African leaders pledge to wipe out trade of conflict minerals
source: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/technology/african-leaders-pledge-to-wipe-out-trade-of-c...
-
-
- twohawks
- added this
Signed at a summit in the Zambian capital of Lusaka by governments including the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Burundi, the pledge commits signatory states to take steps to implement a regional certification system to track such minerals as they are exported from Africa for smelting in Asia.
The summit was called to address mining practices that have helped to fuel mass rapes and massacres in the eastern provinces of Congo. The illegitimate mining of minerals such as coltan, tungsten, tin and gold, which are used in electronic devices, is widespread in the region and often finances armed groups.
Among the mechanisms to be implemented is a “bag-and-tag” system in which minerals are tagged at their point of origin. The African nations also said they would create a database to make it easier to identify and track minerals that originate in areas of conflict.
The move by the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region comes as governments in the United States, Canada and Europe consider legislation that would make roughly 6,000 manufacturers, including BlackBerry maker Research In Motion Ltd., responsible for tracking the minerals used in their products.
#################################
PLEASE GO AND READ THE ARTICLE !
IAIN MARLOW AND OMAR EL AKKAD
From Thursday's Globe and Mail
Published Wednesday, Dec. 15, 2010 2:02PM EST
Last updated Wednesday, Dec. 15, 2010 6:57PM EST
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/technology/african-leaders-pledge-to-wipe-ou...
-
- groups:
- Community, News and Politics, Tech
-
- tags:
- Politics, Green, Internet, Human Rights, 49 more
-
- recommended by:
- Vierotchka
-
-
twohawks
-
What sort of consumer interaction is available with the Securties Exchange Commision?
Quoting from the article: "the Dodd-Frank Wall Street reform act contains a sweeping clause that would empower the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to ask companies for information about their mineral purchases"
So how do we gain access to the information other than on an annual or quarterly report?
Keep in mind, there are a number of obfuscation techniques used... one I can recall reading about is (duh->) corps buying from a resource provider having 2 or more degrees of separation ...to the point of making it near impossible to track back to the true original source.
How do you see that will we, as consumers, be able to place pressure on the electronics manufacturers, and other mega-corporations like Bayer?
- 1 year ago
-
twohawks
-
-
twohawks
-
-
To learn more about it, lots of info and links are available at the following recent story I posted... Colossal "rape mine" where more than 300,000 women and girls have been brutalised
http://current.com/technology/92861464_colossal-rape-mine-where-more-than-300-00... - 1 year ago
-
twohawks
