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Canada dominates Africa's mining sector, yet fails to regulate extra-territorial activities of its mining companies
Companies from various nations compete in Africa's mining sector, but corporations from Canada seem to dominate this industry. According to documents provided by Natural Resources Canada, 155 Canadian companies were operating in 39 African nations, and thier combined assets totaled over $30 billion in 2011. In addition, there are about 315-320 non-African mining companies that conduct business in Africa - over 50% of these companies are Canadian. According to Jamie Kneen, a coordinator for MiningWatch Canada, Canada lacks domestic laws that govern the extraterritorial activities of corporations and that recent attempts to increase accountability abroad has been voted down by the government. Member of Parliament John McKay stated that without such legislation, "We have no ability to tell any mining company what to do, when to do it, where to do, or how to do it." This means that international corporations based in Canada are left to self-regulate their conduct abroad and are able to go into conflict zones without any hesitation.
Concern about UN armed contractors committing human rights abuses
In a recent General Assembly meeting, member States have expressed concern over the UN's decision to hire more than 30 armed private security contractors for its operations in volatile regions such as Iraq, Somalia, Libya, and Afghanistan. Concerns stem from previous incidents in which private contractors have committed human rights violations. For example, employees of Blackwater USA killed 17 Iraqi citizens when clearing traffic for a diplomatic convoy, and three guards working for the British security service G4S were implicated in the death of an Angolan refugee. Although the UN has used unarmed local contractors to help secure locations for the protection of UN personnel in the past, the organization is increasingly becoming the target in violence-prone regions and is therefore relying on armed private security companies to a greater extent. In response to the concern of Member States, the UN General Assembly passed a resolution on April 12th, stating that private armed security services will only be used as a "last resort" in "high-risk environments."
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CIDSE releases publication on UN Guiding Principles CIDSE, an international alliance of Catholic development agencies, has published a paper analyzing the risks and opportunities civil society groups face when implementing the UN Guiding Principles to mitigate irresponsible corporate conduct. The publication stresses that the next steps for implementing the Guiding Principles should include analyzing evidence of how the Guiding Principles are being utilized and gauging the impact they have on human rights abuses committed by businesses. Read CIDSE's publication, The UN Protect, Respect, Remedy Framework and the Guiding Principles: Driving Change?.  |
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