Topic: Reducing Violence Associated with Conflict Minerals
Country: Serbia
Delegate Name: Eric Satterlee
School: Forest Hills Northern High School
Topic page: background guide and all position papers All Serbia position papers GLIMUN 2011 committees
Due to the demand for electronics in the Information Age, resources used to build these products are becoming more and more valuable and profitable. So profitable in fact, that they have become conflict minerals. Conflict minerals are minerals that are mined under violent conditions and often associated with severe human rights abuses. The eastern provinces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo are the hot spots for this illicit activity. As these minerals are passed through many middlemen, it can be difficult detect conflict minerals in the supply chain. This results in the continued sale of conflict minerals, fueling the violence and human rights abuses.
The Republic of Serbia believes further international action is required to stop the sale of these conflict minerals. Laws in place now, such as the United States Dodd Frank Act, have actually had an adverse effect on the mines not associated with conflict minerals in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Many of these mines have actually gone out of business. Putting many people out of work and subjecting them to poverty. The international community needs to be more careful when writing these laws and attempt to understand what consequences might be incurred when they are implemented.
The supply chain of these resources need to more closely monitored and audited. This would help companies more selectively choose where to obtain necessary resources from and not just ignore entire regions, putting innocent people out of work and legitimate companies out of business. This would require a multilateral effort on the part of nations that extensively use these resources.
