Topic: Reducing Violence Associated with Conflict Minerals
Country: South Africa
Delegate Name: Freida Blostein
School: Royal Oak High School
Topic page: background guide and all position papers All South Africa position papers GLIMUN 2011 committees
The issues surrounding conflict minerals are multi-fold but they trace back to a central economic lynchpin. These natural resources are both the boon and bane of Africa, encompassing the enormous potential for growth and the restrictive realities of regional warfare that trouble our continent. In order to promote the further development of our national and world economies we must separate the humanitarian crisis of conflict minerals from their immense value as a resource.
On this note, South Africa urges the international community to recognize the relative inefficiency and danger inherent to all encompassing embargos and sanctions. Due to current lack of adequate structures and avenues the industries involved in mineral trade cannot be monitored adequately. Therefore the illicit and malignant aspects of trade are barely impacted while the legitimate economies of sovereign states suffer. It was these concerns that led South Africa to spearhead the Kimberly Process as a method to regulate the diamond industry without inflicting economic damage.
The Kimberly method is one vivid example of how creation of industry driven or third party mechanism can monitor and enforce standards for mineral industries. The United Nations can stand as the central vehicle to assist and encourage the creation of such mechanisms as well as finding funding from the international community. The Center for International Cooperation has outlined a plan for one such mechanism within the Congo. A wider scope of mechanisms on national and regional basis would aptly regulate conflict commodities.
The United Nation’s involvement in stemming conflict mineral violence can also be found in promoting industry responsibility, the notion of due diligence. By placing regulations directly on companies and requiring realistic audit schematics we can minimize the evasion principles that come with embargos while capitalizing on their benefits.
Finally, the most effective strategies will stem from the efforts of regionally based organizations, whether this be large groupings such as the African Union and European Union, or even the more specialized South African Development Community, East African Community or the Intergovernmental Authority of Development. Bilateral and small grouped agreements can also contribute to these workings. Maintaining an open flow of trade through such agreements and entities will limit the opportunities and profits of illicit and immoral trading.
These are the long term solutions, necessary as we look ahead to the future. The basis of all peacekeeping exists in these forward thinking goals, which address the roots and cruxes of issues. In the short term of course, the conflicts associated with these commodities will continue to crop up. South Africa stands ready, as usual, to provide the necessary assistance. The presence of the peacekeeping troops of the United Nations can serve as a deterrent for conflict or as a means of containing them. It is only as a unified continent that Africa will rise to its economic potential. We will stand and rise together, regionally promoting legitimate and beneficial trade.
