Stanford Takes Lead on Conflict Minerals Issue: Trustees Adopt Groundbreaking Investment Policy

June 20, 2010 - PRLog -- Stanford STAND: A Student Coalition to End and Prevent Genocide and Mass-Atrocities is delighted to report that the Stanford University Board of Trustees has voted in favor of the adoption of a new proxy voting guideline regarding the “conflict minerals” that sustain armed groups in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), as Stanford announced Friday June 18 at http://news.stanford.edu/news/2010/june/conflict-minerals-guideline-061810.html. This vote makes Stanford University the first major institution to adopt an investment policy with respect to conflict minerals. Such early leadership on a major new investment responsibility issue is unprecedented in the University’s history.
The guideline states that the University will:

"…vote in favor of well-written and reasonable shareholder resolutions that ask companies for reports on their policies and efforts regarding their avoidance of conflict minerals and conflict mineral derivatives."

The term “conflict minerals” refers to the minerals that come from illegally controlled mines in the eastern part of the DRC. Civilians are caught in the deadly middle as armed militias struggle for control of mines and smuggling routes. According to the International Rescue Committee, over 5.4 million deaths have occurred as a result of the conflict. What's more, because of the widespread use of sexual violence against local populations as an intimidation tactic, the DRC has been called the rape capital of the world. Fueling this conflict is the lucrative process of mining and trading minerals like tantalum, tungsten, tin, and gold.

Though these atrocities are being perpetrated thousands of miles away, Stanford University has now realized its potential to take a vital step toward an end to the conflict. The minerals fueling the conflict in the DRC enter the global supply, where they are ultimately used to manufacture everyday electronic products like cell phones, laptops, and video game consoles. Although there is not yet an established mechanism for tracing the supply chains of the companies that use these minerals, industry initiatives have begun the process and legislation in Congress is currently in conference as an amendment to the financial reform bill.

What is needed now -- where Stanford University has now taken its leading role -- is to demonstrate the popular demand that exists for a more responsible supply chain. As a major institutional investor, Stanford can influence the companies in which it invests to further develop their policies regarding conflict minerals. Historically, Stanford University has been cautious in taking action to adjust its investment policy in response to humanitarian issues. Nonetheless, faced with the blunt facts of the underlying crisis in the DRC, and with the ability of major US electronics and technology companies to alter their role with respect to a humanitarian crisis, the Board of Trustees agreed last Thursday that the University will lead by example, focusing national and international attention on an issue of which too many remain ignorant.

Though by itself a small step, this use of Stanford's voice as a conflict-conscious investor makes a powerful statement. The proxy voting guideline clearly demonstrates Stanford University's commitment to the ethical imperatives associated with this deadly conflict. Considering that electronics companies are some of the largest end users of these conflict minerals, Stanford’s position in the heart of Silicon Valley makes its leadership on this issue especially meaningful. As such, we at Stanford STAND sincerely congratulate the Board of Trustees on their decision to take action on this issue with a groundbreaking statement to the companies in which the University is invested.

The adoption of the new conflict minerals guideline is the result of the effort and support of a rapidly growing group of students, alumni, and faculty led by Stanford STAND, which represents the major constituencies across the Stanford community. While working within the institutional structures available to us at Stanford, we built awareness and support for our cause within the Stanford community. In the course of the months leading up to the Board of Trustees’ decision, we found that the main obstacles were not ideological or political differences, but rather bureaucratic inertia and a lack of awareness. When the decision makers were assembled in a room and the basic underlying facts of the situation in the DRC were described, however, consensus was achieved.

In particular, Stanford STAND’s efforts included:

•   We partnered with members on the Advisory Panel on Investment Responsibility and Licensing (APIR-L) to draft the language of the guideline, and to demand and obtain votes on the guideline at all relevant levels of University decision making.  
•   The guideline was first approved by the Human Rights Sub-Committee of the APIR-L in March subsequent to STAND pressure for a vote.
•   An APIR-L member presented the guideline and received unanimous approval from the APIR-L as a whole after a thorough debate on Friday, April 23.
•   We obtained key Stanford faculty support by approaching professors whose backgrounds spanned a broad cross-section of University expertise. Made aware of the pressing nature of the issues at hand and impressed by Stanford STAND’s integrity, research, and commitment to the issue, virtually all faculty members pledged their support.
•   New York Times columnist and leading human rights journalist Nicholas Kristof expressed support for the issue by Tweeting about the initiative on June 3 with a link to a May Stanford Daily article, which reached his approximately 950,000 Twitter followers.  
•   Stanford STAND’s public outreach team contacted various media outlets—both virtual and print—and received considerable coverage from diverse blogs, newspapers, and special-interest journals. Press coverage ranged from guest blog posts to open letters to the Board of Trustees to feature articles that pressed the Trustees to vote in favor of the guideline and spoke to the importance of the issue. This media coverage not only attests to the significance of the initiative, but also aided in the essential process of building awareness more broadly on the issue to stimulate efforts at other institutions and universities.
•   As a result of these diverse efforts, Stanford STAND received mounting expressions of support and encouragement from hundreds of other students, faculty and alumni, which in turn helped convince decision makers about the broad underlying support of the resolution within the Stanford community.
•   Stanford STAND eventually won the right to be represented by one of its advocates at the Board of Trustees’ Special Committee on Investment Responsibility (SCIR) meeting on Thursday, June 10 at which the resolution was presented. The Trustees were asked to approve the resolution immediately in light of the urgency of the underlying issue.
Upon recommendation from the SCIR, the full Board subsequently approved the guideline the same day. We wholeheartedly congratulate the Board of Trustees on their decision to take action on this critical issue.

“We at Stanford STAND believe that the Stanford University Board of Trustees’ decision reaffirms the compelling nature of the issue and will spark further institutional, educational, and corporate efforts,” said Mia Newman ’12, incoming co-president of Stanford STAND. “We call on the students, faculty and alumni of other academic institutions to hold accountable companies in which their schools invest for unknowingly funding the ongoing atrocities perpetrated by Congolese armed groups. We hope that the story behind Stanford’s unprecedented action can serve as a model for similar efforts elsewhere.”

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Stanford STAND first began its work with the University on the issue of conflict minerals in January of 2010r. Stanford STAND is a student organization that seeks to end and prevent genocides in the world around us. To that end, we have chosen to focus on the current conflicts underway in Sudan, the DRC, & Burma. We also work for the creation of a permanent anti-genocide constituency to ensure that genocide prevention becomes an institutionalized foreign policy issue. We work on the Stanford campus, in the local Bay Area, & in Washington D.C., using a three-pronged approach: advocacy, awareness, & fundraising.

STAND was founded in 2005 to address the genocide in Darfur, Sudan. It has since expanded its mission to include other conflicts, particularly those resulting in a large number of civilian casualties. Stanford STAND is a leading chapter of the national STAND organization, which is the student division of Genocide Intervention Network.

http://stand.stanford.edu