Topic: Reducing Violence Associated with Conflict Minerals
Country: Libya
Delegate Name: Farid al-Sabeh
School: Roeper School
Topic page: background guide and all position papers All Libya position papers GLIMUN 2011 committees
As a country which fought against rebel forces in the bloody Second Congo War, the Libyan Republic knows all too well of the disastrous consequences that conflict minerals hold. Indeed, the situation in Congo – which was driven mainly by the trade of conflict minerals – exists as the deadliest military conflict since World War Two. That the existence of conflict minerals finds its roots in, and is perhaps further perpetuated by, instability in certain regions is beyond debate. Libya therefore commends that the UN brings this important topic into discussion.
Various processes have been conversed upon by the General Assembly which have already helped in diminishing conflict minerals. The Kimberley Process Certification Scheme (KPCS), for instance, has rendered diamonds one of the most highly monitored minerals in the African continent; only approximately 1 percent of purchased diamonds are currently conflict diamonds. The KPCS is an example of a schematic which serves to halt the production of conflict minerals by ceasing their involvement in the international market rather than by means of direct intervention.
The Libyan Republic recognizes the Kimberley method as one which effectively controls conflict minerals while both allowing legitimate mineral industries to continue operating and ruling out the need for potentially troublesome direct intervention means like the imposition of embargoes. It is therefore hoped that the objectives defined within the KPCS will be further realized in the process of ameliorating one of the most disastrous consequences of instability in the African continent.
