Global South

Source: Ann Crotty, Financial Mail

An initiative aimed at increasing the transparency of mining companies’ payments to governments across the globe has been slammed as paternalistic and ineffective by representatives of the people it was claimed to help.

The extractive industries transparency initiative (EITI) was first announced by then UK prime minister Tony Blair at the world summit on sustainable development in Johannesburg in 2002. It was launched a year later, at a time when the entire developed world, led by Blair and pop stars Bono and Bob Geldof, seemed determined to save Africa from itself.

Source: Paola Totaro, Thomson Reuters Foundation

Growing number of national governments have been criminalising activities of land and human rights activists

LONDON, July 14 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - International development banks should ensure their investments do not violate human rights or risk the lives of the activists who defend them, a group of global campaigners said on Thursday.

Source: Lean Alfred Santos, Devex

The Asian Development Bank, Japan International Cooperation Agency and the World Bank are partnering to boost safeguard systems in the Asia-Pacific, ensuring that development projects meet international standards for environmental and social protection.

The three organizations will “help improve member countries’ safeguards systems and better manage the environmental and social risks associating with major developments,” Mark Kunzer, principal environment specialist of the ADB told Devex.

Source: Facing Finance, Facing Finance

In dem kleinen Dorf Geghanush im Süden Armeniens regt sich Widerstand gegen das kanadische Bergbauunternehmen Dundee Precious Metals (DPM) und dessen lokales Tochterunternehmen, das in der Region Syunik verschiedene Edelmetalle abbaut. Laut einer Petition von 184 Bewohnern von Geghanush bedrohen die Rückhaltebecken der Mine, die DPM reaktiviert hat und nun für seine Rückstände nutzt, die Menschen, Tiere und die Umwelt in der Region.