Note: This page provides background information on responsible mineral sourcing, the impacts of mineral trade on human rights & conflict, as well as the proposed EU regulation.  It is not an exhaustive list of sources.

Background on due diligence for responsible mineral sourcing:

OECD Due Diligence Guidance for Responsible Supply Chains of Minerals from Conflict-Affected and High-Risk Areas

Relevant EU legislative documents:

• Draft regulation as adopted by the European Parliament in plenary, 20 May 2015
• Summary of draft regulation as adopted by the European Parliament, 20 May 2015
• European Commission’s proposal and Joint Communication, 5 Mar 2014
• European Commission’s Impact Assessment, 5 Mar 2014

Civil society perspective on the EU's role:

• 'EU Regulation on Responsible Mineral Sourcing: Implementing the Parliament's Proposed Due Diligence System', Civil society coalition, Oct 2015
• FAQs: 'A call for strong European conflict minerals legislation', Global Witness (also available in French)
• 'Conflict Minerals in Europe: Stop the EU supporting a Deadly Trade', Global Witness, Feb 2014
• 'Breaking the links between natural resources and conflict: The case for EU regulation', Civil society position paper, Sep 2013 (also available in French)
• Other briefings by NGO coalition (in English & French)

Evidence of how trade in natural resources fund conflict & human rights abuses:

General

• European Commission's Impact Assessment, 5 Mar 2014, pp.13-22.
• Global case studies, Global Witness, 2014 (including Afghanistan, Myanmar, Colombia, Zimbabwe, DR Congo)
• ‘The Looting Machine’, Tom Burgis, review by Financial Times, 6 Mar 2015
• Conflict trade: regulating illicit flows to and from war, Mark Taylor, Norwegian Peacebuilding Resource Centre (NOREF), Oct 2013
• Conflict minerals, Lena Guesnet, Bonn International Center for Conversion & Raimund Bleishwitz, Wuppertal Institute, Jan 2013

Tin, tantalum, tungsten

• Global case studies, Global Witness, 2014 (including Afghanistan, Myanmar, Colombia, Zimbabwe, DR Congo):
• ‘Terrorist Tungsten in Colombia Taints Global Phone-to-Car Sales’, Bloomberg, Sep 2013:
• BBC report on conditions in Indonesian tin mines within Apple’s supply chain, Dec 2014
• ‘Mineral supply chains and conflict in DRC’, IPIS, 2015
• Report by UN Group of Experts on the DRC, 2015
• ‘Coming Clean’, Global Witness, 2012 
• ‘Faced with a Gun’, Global Witness, 2010

Gold

• ‘Ghana: Child Labor Taints Gold Supply Chain’, Human Rights Watch, 2015
• ‘A Golden Racket’, Berne Declaration, 2015
• Documentary: ‘Dreckiges Gold – die glänzenden Geschäfte mit dem edlen Metall’, ZDF (Germany), 2015: 
•  ‘Putting Principles into Practice’ (DRC), Global Witness, 2013

Diamonds

• Chains of abuse: the case of diamonds from the Central African Republic and the global diamond supply chain, Amnesty International, Sep 2015
• ‘Diamonds a good deal for Zimbabwe? Who controls revenues from Marange diamonds? A case study of Mbada and Anjin companies’, Global Witness, 2012
• ‘Financing a parallel government? The involvement of the secret police and military in Zimbabwe’s diamond, cotton and property sectors’, Global Witness, 2012
• ‘Deliberate Chaos: Ongoing Human Rights Abuses in the Marange Diamond Fields of Zimbabwe’, Human Rights Watch, 2010
• ‘Diamonds in the Rough: Human Rights Abuses in the Marange Diamond Fields of Zimbabwe’, Human Rights Watch, 2009

Jade

• ‘Jade: Myanmar’s Big State Secret’, Global Witness, Oct 2015 (summary document is available here)