There's blood in your cellphone

Pardon the gory title, but a lot of us wouldn't even think of buying products if we knew that the production process involved cruelty to animals. "Socially conscious shopping" takes on an even more significant dimension when the cost is in human lives.

In an International Law elective class recently, a discussion of human rights violations in Sierra Leone inevitably led us to talk about "blood diamonds," made infamous by the movie of the same name. In this African country, the international trade and smuggling of diamonds financed and sustained a brutal civil war that claimed thousands of casualties. This led to the creation of an internationally accepted screening process for raw and cut diamonds, so that buyers of luxury goods could be sure that their prized gems are "certified conflict-free."

This scenario has its equivalent in the realm of technology, in the form of a metallic ore known as coltan (columbite-tantallite). It is widely used in manufacturing components of electronic gadgets like cellphones, computers, and DVD players, and the Democratic Republic of Congo is one of the major sources of the world's coltan supply. Because of the high demand, the coltan trade became a major source of financing for the Rwandan occupation of Congo, whose unprecedented violence has actually triggered the creation of a special international tribunal to address the abuses and atrocities committed by the Rwandan military. Extensive coltan mining has also proved destructive to the environment, especially the habitats of native animal species like the African gorilla. A major expose of the issue a few years ago, particularly involving one of Sony's new gaming gadgets, has led the international market to look for alternative suppliers.

Issues such as these, with their urgency and human impact, should prompt a paradigm shift towards consumer awareness and social responsibility. At the intersections of law, policy, and technology, human rights -- as always -- also comes into play. For more on "Congo's bloody coltan, here's a video produced by the Pulitzer Center: http://www.pulitzercenter.org/openitem.cfm?id=177