More than 1,000 people from around the globe will travel to Clark University on September 24th to participate in an international summit on Informed Activism: Scarce Resources, Armed Conflict and Congo. Convened by the University’s Strassler Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies, in partnership with Los Angeles based Jewish World Watch, the summit will shine a bright light on the conflict minerals trade, mass violence in Congo, and its effects on local populations and global consumers alike. The minerals fueling this conflict end up in popular electronics products such as cell phones, MP3 players, game consoles and laptops, and thus connect consumers to the conflict there.
The summit has garnered unprecedented attention. Students from nearly 40 colleges and universities (including Harvard, Duke, Georgetown, Penn, and Yale), directors and aid workers from 32 non-governmental organizations that work on the ground in Africa, representatives from the U.S. State Department, policy makers, and leading experts will examine the problem of scarce resources and conflict in Africa – and solutions to the problem.
