International Responsibility: An Examination of Intel

Human Rights and International Responsibility: An Examination of Intel Name Institutional Affiliation Human Rights and International Responsibility: An Examination of Intel Insofar as Intel is concerned, the sourcing of conflict-free minerals and products has been a core concern. Working in an industry where many of the raw materials used in the development of its products come from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), ensuring said materials are conflict-free is a critical priority. This is especially the case because Intel works to maintain its image and brand as a trustworthy organization with quality products and which also contributes to the betterment of the society through its various corporate social responsibility initiatives (Hoffman, 2015). To this end, Intel has taken serious measures to mitigate the conflict mineral problem in the DRC, which greatly affects its operations in the region as well as across the world. The core approach taken by Intel has been to eliminate the possibility of conflict minerals being sourced in its supply chain. In this way, Intel hopes to ensure that peddlers of conflict minerals do not benefit from its business while at the same time establishing standards that all other multinational conglomerates sourcing minerals from the DRC can follow. Intel has sought to ensure that all materials sourced are carefully audited at the smelters to verify that only non-conflicted minerals had been sourced (Hoffman, 2015). Seeing as smelters function as the core pinch points of the mineral supply chain in the DRC, establishing audit mechanisms at this point in the supply chain works to limit the sourcing of conflict minerals. At the same time, it is worth noting that Intel has taken serious measures to ensure that its initiatives are robustly enforced. This has been facilitated through the involvement of numerous stakeholders, particularly non-governmental agencies, as well as the enactment of legislation within the US ensuring that all minerals sourced by organizations have to be verified as being non...