Topic: Reducing Violence Associated with Conflict Minerals
Country: Venezuela
Delegate Name: Meredith McKeown
School: Ann Arbor Community High School
Topic page: background guide and all position papers All Venezuela position papers GLIMUN 2011 committees
Tin, tantalum, tungsten, and gold. These four minerals often referred to as “3Ts and gold” are components of all cell phones, as well as nearly all computers, televisions, and other electronic devices. Because these minerals are in such high demand there is much violence surrounding them, and according to the International Rescue Committee death, related to these minerals has resulted in over 5 million civilians and an estimated 45 thousand deaths per month occur. Diamonds can also be referred to as a conflict mineral accounting for an immeasurable amount of violence. In 2003, the United Nations formed a plan to try and combat the killing and ill treatment, they called it the Kimberly Process Certification Scheme (KPCS). It set standards for tracing the line of where a diamond came from and being able to prove that. The long term outcome was somewhat of a failure due to nations not cooperating and too few people following the strict plan, thus the certification fell apart.
The Venezuelan government supports efforts to keep the source of origin clean for diamonds and works to maintain a country with as little violence as possible. Currently Venezuela is on of the top producer of petroleum oil, and is estimated to have over 99.4 billion barrels of crude oil. The history of oil in the Bavarian Republic of Venezuela is spotted with property disputes and violence. Currently the state oil company, PDVSA, controls the petroleum sector. In 2005, in a attempt to try and avoid property disputes, the government informed companies with operating service contracts for mature fields that they must migrate the contracts to joint ventures that conform to the 2001 Hydrocarbons Law. The government threatened to seize fields operating under the services contracts on December 31, 2005 if oil companies did not sign transition agreements to migrate their contracts. Later in May 2009, the National Assembly passed an oil services sector law reserving to the state all primary hydrocarbons activity. In a effort to reduce violence in Venezuela the government enacted a plan to seize weapons and destroy them, a total of 2,213 bladed weapons, 113 pistols, 107 revolvers, 445 improvised firearms, 43 shotguns, two submachine guns, 60 grenades, and 5,432 rounds
of ammunition. In another effort to combat violence the prison system has been completely reformed with new buildings being built, x ray machines and closed circlet security cameras being installed, as well as weapon detectors placed at the entrances. However, President Hugo Chávez clams "The thought of Venezuela being one of the most dangerous countries in the world is untrue. And it is false that here there is more violence, compared with 11 years ago. Eh?"
