Last week, President Obama signed into law a huge victory for consumers and human rights advocates around the world: a provision requiring companies to label products made with minerals from Congo and the surrounding countries. The legislation promises to make it easier for consumers to choose products made without conflict minerals that support violence, rape, human trafficking, and other serious crimes.

The conflict minerals reporting provision is buried deep in the 2,300 page financial reform bill President Obama signed into law last week. It requires U.S. companies to publicly disclose what they are doing to prevent conflict minerals from being used to create their products, including everything from laptops to medical devices. Companies must report whether or not they source minerals from the Democratic Republic of the Congo or nine surrounding states where Congolese minerals are often smuggled onto the international market. Companies who source from the region will be required to publish, on their website, what they are doing to prevent minerals whose sales fund human rights abuses like rape, slavery, and genocide from ending up in their products. If companies comply, it would be the first time consumers could look up the conflict mineral track record of thousands of companies with ease over the Internet.

Of course, the law doesn't ban the importation of conflict mineral-laden products or attempt to censure companies known to source from Congolese mines. And the law doesn't impose any penalties on companies who don't meet the reporting requirements. So there is a good chance products made with conflict minerals will continue to the sold in the U.S.

These conflict minerals include a number of minerals commonly used in the manufacture of electronics, including the three T's — tin, tungsten, and tantalum — as well as better-known minerals like gold. The proceeds from the mining of these minerals in the Congo have often funded militant groups responsible for mass killings, human trafficking, systematic rape, and ot