Business and Human Rights

by Alex Neve, Secretary General, and Tara Scurr, Business and Human Rights Campaigner
Amnesty International Canada

 - Guatemala City, Guatemala, 18 September, 2014

What better way to spend the evening before launching our important new report, Mining in Guatemala: Rights at Risk?  Over dinner, we were able to catch up with the courageous community leader and human rights defender Yolanda Oquelí.  Yolanda has for several years been at the forefront of the campaign to ensure that mining does not go ahead in her community without consultation and consent. She has been a leader of the La Puya protest camp, which blockaded the road leading in to the mining site for over two years.

Dozens of local residents have told Amnesty International they continue to fear the long-term health impacts of the dumping of toxic waste belonging to multinational oil trader Trafigura in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, exactly eight years ago today.

An Amnesty International research mission has collected heart-rending testimony from the Akouedo community, where the waste was illegally dumped on the night of 19 August 2006. The dumping caused a human and environmental disaster in Abidjan with over 100,000 people seeking medical assistance and substantial decontamination being required.

Eight years later these people continue to have unanswered questions about their environment and the dangers of living there. Amnesty International delegates met people who spoke of the loss they had suffered because of the toxic waste dumping. Women expressed concern for their children, who suffer from ongoing health issues. They want to know why. People are also growing vegetables next to areas where toxic waste was dumped without knowing if it is safe.

The World Bank endorsed the Lagos state government’s inadequate compensation package for thousands of people forcibly evicted from an informal settlement, Amnesty International said in a report published today.

The report, At the mercy of the government, finds that the residents of Badia East whose homes were bulldozed on 23 February 2013, were not adequately compensated by the government for their losses and that the World Bank wrongly endorsed a compensation process that was not consistent with international human rights standards or the Bank's own policy.

“It is an outrage that a community, left destitute by the actions of the Lagos state government, has been denied an effective remedy by the same government and that the World Bank has been complicit in this matter,” said Audrey Gaughran, director of Global Issues at Amnesty International.

A landmark UK court ruling paves the way for Shell to finally be held accountable for devastating oil pollution in the Niger Delta, Amnesty International said today.

“Today’s ruling is a shot across the bows for Shell” said Audrey Gaughran, Amnesty International’s Director of Global Issues.

“The court’s message is clear – if you don’t take adequate measures to protect your pipelines from tampering, you could be liable for the damages caused.”

In a judgment delivered by Mr Justice Akenhead, the London Technological and Construction Court found that short of providing policing or military defence of its pipelines, Shell was responsible for taking reasonable steps to protect them. This would include measures such as installing leak detection systems, surveillance equipment and anti-tamper equipment.

Police officers in Papua New Guinea (PNG) who are responsible for burning more than 200 homes to the ground close to a gold mine must be investigated and those found responsible for human rights violations prosecuted, said Amnesty International.

The homes were set ablaze during an early morning raid on Friday 6 June in Wingima village, close to Porgera gold mine in central PNG, according to community leaders.  

The mine is majority-owned and operated by Canadian mining giant Barrick Gold Corporation.

“These illegal and dangerous actions endangered lives and have left scores of families homeless,” said Kate Schuetze, Pacific Researcher at Amnesty International.  

“Destroying people’s homes and livelihoods in this way violates international laws against forced evictions.  All those responsible must be prosecuted.  Any response to illegal mining or other unlawful activities must be proportionate and meet international standards.  Setting ablaze a village is a blatantly excessive response.”

Released  00.001 GMT 30 May 2014

Rights to land are being sold from beneath the feet of rural communities in mining areas as the government of Senegal grants concessions to mining companies without safeguarding human rights in a flagrant breach of their duty under international law, a new report by Amnesty International published today has found.

The report, Mining and Human Rights in Senegal, reveals that communities are being relocated without due regard for the impact on their livelihoods and access to food and water to make way for international mining companies, eager to exploit the country’s rich reserves of gold and other minerals.

“The government of Senegal has made much of its ambitions to become a leader in sustainable mining in West Africa but this report shows they are falling woefully short of these aims,” said Seydi Gassama, Director of Amnesty International Senegal.

Proposed reforms announced by the Government of Qatar fall far short of the fundamental changes needed to address systemic abuses against migrant workers in the construction, domestic and other sectors, Amnesty International said today.

The proposed measures stand in stark contrast to the findings of the international law firm DLA Piper, whose report, commissioned at the government's request, confirms many of Amnesty International’s findings regarding the systemic nature of the abuse of migrant workers.

"Based on today’s announcement the proposals appear to be a missed opportunity. The government claims it is abolishing the sponsorship system, but this sounds like a change of name rather than substantive reform,” said James Lynch, Amnesty International’s researcher on migrants’ rights in the Gulf.

“In particular, it remains unclear how proposed reforms to the exit permit will work in practice, and whether under the new proposal employers will retain the ability to object to workers leaving the country.”