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Date: April 30, 2024 Tue
Time: 3:16 am
Time: 3:16 am
Results for minerals and armed conflict
1 results foundAuthor: Global Witness Title: Coming Clean: How Supply Chain Controls Can Stop Congo's Minerals Trade Fuelling Conflict Summary: Global Witness research in eastern Congo highlights efforts by companies and Congolese officials to lay the foundations of a conflict-free minerals trade in the shadow of entrenched military control and impunity. For nearly 15 years abusive armed groups, including factions of the Congolese national army, have preyed on the trade in tin, tantalum, tungsten and gold to fund a brutal war in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The region’s natural resource wealth is not the root cause of the violence, but competition over the lucrative minerals trade has become an incentive for all warring parties to continue fighting. The local population in North and South Kivu provinces have borne the brunt of a conflict characterised by murder, pillage, mass rape and displacement. The metals mined in eastern DRC enter global markets and make their way into products such as mobile phones, cars, planes and jewellery. Recent international efforts to tackle the trade in conflict minerals have focused on getting companies sourcing from Congo to do checks on their supply chains – known as due diligence – to make sure they are not supporting abusive armed groups through their purchases. The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has facilitated the development of comprehensive due diligence guidance for companies using tin, tantalum, tungsten and gold and the UN Security Council has issued similar guidelines. In 2010 the US Congress passed the Dodd Frank Act, which contains a provision requiring US-based companies using minerals from DRC to carry out supply chain due diligence. The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has not yet issued the final rules to accompany the law’s section on conflict minerals, however, and as a result the law’s implementation has now been delayed for over a year. While the failure of the SEC to complete Dodd Frank has hampered moves to clean up supply chains internationally, Global Witness field research carried out in March 2012 in eastern DRC highlights some significant progress on the ground. Building on reforms introduced last year, the DRC government passed a law in February requiring all mining and mineral trading companies in Congo to carry out due diligence in line with OECD standards. In May 2012 the Congolese government began implementing this law with the suspension of two export houses which it claims have failed to comply. Private sector attitudes in North and South Kivu appear to be changing; one example is how local traders have recently launched an initiative to train those working in the mining sector in how to carry out due diligence. These positive moves by the Congolese authorities and some local companies come against the backdrop of continued military and militia control of mining areas and a new insurgency led by an army general who has been running a major minerals smuggling racket. Bosco Ntaganda, nicknamed ‘Terminator’, previously fought with the CNDP rebel group until his defection to the government in 2009 and is wanted by the International Criminal Court for alleged war crimes. In recent years he has exercised de facto control over all Congolese army operations in eastern DRC. In April 2012 General Ntaganda and other poorly integrated ex-insurgents staged a mutiny. The fighting which followed has displaced tens of thousands of people. Details: London: Global Witness, 2012. 36p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed July 11, 2012 at: http://www.globalwitness.org/sites/default/files/120531_Coming%20Clean_lowres.pdf Year: 2012 Country: Congo, Democratic Republic URL: http://www.globalwitness.org/sites/default/files/120531_Coming%20Clean_lowres.pdf Shelf Number: 125992 Keywords: Minerals and Armed ConflictNatural ResourcesOffenses Against the Environment |