Words of Power: Congo Crisis Update: Global Witness Pressures Cell Phone Manufacturers to Accept Responsibility & Act -- Responsibly

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Congo Crisis Update: Global Witness Pressures Cell Phone Manufacturers to Accept Responsibility & Act -- Responsibly

Read Mission Song. John Le Carre's extraordinary thriller about the Congo. Click here for the Buzzflash review.

Congo Crisis Update: Global Witness Pressures Cell Phone Manufacturers to Accept Responsibility & Act -- Responsibly

The following excerpt is from a press release issued by Global Witness at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. Share it with your cell phone company.
I also encourage you to attend the "Turning Pain To Power" Tour -- i.e., Dr. Denis Mukwege, winner of the 2008 UN Human Rights Prize and Founder of the ground breaking PANZI Hospital in Bukavu in conversation with V-Day Founder Eve Ensler. Click here for the schedule.
-- Richard Power

There is a direct causal link between the metals trade in eastern DRC and atrocities perpetrated by armed groups against Congolese civilians. Recent work by Global Witness and the UN Group of Experts revealed that all of the main armed groups involved in the current fighting in eastern DRC finance themselves through the trade in high-value minerals. These minerals are processed into metals such as tin and tantalum, which are used in the manufacture of mobile phones.
“The surging global demand for mobile phones has been helping to bankroll armed groups in Eastern Congo’s conflict,” said Annie Dunnebacke of Global Witness. “Mobile phone manufacturers need to undertake checks all the way up their supply chains to make sure they are not buying from mines controlled by militias and military units.”...
Global Witness recently wrote to major mobile phone manufacturers as well as mineral and metal traders to ask them what due diligence measures they are taking to ensure that their sourcing practices are not fuelling the conflict. While some firms have pledged to tighten their supply chain control, the mobile phone industry as a whole lacks sufficient measures to guarantee that phones and other electronics are free of conflict minerals. Global Witness, 2-16-09

For a Words of Power Archive of Human Rights Updates, click here.

Richard Power's Left-Handed Security: Overcoming Fear, Greed & Ignorance in This Era of Global Crisis is available now! Click here for more information.

Congo,
Coltan, Global Witness,Eve Ensler, Medicines Sans Frontieres, Richard Power, Words of Power 

About Richard Power

Richard Power is a writer, speaker and yoga teacher. He offers workshops, classes and private instruction in yoga and meditation. He is the author of 14 books, most important are Wyrds of Power: New Languagee for A New Reality (2017), I, the Dragon: Chronicles of An Epic Life Among the Humans (2018), and Secret Engine of the World: Further Notes on Primal Reality, Gaian Politics & the Arc of Human Evolution (2021). For more information on all of Power's other books, visit his author's page on Amazon.com.

For much of his life, Power worked in the fields of security and intelligence. He delivered briefings and led training in forty countries, and was an adviser to governments and corporations. His views have been featured in interviews on CNN, PBS, NPR and the BBC, and quoted in mainstream news media, including Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, New York Times, Washington Post, Reuters and Associated Press.

This blog explores new language for the truths of the ancient future, and reflects insights into Vajrayana Buddha Dharma, Kashmir Shiva-Sakti philosophy, Hatha and Tantra Yoga, the Shamanic path, and other aspects of the world's collective mystical heritage. It also offers commentary on art, music, literature, human rights, sustainability, independent journalism, economic justice and the Climate Crisis.