By Shubhangi Mehra
When people think of slavery, their minds conjure up images of 18th and 19th century American plantations of the South. Seldom do people think of the enslaved inhabitants of the Democratic Republic of Congo who work every day to provide companies with minerals that are the basis of many essential products.
In Congo, millions of slaves have toiled in the past few decades to produce tin, tantalum, gold, and tungsten ores. All four of these products are widely used in consumer goods today. The militias that control these mines make huge profits off of the readily available cheap labor and the great demand for all of these minerals from around the world. The earnings allow them to continue enslaving their workers and to fight the civil war raging in Congo to retain ownership of these mines.
According to a press release from the African News Service this past September, 240 million cell phones and 100 million laptops, worth a total of $36.1 million, were imported by the European Union. All of these products contained some form of conflict minerals. This import accounts for only a fourth of the total global trade of the four minerals, meaning that the companies that exported all of these products collectively made $144.4 billion through trade last year. A small percentage of these earnings go to militiamen, allowing them to continue violence and abuse of workers.
The workers at the mines are subjected to wretched conditions, alongside little to no compensation in the form of money. Most workers are threatened and forced to work in these mines. These mines are formed after villagers are raped and their homes are pillaged. The workers in these mines have no other option but to follow what the mine owners tell them to do.
Owners of these mines believe that they are above the law and can do whatever they want. As a result, people are often forced to work for 24 hours a time. Miners die because of fatigue. Others die because the mining shafts are very deep and often flood. Men, women and children often carry enormous blocks on their backs as part of their labor.
All of the mines in Congo are very precarious. The only tool that slaves use is a shovel. Evidently, they aren’t well equipped to work in such places. The owners of these mines don’t care about their people, and only worry about profits. If they must coerce people into working in hazardous conditions with the help violence and terrorization to earn their massive profits, they will.
Until recently, many businesses around the world were oblivious to the fact that they were using ores mined by slaves. Fortunately, several have started taking action against conflict minerals. In a survey administered by Raise Hope for Congo, a foundation that is working to end human rights abuse in Congo, twelve companies have made an effort to find out where their minerals come from. Additionally, they have gained access to clean mines where people are treated fairly and are consciously working to end human rights abuses. Yet all of these businesses are a part of the electronic goods sector, meaning that no other industry, on a large scale, has considered looking into where their minerals come from, and whether they are conflict free.
Once countries were aware of this dire situation, the European Union passed a law that allows corporations to voluntarily report whether or not parts of their products come from these mines. This is ineffective because it does not force these companies to make an effort to find out their products’ origins. Instead, businesses take advantage of this law and don’t report anything to consumers.
Currently, a law is also in place in the United States. It requires corporations to disclose whether or not they use conflict minerals in the products they sell. This is a more feasible law since it pressures organizations to investigate the source of their minerals. The issue at hand is that it is difficult to trace elements back to Congo. Some ores that are originally mined in the Democratic Republic of Congo are smuggled to surrounding countries (e.g., Rwanda), and are exported from there. So, companies need to be conscious about where their products are coming from. If they are coming from anywhere in that region of Africa, they should be inspected by officials to make sure that they are conflict free.
Still, this is not enough. Although companies around the world are attempting to fix their practices, this issue has not been publicized enough. Many do not realize that the things they used every day, such as cell phones and cars, contain materials mined by slaves in Congo; this is pitiful. Customers have the right to know where, how and by whom their products are procured and turned into goods. We must take a stand to fight against the injustice that the slaves experience and let people know that this issue even exists.
To bring awareness to this issue, we must start acting on our own. You don’t have to be big to bring about change. I am confident that we, as students, can give rise to change.
Of course, it would be ridiculous to propose that consumers should boycott all products that use conflict minerals. Very few individuals would be austere enough to accomplish this. I know for a fact that many teenagers cannot fathom living without their phones. Instead, consumers must be proactive. We must research which companies are working to reduce their supply of conflict minerals, and then buy from those corporations. Those companies that use conflict minerals will lose money since they will receive fewer customers. As a result, they will decrease the amount of conflict minerals in their products to compete against other businesses in their industry. Eventually, the companies will keep reducing the amount of minerals that they import from conflict-ridden mines to stay on top of the competition, and we will be able to get rid of these minerals from supply chain.
Certain companies may protest this practice because they have to pay more money when they get minerals from conflict free mines, since these owners pay their laborers fair wages. It will also be more expensive for consumers, for costs trickle down the economic hierarchy. But this is a tiny sacrifice that consumers must make to save the lives of the thousands of people that are abused in Congo.
Ridding mines in Congo will be a fairly long and slow process. There is no choice but to persevere. We must end the human rights violations that occur in Congo. Now that businesses have started to investigate their sources for the minerals they receive, consumers must stand up to support the companies that are doing the right thing. This way, we can help end injustice in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
