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The Huffington Post

How We Can All Help Women in the Congo

by Mariska Hargitay and John Prendergast

Mariska Hargitay is an advocate, actress and activist who appears in Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. Mariska is the Founder and President of the Joyful Heart Foundation. http://www.joyfulheartfoundation.org. John Prendergast is Co-founder of Enough, the anti-genocide project at the Center for American Progress. John is co-author with Don Cheadle of the forthcoming Random House book, "The Enough Moment."

The epidemic of rape and sexual violence in the Congo takes center stage in an all-new episode of Law and Order: Special Victims Unit, airing on Wednesday night.

Portraying the world's worst violence against women -- taking place half a world away in Central Africa -- in a TV show set in New York City is a challenge. But Law and Order: SVU creator Neal Baer and writer Dawn DeNoon have managed to convey the facts on the ground in Congo through the eyes of a Congolese woman portrayed in the episode.

Eastern Congo is the world's deadliest conflict globally since WWII. Widespread rape is used as a strategy of war and an instrument of communal terror, making this region the world's most dangerous place to be a woman or a girl. Armed groups compete to control lucrative mines and smuggling routes. Rape becomes their principal means of terrorizing local populations into passive compliance, so they can steal the mineral wealth without opposition. These crimes destroy families, decimate communities, and lethally spread HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases.

There are few other conflicts in the world where the link between our consumer appetites and massive human suffering is so direct.

The armed groups perpetuating the violence generate hundreds of millions of dollars each year by trading in four main minerals: tin, tantalum, tungsten (the "three Ts") and gold. These minerals are essential to our cell phones, laptops and other electronics.

As consumers, we must speak up and demand that the top electronics companies produce conflict-free products. By removing conflict minerals from the equation in Congo, we remove the fuel from the fire. Write to the top electronics companies and tell them you want them to start producing conflict-free phones and laptops.

Continues @ The Huffington Post


Great article.. and great activism ideas there.

-- Edited by Sanders on Thursday 18th of March 2010 10:25:35 AM