By Sustainability team
18th August 2010.
15:33

Is it possible to control conflict minerals

The title of the article in today’s the times is “Mobile phones ‘built on slave labour ”. Thank you for highlighting this topic.

Sony Ericsson does not benefit from the horrific situation in Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The price for metals is set by the metal market and the amount originating from illegal sources is not enough to influence the price of metals. Rebel groups or other parties exploit the unstable situation in the region and reap the benefits.

Will a law in US or other places make any difference? Most of the activities surrounding so called conflict minerals in DRC are already illegal e.g. there are laws in DRC against child labor as well as for workers protection but the upholding of laws in the area is limited to say the least.

Problems with political and economic stability, rebel groups, respect for human rights, respect for the law, corruption etc blight the country and I fear that if the situation in DRC and surrounding countries is not improved then any system or attempt to trace conflict minerals will be challenging if not impossible. However, raising awareness about the topic is important. Pushing for attention and change in the supply chain will shed more light on the issue and bring more attention to the rebel groups’ operations, but ultimately it will take more than this to solve the problem.