One day a girl was sitting in class. The teacher asked the students: "How many of you own cellphones?" Everyone in the class put their hand up. The teacher then began to explain the human rights violations which occur in order for companies like Apple to produce their products. Although he did not go into much detail, he did mention that a mineral called columbite–tantalit, or more commonly known as coltan is required to create the circuit board of a cellphone, laptops, DVD players and so on. He also mentioned the forced child labour, if not slavery, and terror which fosters the extraction of coltan in African nations who have abundant supplies of coltan in their mineral rich territories. The girl is me, and that brief story never left my mind.
In my current Legal Theory (LY410) class we are examining corporate crime harm creation and I knew that I had to explore the atrocities that occur simply because privileged (and ignorant) individuals in first-world countries demand the latest version of technology (iPhone 6 please and thanks) they can get their hands on. Obviously consumerism pushes the corporations who are responding to demand, but maybe if we were more aware of the detriments of our greed, we might actually be able to necessitate change.
As a society we need to recognize that we are complicit in the sabotage of peoples and nations that various corporations are executing (specifically in the Democratic Republic of Congo in Africa). Join me in this exploration into the detrimental harms multinational corporations are committing and the examination of any potential legislative solutions we can put in place to prevent the exploitation of innocent civilians and the territory of the DRC.
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