Coltan and Section 1502: Are the policy measures implemented under Section 1502 effective in promoting transparency in the coltan trade and reduce conflict and violence in Eastern DRC?

Details

Supervisors

Desmet, Carlos

Faculty

Louvain School of Management

Degree label

Master [120] en ingénieur de gestion

Abstract

For many decades, Eastern DRC has been at the heart of conflicts between local, national, and regional actors along with dozens of armed militia. The conflicts have been characterized by horrific human rights abuses, in particular rape and sexual violence. Many authors argue that the underlying cause of ongoing conflict is the plethora of minerals that are present in the area, under which coltan. Coltan, which has properties essential for electronic devices such as phones, has been at the frontline of campaigns from many advocacy groups. Using terms such as “blood coltan” or “blood on your mobile”, various authors assert that coltan and coltan-bodied devices are linked with conflict in Eastern DRC. Following this narrative, many policy initiatives have been put in place to solve the issue around “conflict coltan”. The Dodd-Frank Act Section 1502, enacted in 2010, aims to break the link between conflict and coltan through responsible sourcing and due diligence. However, ten years after its passing, the law has had paradoxical consequences for various stakeholders. Unemployment greatly increased and miners have seen their living conditions worsen, the level of insecurity in the area remains high and there has been an increase in coltan smuggle to Rwanda. Moreover, violence and conflict did not decrease. The aim of this paper is to assess the effectiveness of Section 1502 and its policy measures based on its two initial objectives i.e. peacebuilding and responsible sourcing. We find that the legislation has yielded limited results as it did not understand the socio-economic and political dynamics of the region. For instance, coltan is not a root cause of conflict in Eastern DRC. However, Section 1502 based its policy measures on this misconception and does not tackle the root causes of conflict. As a result, policy measures have not reduced violence and conflict significantly. In terms of responsible sourcing, the Dodd-Frank Act failed to take into consideration the challenges that come with traceability in a weak state. Indeed, the DRC is characterized by weak governance and endemic corruption. This highly limits the net results of traceability initiatives. The lack of mitigation measures to deal with weak states enables large-scale smuggling, contaminating the efforts put in place under traceability schemes. We find that the measures did increase responsible sourcing but only to a limited extent as the supply chain can easily be contaminated. Finally, we assess that the objectives are discordant. It is not possible to simultaneously achieve peacebuilding and responsible sourcing as the former is a prerequisite for the latter. On top of that, reducing conflict through a mineral approach is not an effective approach in conflict-affected areas such as Eastern DRC. Finally, we observe that the policy has shifted its focus from reducing violence to compliance for companies and appealing to Western end-users.