What does the financial reform package recently signed into law in the US have to do with preventing mass rape in Africa? Quite a lot, it seems...Conflict minerals help finance fighting and sexual violence on an unprecedented scale in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC)...The newly adopted US financial reform law stipulates that any company doing business that involves minerals must disclose annually whether conflict materials originating in the DRC or an adjoining country were used in the process. This applies not only to electronics companies, but to all publicly traded US firms that use gold, cassiterite, tungsten or coltan in their products. Companies are required to exercise due diligence on the source and chain of custody of these materials, and measures to ensure oversight shall include an independent audit of the report...I urge European legislators and governments to follow the lead of the Obama administration and the US Congress and work to pass a comprehensive package pertaining to the trade in conflict minerals.