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Alex Neve is Secretary General of Amnesty International Canada.
Major change is required to ensure accountability for companies that cause harm and effective remedy for those who are harmed, especially in the mining industry.
The stories mount, stories of human rights abuse and injustice: “mining activists shot,” “mine operations suspended,” “company accused of water pollution.” Far too often a Canadian mining company is behind the story. Canadian mining companies lead the mining world; but none aspire to lead the world in mining-related human rights abuses.
There is a common theme to all the cases: lack of an effective remedy open to the individuals and communities that suffer human rights harms associated with Canadian mining operations. Victims have nowhere to turn for justice. Not in their home country, nor in Canada.
Over the last two decades, as Canadian companies dig in evermore far-flung corners of the world for gold and other precious metals, disturbing accusations of human rights abuses follow. Troubling allegations are currently before Ontario Superior Courtinvolving the killing of a local activist and school teacher, the shooting of a young man and the gang-rapes of 11 women, each crime alleged to have been carried out by a Canadian company’s private security forces in Guatemala.
Remarkably, the case has made it past the unfair procedural hurdles that usually keep cases of this sort from ever going to trial. It still remains to be seen whether justice will be served.
Amnesty International encourages businesses and governments to ensure that company operations – at home and abroad – promote strong human rights protection and do not lead to human rights abuse. Central to that effort, we recently published a new book, Injustice Incorporated: Advancing the Right to Remedy for Corporate Abuses of Human Rights. The book underscores the importance of ensuring that individuals or communities that have experienced human rights abuses associated with the operations of a company have access to an effective remedy for the harms they have endured.
Access to remedy is a fundamental component to the “protect, respect and remedy” framework laid out in the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, adopted by the UN Human Rights Council in June 2011 and supported by Canada. Yet our book demonstrates that access to remedy remains elusive for most people, such as:
• The Omai gold in Guyana, where a tailings pond failed in August 1995, flooding a river with hazardous material and causing serious harm to the livelihoods of tens of thousands of residents.
• The Ok Tedi mine in Papua New Guinea, involving the failure of a mine waste containment system and the flooding of local rivers with harmful waste.
• The dumping of toxic waste originating from Europe in 18 communities in Côte d’Ivoire in 2006, which resulted in more than 100,000 people seeking medical treatment.
• The 1984 Bhopal gas leak in India, which resulted in the deaths of more than 20,000 people. More than 570,000 people, many of whom are still suffering, were exposed to damaging levels of toxic gas.
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