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NCOM Statement at Techere June 22nd, 2007 22 June 2007 The National Coalition on Mining (NCOM) is meeting here today for two main reasons. The first is to express and offer solidarity to communities affected by mining and individuals who have suffered various human rights abuses at the hands of mining companies and state security agencies. The second is to use the occasion of the World Environment Day (which fell on June 5) to draw mining companies and state regulatory agencies’ attention to the need to do more to protect and sustain the integrity of the environment. We know Ghana is endowed with considerable amount of a variety of mineral resources. The extraction of these resources should improve the living conditions of local communities and advance national economic development through employment generation, increased government revenue, foreign exchange earnings, and technology transfer. However, the current contribution of the mining sector to national economic and local community development is at best questionable and at worst negative. Recent policy reforms have liberalised the mining sector in line with IMF/World Bank prescriptions and attracted increased investment from transnational mining companies. Correlatively, the increase in foreign investment has not been translated into increased employment, government revenue, and contribution to gross domestic product. At the same time, this expansion of their operations has entailed:
Indeed, mining tends to worsen social marginalisation within affected local communities. Vulnerable groups such as women, the elderly, the disabled and children suffer disproportionately from mining related dislocations. Women have been victims of direct displacement from their productive activities by mining operations. They have also suffered gender discrimination and inequality from the little benefits accruing from compensation entitlement. For example the manner in which mining companies and the state distribute “compensation” for destruction of homesteads and economic activity consistently results in male “family heads” expropriating women who are typically equal holders of agricultural and domestic assets. In addition, we note the declining access to fresh and clean water and fertile land as well as the deteriorating health status of communities affected by mining. These critical livelihood problems are a direct product of severe environmental degradation caused by mining operations. Communities affected by mining confront a world in which subsistence farming has collapsed and they must now pay cash for all their needs. At the same time the state and mining companies fail to offer them educational and training opportunities. They are therefore effectively excluded from jobs in the new mining economy. The state also fails to ensure that they receive adequate compensation for the loss of their natural assets to mining companies. Cut off from access to jobs, schools, clinics, roads, water and electricity these communities are rapidly decaying. This is indeed genocide of a kind. In addition to this gradual genocide, communities affected by mining have for many years recorded and reported affronts to their human dignity and violations of their rights that contravene principles set out in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, especially social and economic rights as contained in Article 25. They also violate the rights acknowledged by the 1992 Constitution of Ghana. In our 2006 complaint to the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice which we have circulated to the Minister of Defence, the Minister of the Interior and the Minister of Justice we have specifically listed instances of savage abuse of citizens’ rights by mining companies, the police and the military. They include:
Since we formally drew public attention to the situation more than a year ago, so far neither state regulatory and security agencies nor mining companies involved in these matters have taken responsibility for the consequences of their actions. We are concerned that these acts of impunity on human beings, the environment, and national economy are set to continue as government continues to lower standards for mining companies. The policies of indiscriminate investment liberalisation which have contributed to these developments are now set to be entrenched in international trade agreements, such as the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) being negotiated between West African States and the European Commission. As we celebrate World Environment Day under the global theme “Climate Change” some mining companies are extending their operations into already depleted forest reserves. The destruction of forest cover further exposes humanity’s vulnerability to climate change. The reduction in forest cover through activities such as surface mining increases the amount of carbon release into the atmosphere and our vulnerability to climate change. In fact, the current energy crisis in the country has a direct link in part to the reckless depletion of the environment, in particular tree population and forest cover. On the basis of the foregoing we make the following demands:
We express our unflinching solidarity with all victims of mining operations in Ghana and reaffirm our commitment and dedication to continue to work with communities affected by mining and victims of mining related human rights abuses in drawing attention to their plight and in the delivery of justice. We wish to call on the media to continue to echo our demands. Thank you Endorsed by
For further information, contact Environment Unit, Third World Network Africa, P.O. Box AN 19452, Accra.Tel:+233-21-500419/503669/511189; Fax:+233-21-511188; email TWN Africa is the secretariat of NCOM. |
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