Earlier this year on Advocacy Sunday, many of us signed a petition calling on the SEC to enact strong regulations on the tracking of conflict minerals like those funding the wars in the Congo. Social Justice Ministry has heard from Raise Hope for Congo which says they hand-delivered our petition (along with others) to the SEC. Today I received an email from Raise Hope for Congo saying that the State Department has joined the effort to ensure that the SEC rules are strong and that reporting requirements are implemented quickly (not delayed as some industry voices had requested). This is surely good news.
Here's the text of the email.
Here's the text of the email.
A few weeks ago, we sent you an update on the regulations being drafted by the Securities and Exchange Commission, or SEC, on conflict minerals, telling you that we were waiting for the State Department to submit its comments on the proposed rules.
At the time, we didn’t know whether the key players at the State Department would support strong regulations or whether they would bend under corporate pressure. In the last few weeks we have undertaken a series of meetings with senior officials at the State Department, armed with supporting comments from 26,000 concerned consumers like you. In these meetings we received strong assurances that the State Department would not support any delay in implementing the reporting requirements for companies that source conflict minerals. And this week we’re pleased to report back that the State Department has submitted written comments to the SEC calling for the strong reporting requirements we recommended and supporting timely implementation of the law.
We are grateful for the leadership of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Under Secretaries Robert Hormats and Maria Otero, and Assistant Secretary Johnnie Carson. And especially grateful to you for helping us make this outcome possible!
We'll be sure to let you know when the SEC releases their final rules. Meanwhile, we will shift our focus to ensuring that the federal regulations are matched with a comprehensive and transparent monitoring scheme on the ground in eastern Congo. As a part of this push, we will call on the U.S. Government to take a leadership role in creating a certification system to ensure minerals coming out of eastern Congo are not funding armed groups.
Stay tuned for our next action on certification, which will arrive in your inbox soon. And thank you again for lending your strong voice and unwavering commitment to ending this brutal conflict in Congo.
Sincerely,
Sadia Hameed
Congo Campaign Manager
Enough Project
Congo Campaign Manager
Enough Project