Urge your Representative to support H.R. 4128, the Conflict Minerals Trade Act
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Take Action Now! Urge your Representative to help stop the violence in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) by co-sponsoring H.R. 4128, the Conflict Minerals Trade Act, and ensuring that the bill moves forward quickly. Why is action important now? The violent conflict in the eastern DRC has killed more than five million people – most from malnutrition, disease, and lack of access to health care – and forced more than 1.25 million people from their homes. Related to the ongoing conflict, an estimated 400,000 women and girls have been raped in eastern DRC in the past ten years. Humanitarian assistance is vitally needed to support the DRC’s victims of violence and displacement, but it is not enough. We must also address the drivers of the conflict, including conflict minerals. Much of the instability, displacement, conflict, and sexual violence in the eastern DRC is financed by armed groups’ control over lucrative mines and mineral trade routes. One of several such “conflict minerals” is coltan, a critical component for the production of cell phones, laptops, and other electronics. Much of the DRC’s coltan is being illicitly mined in conflict zones and illegally exported through neighboring countries. We can help the people of the DRC by reducing the use of illicitly mined conflict minerals to finance violence.
Catholic Relief Services (CRS) and the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) expressed in a recent letter to its principle co-sponsors that H.R. 4128 is an important step towards improving the lives of millions of people affected by horrific violence in the eastern DRC. We believe that this bill can be strengthened by including expanded U.S. State Department efforts towards a peaceful resolution of the conflict. What does this issue have to do with my Catholic faith? Our Catholic faith calls on us to uphold the life and dignity of the human person by alleviating human suffering and promoting justice and solidarity worldwide. Therefore we must work to assure that the potential benefits of natural resource extraction are realized. The Catholic Bishops of the DRC have identified conflict minerals as a critical issue and traveled to the United States to focus attention to the drivers of the crisis. Our Holy Father, Benedict XVI, stated in his encyclical letter, Charity in Truth: “The stockpiling of natural resources, which in many cases are found in the poor countries themselves, gives rise to exploitation and frequent conflicts between and within nations. These conflicts are often fought on the soil of those same countries, with a heavy toll of death, destruction and further decay. The international community has an urgent duty to find institutional means of regulating the exploitation of non-renewable resources…” What is the Church doing about this issue? The U.S. Catholic Church, through CRS, is working in countries such as the DRC to provide emergency health and nutrition to affected populations, education for displaced children, assistance to victims of sexual violence, and agricultural development. We support local advocates who are calling on their governments to be more transparent in the use of revenues from oil, gas, and mining and seeking regulatory improvements of those extractive industries. We also support conflict resolution and reconciliation efforts. In the U.S., USCCB and CRS are mobilizing one million Catholics as part of Catholics Confront Global Poverty to learn, pray and act to support policies that alleviate the negative impact of natural resource extraction on poor people worldwide. For more information contact: |
