Field report: Nintendo: Stop Using Conflict Minerals

Goal:

To call on Nintendo to take the first step toward ensuring their products are free of conflict minerals mined with slavery by auditing their supply chain according to industry standards and making this information public.

Summary:

Many electronic devices contain minerals that originate in the mines of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, known as “conflict minerals.” Conflict minerals are often mined in brutal conditions of forced labor, debt bondage and even child slavery. Slave-mined minerals are in many of our everyday electronic items: they generate hundreds of millions of dollars and fuel the world’s deadliest ongoing conflict. Upon finding out that Nintendo lags behind many electronic companies by failing to join the electronics industry audit program for conflict-free smelters or requiring its suppliers to use only conflict-free smelters, Freedom United launched a campaign to urge it to step up in its efforts against modern slavery.

Outcome:

Despite numerous actions taken by the Freedom United community, Nintendo resisted any attempt to influence its policy on conflict minerals in its supply chains.