Target: Hiroki Totoki, CEO of Sony Mobile
Goal: Ensure conflict minerals are not part of Sony’s supply chain.
A brutal African militia tied to murder, rape, and other violent crimes may be profiting from some of the world’s top consumer tech companies. The Democratic Republic of Congo’s (DNC) notorious M23 militia is allegedly exporting the conflict mineral coltan across the border to Rwanda in large supplies. From Rwanda, the mineral (used in the creation of key components for electronic devices) is reportedly finding its way into the supply chains of entities like Amazon and Sony.
Conflict minerals such as blood diamonds have such a negative reputation because they are mined in areas mired in war and oppression. Both the methods used to extract many of these minerals (such as forced labor) and the usage of the monies reaped from them (to further fund and prolong conflicts and their human rights toll) have received intense scrutiny. Various laws have been enacted in the U.S. and abroad in an attempt to curtail the conflict minerals trade, but weak enforcement driven by an emphasis on cost savings over ethical principles — and loopholes that allow certain minerals and countries to go unsourced — have seriously degraded the legal impact.
Sign the petition below to urge one of the major reported buyers of coltan to heed calls and add Rwanda to its list of supply chain conflict mineral threats.
PETITION LETTER:
Dear Mr. Totoki,
While DNC militias are directly to blame for the atrocities committed via their conflict minerals trade, the global powerhouses that feed their supply lines and nourish their heinous actions must accept a share of indirect blame. Because of the coltan trade that has reportedly crossed borders to Rwanda, for example, children are forced to work for hours in dangerous mines, surrounding communities are left to deal with the rampant environmental damage done, and ruthless militias maintain an iron grip on populations. The International Tin Supply Chain Initiative, the Responsible Minerals Initiative, and similar laws have failed to root out under-the-radar practices like the coltan trade.
A spokesperson for this company mentioned reviews of supply chains and vowed that the reviews did not mark the end of “due diligence” and that the “serious allegations” would be treated with “the attention that it deserves.” Please make good on these pledges, answer the calls of Global Witness to cease purchase of coltan sourced from Rwanda until militias have withdrawn, and make stringent focus on Sony’s supply chain a top priority. Do not become an unwitting and willfully ignorant accessory to human suffering.
Sincerely,
[Your Name Here]
Photo Credit: USAID Guinea
