The Different Initiatives on Due Diligence for Responsible Mineral Supply Chains from Conflict-Affected and High-Risk Areas: Are there More Effective Alternatives?

Abstract

Minerals from conflict-affected and high-risk areas such as coltan, present in all the technological devices that we use on a daily basis, contribute to the exacerbation and escalation of armed conflicts, as well as to prolonging situations of human rights violations in numerous regions of the world and, specially, in Africa. To put an end to this problem, many states and international organizations, such as the United States, the Organization for Cooperation and Development in Europe or the European Union, have adopted different initiatives, all of them focused on the due diligence that agents that participate in the supply chain of all this series of conflict minerals must carry out. However, the fact that some of these initiatives are not even in force has not prevented the possibility of identifying limits that obstruct the achievement of its main objective: to break the link between the illegal exploitation of natural resources, the illicit trade of these resources, and the perpetuation of armed conflicts. In this way, it is worth asking if there are more effective viable alternatives to the existing initiatives, such as a certification system similar to the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme.