The Conflict Free Campus Initiative: Creating Peace in the DRC

This past weekend the first Conflict Free Campus Initiative conference took place at Stanford University. Students from around the country gathered to share and discuss their efforts to create awareness on their college campuses about the conflict in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).  For over a decade now rebel and military groups have controlled the mineral-rich mines in the DRC, using rape and violence to maintain control.  Minerals from these mines, known as conflict minerals, are found in electronic products we use daily from cell phones to laptops.  With our consumption of these minerals we are fueling the conflict.  Students from various campuses have realized this and begun efforts to pass resolutions and spread awareness on their campuses. 

            The evening opened up with a performance by rapper and spoken word poet Omekongo Dibinga who is from the DRC and has made it his mission to spread awareness about the conflict.  The weekend followed with speaker David Sullivan and other fellow members of the Enough Project, a nonprofit organization heavily involved in ending conflict in the DRC.  Zoe McMahon of HP’s Global Program Manager for Supply Chain Social and Environmental Responsibility talked about the conflict free smelter program where a public list of conflict free smelters will be available shortly with the mineral tantalum, and minerals tin and tungsten.  The keynote speaker for the conference was Chip Pitts, discussing the importance of every level of the system to be employed to end the conflict. 

            I was fortunate enough to attend the conference and got a new sense of enthusiasm for continuing to spread the cause.  The conference was based around the attitude that it is in the power of the individual.  College campuses, being think tanks as well as main users of the end products of conflict minerals, have a huge role to play in ending the conflict.  Seeing that other students from Stanford to Georgetown care about a conflict occurring on the other side of the world is very inspiring that we can create the change needed to end the conflict. 

            At the end of the weekend we discussed plans to continue the movement by spreading awareness to other campuses and trying to make communities and even states conflict free.  These goals are in accord with current efforts at the Safe Conflict Project. 

            You can do your part to help end the conflict, whether you are a student at a university or not.  Become aware and learn more about the conflict in the DRC.  Demand a transparent supply chain and conflict free products from technology companies.  Purchase only conflict free products once available. If you a student, spread awareness at your high school, your college, and local businesses.  Business owners can pledge their support of conflict free products and become conflict free.  Towns and states can follow suit.  Let’s make the United States conflict free, with the intention to create a conflict free world where the Congolese people will see peace and no longer suffer from the repression of a mineral curse and consumerism.  End the conflict in the DRC, become conflict free!