Durbin Thanks Illinois Companies for SEC Conflict Minerals Transparency Report Filling
Press Release
In letters to Illinois companies, U.S. Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) thanked each for its leadership and effort to create clean supply chains which are free of conflict minerals from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). In early June, AAR Corporation, Deere and Company, Dover Corporation, IDEX Corporation, and Motorola Solutions, all submitted filings to the Securities and Exchange Commission detailing steps to avoid purchasing minerals from armed groups that fuel the region's horrific sexual violence and armed conflict. The regulations and creation of the filings were authored by Durbin -- along with former Senators Sam Brownback (R-KS), Russ Feingold (D-WI) and Representative Jim McDermott (D-WA) -- and passed as part of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street reform package in 2010.
"The SEC rule was drafted to provide greater transparency in the use of key minerals that fuel horrific violence in the DRC and to be a catalyst for creating clean supply chains. Some companies have made more than a good-faith effort to determine the origins of the minerals they and their suppliers use, and a few of those companies, I'm proud to say, call Illinois home," Durbin said.
"The first overall filings are far from perfect, but we have begun the process -- a process that has already spurred many conflict free smelters and mines. I appreciate those industry players that are leading the way. I can only hope that by cutting off this rich source of funding for the fighting in the Congo, we can help spare its citizens from the senseless violence that is tearing the country apart."
Tin, tantalum, tungsten and gold are found in electronics, jewelry, airplanes and manufacturing equipment. These minerals provide weapons and salaries to fighters in the DRC, including conscripted child soldiers, who then visit unspeakable horrors on innocent civilians in return. Almost 5.5 million people have been killed during the long running conflict in the DRC, the most deadly since World War II.
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