Regarding Title XV Specialized Disclosures:
I support provisions in the Conflict Minerals Act to enable us all not to be part of a chain of development that depends on use and abuse of persons to be in existence. In other words, we need and welcome information to understand when our consumption utilizes someone else's vulnerability. Are the resources on which we come to rely truly reliable, or is their availability rooted in oppression and inherent conflict? To be able to answer such questions confidently is very much a part of the freedom of us all. We know, for example, how miners in the Congo experience forced labor, debt bondage, and child labor, effectively constituting slavery. Since I want never to practice any form of such profound abuse, this knowledge helps me know where to retract my participation. This practice of informing should grow and become far more normative. The disclosure requirements of the Conflict Minerals Act, as fully enforced, will shed the light of conscious on violations of fundamental human rights; therefore, I wholeheartedly urge maximum utilization and development of its provisions.
Sincerely, Mark Meeks