Human Security Centre Human Rights and International Security Research

The trial and conviction of Australian journalist Peter Greste and two of his al-Jazeera colleagues has attracted world wide media coverage as it highlights the extent to which due process violations have spread throughout Egypt’s judicial system following the regime change almost a year ago.

As well as there not appearing to be much public awareness of the issue, conflict minerals are not easy to avoid in every day life. Similar to diamonds, they are at once are often a contributing reason to and help sustain armed conflict and civil war.

Within the communities that perform it, the practice is usually very deep-rooted and driven by an interwoven set of factors including custom, religion, tradition, superstition and misguided beliefs about hygiene.