Over sixty international non-governmental organizations endorse the call of the European Parliament for binding EU rules that ensure that all companies operating in the EU, using or trading minerals sources from conflict-affected areas, check their supply chains to reduce the risk of conflict financing and human rights abuses.
Next week the EU Commission is due to publish a proposal on responsible mineral sourcing for EU companies. PAX is one of the European NGO’s that supports the plea for strong EU regulation in order to ensure that European businesses do not contribute to conflict financing or human rights abuses in the production and trade in natural resources.
Mandatory checks
Marianne Moor from Pax: “Our research in Colombia demonstrates the very real links between resources such as tungsten, tantalum, gold, coal and conflict. Most EU companies currently have no idea whether the minerals that they use have funded armed groups. Mandatory checks would provide assurances to European consumers that products they buy aren’t linked to conflict.”
PAX is also active on a Dutch level to work hard for better government regulation to prevent companies to get involved in conflict minerals and to ensure victims of atrocities get access to justice and remedy.
Read the press release
Read Breaking the links between natural resources and conflict: The case for EU regulation