Silent Night
Bad things have a tendency to happen in faraway parts of the world during the holiday season, when policymakers head home and the 24hour news cycle momentarily slows down ...
On Cell Phones, Sexual Violence, and Straw Men
Morehouse professor Texas in Africa's recent post, which takes issue with claims that the minerals are directly causing sexual violence, is an egregious and misleading attack on a straw man ...
Refugees And Revolt In Northwestern Congo
Tensions are unfolding in the northwest corner of Province Orientale, where what was initially described by U.N. sources as ethnic violence between the Lobala and Bamboma communities over fishing rights has evolved into an armed insurrection against the government ...
UN Sanctions On Congo Renewed: Will They Be Applied?
Yesterday the U.N. Security Council renewed the arms embargo and associated sanctions for the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and further expanded the remit of the Group of Experts. This is all well and good, but is hardly the sort of strong action that ought to follow from the damning evidence provided to the Security Council in the latest U.N. Experts report, as well as its many predecessors ...
What Should Be Done About Congo’s Gold Trade?
A powerful segment on CBS’ 60 Minutes last night demonstrated with stark clarity how the trade in conflict gold is a major source of funding for armed groups that target civilian populations in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The supply chain in gold can be made conflict-free through the same three steps that Enough has recommended for other conflict minerals ...
Abysmal UN Report on Congo Leaked to Media
The latest U.N. Group of Experts report on Congo was leaked to the press today. It’s unfortunate that such a hard hitting report is hitting the headlines on one of the worst news days of the year, but it’s hard to understate the importance of some these findings ...
Ask the Expert Video: The Conflict Minerals Trade Act
With the introduction of the Conflict Minerals Trade Act today, Congo activists now have bipartisan legislation percolating both in the Senate and the House of Representatives. To hear a bit more about this bill and why it’s so important, check out the latest edition of the Ask the Expert video series ...
Electronics and Atrocities: Tech Supply Chains Must Do No Harm
From the satellite mapping of atrocities and data-driven prosecution of war criminals to the use of social networking to mobilize against repressive regimes, advances in science and technology hold unprecedented potential to make human rights a reality across the world ...
Mapping Congo’s Militarized Mines
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The National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2010, signed into law yesterday by President Obama, has been making news because of all the things left out of it. But for those of concerned with the role of conflict minerals financing armed groups and military units in eastern Congo, tucked away in this law is a modest but crucial step forward ...
Activists Put Congo’s Conflict Minerals on the Map
A growing network of activists is flexing its market muscle to help end the crisis in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the deadliest and most neglected war in the world. That country’s conflict minerals continue to play a central role in financing some of the worst human rights abuses in the world, including an epidemic of sexual violence perpetrated by fighters on all sides of the war ...
