From 27 to 29 February will be held in Barcelona a new edition of Mobile World Congress. It’s a date of great importance within the world of communications.
Only in 2011 the Congress had more than 60,000 visitors from 200 countries (?) Involving government delegations from 131 countries; 1400 exhibiting companies and the entire staff of the senior leadership of the multinational sector.
Now, looking at the calendar amazed to see that Congress does not address or seek solutions to the impacts that this industry is causing worldwide. We believe that companies that extract minerals required for the mobile phone industry need to make a deep and urgent process of reflection on their practices, while the representatives of the governments have a duty to work to establish international policies and promote accountability outside their companies.
Thus we have a side that is obvious in the process of obtaining the necessary minerals to manufacture these products are systematically violated the rights of many of the local populations, in many cases based on forced labor in mines, exposure of workers to toxic people, the militarization of rural areas by private security and have even lead to wars and on the other hand, the fact that all this would not be possible if not with the complicity of the Northern governments themselves where these companies are based and sometimes corrupt local governments. Companies like Apple, Nokia and Ericsson, to name a few, have been denounced repeatedly by civil society by these practices.
All this is compounded by the lack of reflection on the availability of the precious minerals. The amount present and accessible of these resources is limited, but not so much only found in the conference program nearby immediate issues and how they are recycling cell or the extension of life. Findings and question the real will of the telecommunications sector to walk to a transition from unsustainable consumption model to a system we socioambientalmente fair, equitable and respectful of people, cultures and environment.
The growth model that has brought us to the current crisis requires us to understand that sustainability is not a value but a precondition essential to ensure a scenario of coexistence between us, the human species, and what keeps us, the planet Earth.
For all these reasons we take the echo and the ability of an event of this magnitude to rethink how we relate to the environment, what impact does our consumption, open way to other forms of society where everybody takes place and require forums these characteristics in facing environmental and social debate required.
Sign this statement:
Ingeniería Sin Fronteras, Entrepobles, EdPAC, Grupo de Investigación en Derechos Humanos y Sostenibilidad, Red del Observatorio de la Deuda en la Globalización (ODG) Col•lectivo RETS y otras entidades.