article-header

Fair Materials

Dodd-Frank Act update

Fair Materials

Good news for Fairphone! After 16 months of delay, America has agreed to the introduction of the anti-conflict minerals law. For over 6.000 electronics companies, that are listed on U.S. exchange stock, it is no longer possible to use gold, coltan, tungsten, tin and ore from Congo, without indicating from which mines they are extracted.<--break->

This is the first legal step towards retrieving the financial sting out of the war in eastern Congo.

It is the first time that through legislation, companies are made responsible for this part of their production.

There is a bloody conflict going on for over ten years in eastern Congo. Militias, rebels and divisional army units are fighting for the control of the lucrative mineral trade. This is accompanied by unprecedented violence, including forced labor, child labor and rape. Recently the conflict flared up again when a new militia group (M23) entered the battlefield. “The electronics industry had been aware of these ‘blood minerals’ in eastern Congo for years, but kept playing dumb.”

It’s an open secret that illegal commodities from Eastern Congo find their way into our computers, laptops, mobile phones and other cool gadgets via Asian assemblage companies. The electronics companies were able to hide behind the argument that the situation around the eastern Congolese mines was cluttered and therefore not under their responsibility, untill last week.

But we have to be remain critical

the next two years the law allows that companies may label there minerals as ‘origin unknown’. For small businesses this is even allowed for the coming four years. In other words: this is a carte blanche for not complying with the law in the next two years.

 

Tag celebration at Koweit Lavery_Kalimbi 24Oct12-1, official start of Conflict Free Tin Initiative – photo by Pact

 

Moreover, the part of the new law functions as a disguised boycott. A potential boycott of minerals from the Congo would have disastrous consequences for the tens of thousands of miners working in the mines in eastern Congo. Much depends on the succeses that are booked when it comes to mine mapping by the Congolese government. Tin industry ITRI (a organization who certified many copper and cobalt mines in the south of the country) will help the government with this.

Meanwhile, we work on the first fair mobile phone. Keep following us!

Written by: Nathalie Anksersmit

Share this post

Related posts See all posts

  • We have big plans for fair materials by 2030

    We have big plans for fair materials by 2030

    Our new Fair Materials Roadmap 2030 extends our list of focus materials from 14 to 23 materials. With this, we take our fair material sourcing to the next level and challenge the industry to step up in addressing some of the biggest challenges we are facing. More than 10 years ago, Fairphone started out to...

    Read more
  • What are Cobalt Credits?

    What are Cobalt Credits?

    How Fairphone and the Impact Facility (TIF) developed a new system to enable investment into improving working conditions of artisanal cobalt miners in DR Congo. As part of our engagement in the Fair Cobalt Alliance (FCA), Fairphone and The Impact Facility worked on finding a solution for downstream companies to proactively source ASM cobalt from...

    Read more

Fairphone Newsletter

Want to stay in the loop with all things Fairphone?

Suscríbete a nuestro newsletter para enviarte noticias sobre nuestros proyectos

Suscríbete a nuestra newsletter y recibe 5€ de descuento en tu próximo pedido.

Enviaremos el €5 de descuento al correo electrónico que haz especificado en el momento del registro. El código de descuento puede ser utilizado en tu próxima compra superior a 75€. Por favor ten en cuenta que nuestro principal idioma de comunicación es el Inglés. Al suscribirte, aceptas que la información que nos envías será procesada de acuerdo a nuestra Política de Privacidad y Términos de uso.Te pedimos tu nombre y dirección de correo electrónico para enviarte nuestro newsletter con noticias sobre nuestros proyectos, puedes darte de baja en cualquier momento si así lo deseas.

Close