"Governance of Mineral Supply Chains of Electronic Devices", June 2018

This paper analyses the current governance framework concerning mineral supply chains of electronic devices. This is about ten years after leading IT companies began in 2007 to fund research to investigate the impact of mineral sourcing for IT devices, which established a connection between their products and human rights abuses. The paper provides an overview of mandatory frameworks and voluntary approaches that address social, human rights, and environmental risks. Moreover, it analyses a selection of voluntary approaches in terms of credibility and transparency of implementation. We conclude by drawing upon our findings to make recommendations regarding the implementation of EU regulation on responsible mineral sourcing.