Durbin Calls for Human Rights Awareness in the Congo at the Holocaust Memorial Museum
Press Release
In a speech at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, U.S. Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) today called attention to the human rights abuses in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and what the US can do to reduce the violence and hold perpetrators accountable. The speech was part of the "Voices from the Congo" conference, co-hosted by the US Holocaust Memorial Museum's Committee on Conscience, The National Endowment for Democracy, and the Eastern Congo Initiative, which aids grass-roots groups in Congo.
"I have travelled to Congo twice -- in 2005 and again in 2010. It is a nation of breathtaking natural beauty, rich in natural resources," said Durbin. "It is also a badly broken country, dominated by relentless poverty, war lords, pillaging soldiers, and horrific, almost incomprehensible, violence. The barbaric civil war in Congo is the most lethal conflict since World War II."
"As human beings, we all have a responsibility to ensure that the products that make our lives easier and more convenient are not making life unbearable for others," said Durbin. "As Americans, I believe we have a special responsibility to do what we can to end the horror in Congo."
Senator Durbin was an original co-sponsor of The Congo Conflict Minerals Act, which was enacted one year ago this month as part of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform Act. The new law requires companies that use key minerals mined in Congo to disclose such usage as part of their Securities and Exchange Commission filings, as well as what measures, if any, they are taking to ensure that they are not purchasing minerals from armed groups or military units, and that their trade is not fuelling the conflict. These disclosure requirements will let consumers decide if they want to buy products that might have been used to fuel the violence in Congo. Durbin co-sponsored the Congo Conflict Minerals Act with Senators Sam Brownback and Russ Feingold; Representatives Jim McDermott and Howard Berman led a similar version in the House. In addition, three years ago, Senator Durbin chaired the first-ever hearing in the United States Senate on the use of rape as a weapon of war under the Judiciary Subcommittee on Human Rights and the Law.
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