs, and video games, and urge them to sign the pledge.
2. Commit to only purchasing electronics from firms that have taken and are abiding by the conflict minerals pledge.
3. Educate fellow consumers and activists about the crisis in Congo, the role of conflict minerals, and how they can be a part of the solution.

First, letters have been sent to the heads of the 21 leading electronics companies utilizing conflict minerals in their products. Based on their responses, consumer campaigns will be launched that will encourage these companies ultimately to stop using conflict minerals and allow independent supply chain verification to that effect. Congressional legislation is being developed, and a mass-based consumer education initiative is being prepared. Over the coming year, we want to bring this issue into living rooms of consumers and board rooms of corporations, and encourage both to make the use of conflict minerals in our electronics products a thing of the past.


We do not want these companies simply to turn their backs on eastern Congo. Electronics companies that have profited from this trade owe it to the millions of Congolese who depend on mining for their livelihoods to help transform the mineral trade to be an engine of empowerment rather than fuel for atrocities.


It would be ideal if we could trust that the electronics companies would do the right thing and ensure that the minerals that make their products work no longer come from war zones. But it turns out these minerals are cheaper when they come from war zones using what borders on slave labor. Bad habits are not going to change easily. Corporate promises will need to be subjected to independent verification.


Millions of lives had been at stake. We have the power to demand an end to the horrific crimes against humanity in the very place where the term “crimes against humanity” was invented a century ago. We need to demand that governments, Congress, and our electronics companies do all they can to help end the violence.


Our lives are made vastly easier by the technology in our cell phones, laptops, and other electronics products. This could not happen without an array of minerals, many of which come from the Congo. The price we pay for these goods is modest. The price that Congo’s women and girls pay is unacceptable.


We must tell ourselves that we cannot allow such crimes against humanity to continue.


Not on our watch.