In an ideal world, yes. A lot of these resources are not only used by government or people in power but also the informal mining, for instance, is both used by ordinary people to feed their families but it's also used by armed groups who gain control over mining sites to gain resources to pay for weapons and their soldiers and so forth.
In the large scheme of things, it has been difficult to put in some of these sanctions because some of the countries in the west have companies with a vested interest in being able to extract resources.
I'm not saying it's impossible, but it would be very difficult to impose rules on any mining company, whether Canadian or American or Swiss, to say they are not respecting human rights, therefore they are no longer allowed to operate in the country until the situation is normalized. It would definitely have an impact on the political elites' desire to restore some sort of order, but then the question is what are the laws within each of these countries or regional economic blocs with regard to how they are to interact with their own companies.
I think Glencore is a Canadian mining company. How do you then tell them they're no longer allowed to operate there, not because it's not benefiting you, but because from a human rights perspective, we don't want you to do business in DR Congo?
That's where some of the challenges come. It goes beyond simply saying we're imposing sanctions on Kabila and his family and freezing his assets, but we're saying you will be sanctioned if you operate in DR Congo. It's a little like what people are doing or want to do in Iran now.
I don't know if you have the economic or political will across the global north to disengage economically from the political elite in DR Congo. Would that make a difference? I think it would because let's remember, a handful of people end up benefiting from these backdoor deals between themselves and some of our mining companies. I'm just not sure if there's a political will to engage that way with those private institutions and private companies that we have at home and in Europe.