Mining in Afghanistan: Huge Economic Gains At the Expense of Human Rights?

The government of Afghanistan is desperately looking to revenue from its mineral wealth—valued at least $1 trillion—to replace the foreign aid currently bankrolling the country, claiming that the sector will provide more than 500,000 new jobs and 50 percent of the country’s gross domestic product by 2030.  In the short term, the revenues are to come from oil fields in the north and smaller gold mines, but in the long term, revenue is to come from the country’s two largest known deposits:  the Aynak copper deposit worth an estimated $46 billion in Logar province, and the Hajigak iron ore deposit worth an estimated $340 billion in Bamiyan province. 

Aynak communities were forcibly resettled five years ago when development of the copper mine started, but since a rocket attack by the Taliban in August of last year, the Chinese state-owned company operating the mine has halted all work.  A consortium led by an Indian state-owned company has won the tender for the Hajigak deposit, although no development will take place until the consortium has secured funding.  Another key stumbling block for any mineral development in Afghanistan is resolving the critical question of infrastructure to transport the minerals out of the country, including geopolitical concerns for agreements to build railroads or pipelines; oil in the north is today being exported by truck through Turkmenistan. 

Whether small- or large-scale, government-licensed or insurgent-operated, the human rights price tag of mineral development in Afghanistan will be high unless the right steps are taken now. Left unaddressed, the environmental, social and human rights costs to Afghanistan’s people—and especially local mine-affected communities—of such massive economic development could be unjust and irreversible.  Without a foundation based on good governance and social justice, this key to economic sustainability runs a high risk of increasing conflict and insecurity in an already fragile country, in turn threatening the very economic returns the government desperately seeks and needs.

In January, local civil society organizations and resource-rich communities organized and joined forces to form the Civil Society Natural Resources Monitoring Network, with a mission to pursue the goal of promoting effective, transparent, balanced, sustainable, and peaceful utilization of natural resources for economic and social development of Afghanistan.  It was one of the Network members, Afghanistan Watch, which invited Global Rights’ Director of Natural Resources and Human Rights, Lien De Brouckere, to Afghanistan in early November to train local civil society organizations, members of resource-rich communities, as well as geologists and minerals experts on the social and human rights impacts of large-scale mining, and various strategies to manage mining-related issues.  After a four-day training in Kabul, Lien traveled with Network members on a field visit to listen to resource-rich communities in Bamiyan province, including those in Bamiyan city, the village of Syadara, and Hajigak.

This province also has a rich cultural history and is the site of the Buddha statues destroyed by the Taliban in 2001.  The network members met with Bamiyan civil society organizations, where community members were concerned about corruption, security and whether mining would actually generate new jobs for them.  Network members also traveled for several hours to the more remote village of Syadara to meet with community council members, stopping on the way to visit former small-scale marble and iron ore sites, as well as another of Afghanistan’s natural jewels, Band-e-Amir, a stunning lake in a mountainous area that showcases Afghanistan’s natural wealth and beauty.

Communities around the Hajigak mine have vowed not to let what happened at Aynak happen to them, and civil society activists from Logar are generously sharing their experiences and lessons with Hajigak and other community members, all coordinated through the Network in an attempt to bridge the information gap between Kabul and the other provinces. 

Front and center for any civil society or community member with whom Lien spoke was the issue of security. Past troubling incidents and other security concerns include: Aynak communities’ forcible resettlement by soldiers in armored vehicles that resulted in two deaths; recent beheadings of several provincial leaders and kidnapping of foreigners in Aynak; insecure roads to Hajigak where engineers have disappeared over the past few years; threats to human rights defenders from government, business and insurgents; US-supported commercial extraction of chromite by Afghan Local Police in Kunar province; ethnic conflict resulting from laborers who come from other provinces; and  general worry about what will remain after NATO forces leave Afghanistan in 2014.  

Corruption was another major concern cited repeatedly, and Transparency International’s latest report  released Tuesday has a three-way tie again with Afghanistan, North Korea and Somalia for most corrupt country in the world.  These corruption concerns touch all aspects of resource governance, including the tendering process, employment and training opportunities, contract negotiation, government independence, political leaders owning private companies, and misusing recruitment of mine workers for fraudulent voter registration in the upcoming elections.  

Aside from security and corruption, civil society and community members also voiced grave concerns about local hiring.  For instance, at the Aynak mine it was promised that at least 70 percent of newly created jobs would be reserved for people from Logar; however, today only one manager at Aynak comes from Logar.  Many other concerns were also voiced, including concerns about whether the government and foreign companies will consult with communities about the mining process. (It is incredibly telling that communities around Aynak, civil society organizations and provincial council members only learned through the media that the contract for Aynak had been signed.) Other concerns pertained to land tenure and property rights (especially resettlement, and absent or woefully inadequate compensation), impacts on women, a host of social and environmental concerns, adequate working conditions, and rampant child labor.  

Global Rights has a wealth of experience working with local communities that have suffered injustices at the hands of the extractive industry.  Today, we are working in Nigeria, Ghana and Uganda to increase the knowledge of civil society, host communities, industry, and government officials about the human rights implications of the extractive industries that are, in part, fueling Africa’s current economic growth. We have also worked in the Republic of Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo, Guinea, Liberia and Equatorial Guinea, where we helped local organizations monitor violations in extractives operations, and trained them on their economic, social and cultural rights.

Global Rights will continue to monitor the status of mining in Afghanistan. We welcome the opportunity to continue working with Afghan civil society to raise awareness in the country about land rights and to connect Afghan organizations to our broad, international network of community organizations that are engaged in the same human rights work.

New Report: Global Rights' 13-year Journey Advancing Women's Rights in Morocco

For 13 years, Global Rights worked with local women's organizations to advance women's rights in Morocco. Through various seminars, workshops and training sessions, we directly reached about 65,000 Moroccan women. 

A demonstration in support of Amina Filali, a 16-year-old Moroccan girl who committed suicide after she was forced to marry the man who raped her.

During one initiative in 2009, we and our partners met with 2,000 women from 33 different cities, towns, and villages during a three-week trip to spread awareness of Violence Against Women (VAW) legislation that we and our partners drafted. We then lobbied the Moroccan government and the United Nations for the legislation to be adopted into Moroccan law.

We began our work in Morocco in 2000 intent on raising women’s awareness about their rights and providing them the tools and knowledge to defend these rights. The overarching goal was to create a broad and influential women’s rights movement; it was up to the country’s emerging women’s groups to chart the movement’s course. After more than 12 years of activism, the situation of Moroccan women changed dramatically. Throughout the country, many individual women and women’s groups learned skills about grassroots mobilization, articulating the case for women’s rights, and working patiently and strategically with government at both local and national levels to improve their status and position in society. The report documents how Global Rights worked with the women of Morocco to effect this dramatic change. It is also a tribute to the power of civil society and to the indomitable will of those who take risks and work tirelessly every day to assert their rights.

Global Rights Releases New Report on Human Rights Abuses of Afro-Brazilian Trans Women

An LGBT person was murdered every 26 hours in Brazil in 2012.

Among the more than 300 murders , more than half were trans women.  Moreover, from January 2008 to December 2011, there were 826 reported murders of trans persons worldwide, and 426 of them occurred in Brazil. In 2013, there have already been 251 deaths of LGBT persons in Brazil, which include trans women.

Against this backdrop of unspeakable violence, Global Rights, in close partnership with Brazilian trans activists, professors, and local human rights organizations, produced the first-ever comprehensive report on human rights violations against Afro-descendant trans women in Brazil, who suffer discrimination for being trans and black. Global Rights and our partners presented the report October 29 to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, which is part of the Organization of American States (OAS).

The report, information for which was collected from July 2012 to March 2013, revealed that Afro-descendant trans women in Brazil experience chronic human rights violations including racial discrimination, transphobic and racial violence, and arbitrary arrests and extrajudicial killings by police officers and individuals. Furthermore, they receive inadequate access to education, employment and healthcare because of racial and gender-identity biases. Estimates are that 90 percent of trans women in Brazil are functionally illiterate, and many Afro-descendant trans women find sex work as their only way to earn money.

“Racism is a thing that traverses all strata of society…A person already grows up knowing that black is ugly, that black smells, and black is not worth anything…and for black transsexuals, it would be an even greater problem. And if she doesn't have the looks of a woman, the problem, it would be even greater because she causes nausea in people,”

said Alessandra Ramos, a coordinator for Grupo Pela Vidda Rio de Janeiro, a group that was founded in 1989 to support people in Brazil with HIV and AIDS.

Currently in Brazil, there is no law that specifically prohibits acts of discrimination or violence committed on the basis of sexual orientation and gender. The Brazilian Constitution, however, does outlaw racial discrimination and protects the cultural and religious rights of ethnic minorities, including Afro-Brazilians. In addition, Brazil established in 2010 the National Council for Combating Discrimination, a special council formed within Brazil’s human rights commission to combat discrimination and promote and defend the rights of LGBT persons.

Brazil also permits same-sex marriage. The country’s National Court of Justice ruled on May 14 that marriage licenses cannot be denied to same-sex couples. However, like in Argentina, which also has progressive laws for LGBT persons—including a law that allows individuals to change their gender identity on official documents—conservative societal attitudes toward LGBT persons often clash with the progressive spirit of the law, particularly in rural areas.

Furthermore, the fact the Afro-descendant LGBTI movement in Brazil is relatively small, unorganized and nascent adds to the difficulty of protecting the rights for the community. The movement lacks funding, public support and resources, and it does not receive enough support from the government or other civil society organizations to compensate for its lack of financial and public support.

Global Rights views this report as the first step in a multi-step process. After having identified key issues facing Afro-descendant trans women in Brazil, Global Rights will now work to build and train the fledgling movement to more effectively advocate for and protect its marginalized community. Specifically, we will work to foster more collaboration between Afro-descendant trans women and other Brazilian human rights groups, like those that advocate for women, Afro-descendants and LGBT persons. We will also work with local organizations to document human rights violations and then present our findings to human rights commissions at the state, regional and international levels.

Live video today at 12 pm: Afro-Colombians Push for Inclusion in FARC-Colombia Peace Talks

Despite the relative progress in the Colombia-FARC peace process, the conflict continues to leave a disproportionate scar on Afro-Colombian communities. As negotiations progress in Havana, Cuba, mass displacement has continued along the primarily Afro-descendant Pacific coast; 2012 saw a 22 percent increase in displacements compared to 2011. Despite bearing the brunt of Colombia’s conflict, though, Afro-Colombian voices have been notably absent from the ongoing negotiations. Watch this live event, where two noted Afro-Colombian leaders will share their perspectives on the conflict and chart how Colombia can include some of its most marginalized voices in the talks.

The event will be streamed live today at 12:00 p.m.

Kenyan LGBT Activist Visits Global Rights

In Kenya, a man who has sex with another man can face up to 14 years in prison. The Kenyan Penal Code describes such a crime as “against the order of nature,” and Kenyan society reinforces this message, with schools, churches and government officials branding Kenyan LGBT persons as outcasts and stains on Kenyan society.

Eric Gitari, an LGBT activist and lawyer, described the deplorable conditions for LGBT persons in Kenya at a recent talk at Global Rights' office in Washington:

"As someone who has a lived experience of being queer in Kenya, growing up in the rural village, and going to public schools which are funded by churches, you're taught every day that you don't belong, that you're shameful, that you're a stigma, that you're not part of the society, that something is wrong with you. And what that does to you, especially at an early age, is that it destroys your dignity, it stains you, with so many questions of your respectability, desirability and your thriving in society."

To learn more about LGBT persons in Kenya and their fight for equality, take a look at the following short video, where Mr. Gitari talks about everything from the changes in sexual norms following the British colonization of Kenya in 1895 to cases involving LGBT rights that are currently before the High Court of Kenya.

Global Rights Executive Director Visits Afghanistan

Global Rights Executive Director Susan Farnsworth returned this week from a 10-day trip to Afghanistan, where she met with local Global Rights staff, international funders, and the many Afghan lawyers, law students and everyday Afghan people who benefit from Global Rights’ legal services and education initiatives.

On October 8, Susan visited one of our Legal Advice Bureaus in Kabul. The Bureaus were established in 2009 to help marginalized Afghans, particularly women, gain free access to lawyers who help them understand, and sometimes defend in court, their legal rights. Since 2009, about 5,000 individuals have benefited from legal services received at one of the four Bureaus that Global Rights’ partner organizations operate in the provinces of Kabul, Herat, Nangarhar, and Balkh. The partner organization that runs the Kabul Bureau is Justice for All.

A client (left) works with a Legal Advice Bureau lawyer in Kabul to secure alimony for her and her two children.

Global Rights Executive Director Susan Farsnworth speaks with Mahfuza Folad, Executive Director of Justice For all

Below are some of Susan’s impressions a day after visiting the Kabul Legal Advice Bureau on October 8:

“Yesterday, I visited the Legal Advice Bureau (LAB) in Kabul, where part of our work focuses on increasing access to justice for poor and vulnerable populations.  The LAB is located in the government complex, where people come to deal with a myriad of legal papers: licenses, registrations, claims, etc.  It is well known that engagement with the various parts of the justice system often requires additional expenses to have one’s case heard and to push the paperwork through for a decision. The LAB offers a pro bono service to the poor, ensuring that they can participate in the justice system at no additional cost.  During my visit, I met with the four defense lawyers who staff the Bureau, three women and one man. I also met one of the clients, a young woman wearing a burka that had been thrown back across her head. She was seeking alimony and child support from her husband for herself and her two daughters.  The client’s grasp of the law and her rights was inspiring. Not only was she determined to move the case forward so that she could receive the alimony due her under law, but through the work with the LAB lawyer, she had strong knowledge of her rights and how the law should work to protect those rights. It was clear that the lawyers go the extra mile to educate their clients, and in doing so, they are educating many others and breaking down real and perceived barriers to the justice system.  The client’s case is dragging through the system, but she and her lawyer are determined to push and push until it is resolved.  Seeing their determination gives me hope that she will receive her alimony and that her case will demonstrate to others that Global Rights’ work in providing legal advice for the poor opens up a door previously closed.”

Susan also chatted with one of Global Rights Legal Fellows, a select group of promising graduates from our Young Lawyers in Training Program (YLTP). Fellows are chosen to work in Afghanistan’s justice sector and in local human rights and justice non-governmental organizations (NGOs.) Global Rights established the YLTP in 2005 to supplement universities’ Sharia and law school curricula with educational content related to human and women’s rights, topics that were not covered in the traditional curricula. The program also provides practical training in civil and criminal procedure, which adds a new dimension to the students’ mostly theory-based pedagogy.  So far, more than 2,700 young men and women have successfully graduated from the program.  Mohammed, who met with Susan on her recent trip, is a graduate of the YLTP and a current Legal Fellow. The fellowship provides Mohammad and his recent graduate peers with a unique opportunity to begin working immediately on legal cases under the supervision of practicing lawyers, judges and human rights activists.

After spending some time with Mohammed, Susan was impressed by his conviction and passion for women’s rights:

“The other day I met Mohammed, who is now working as a Legal Fellow to promote gender equality in the Ministry of the Interior. He was presenting his experiences to the new class of Fellows, and his enthusiasm and excitement was catching. I wanted to further understand his passion for gender and equal rights.  He explained to me that his understanding of the importance of treating men and women equally is grounded in the life of the Prophet, who treated each of his wives equally and with respect. His support and understanding of Afghanistan’s decree to eliminate violence against women is grounded in this deep moral conviction.  He also explained to me how the articles contained in the Afghanistan decree to eliminate violence against women are derived from the Koran.   Meeting Mohammed and understanding his commitment to gender equality and the passion with which he purses this in his work at the Ministry reconfirmed my belief that our work is indeed building the next generation of legal practitioners who will promote rights and equality for all Afghans.”

Global Rights Reports from Colombia at UN Summit on Business-Related Human Rights Issues

A few weeks ago in Colombia, the United Nations convened its first-ever regional gathering to address business-related human rights issues. More than 400 people participated in the event, including representatives from businesses, governments, grassroots and non-governmental organizations. Also in attendance was Lien De Brouckere, Global Rights’ Director of Natural Resources and Human Rights.

The forum was organized by the United Nations Working Group on Business & Human Rights, which is charged with implementing the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, a landmark set of global standards ratified by the United Nations Human Rights Council in 2011 that clarified the respective roles of governments and companies to help ensure that companies respect human rights while they operate.  This was the first-ever regional forum and was held in Colombia’s second largest city, Medellín. The results of the forum will feed into the second global forum that the Working Group is organizing in Geneva in December 2013.

After participating in the plenary sessions, Lien said that it was encouraging to hear representatives from companies and governments speak about “human rights” in relation to business activities, which marks progress in the attention companies now give to these issues.  

“To have governments and companies use this language of ‘human rights,’ and to develop policies and speak on public panels to address these issues is definitely a positive development that would not have happened at this scale a few years ago,” she said.

At the same time, she was deeply concerned that the forum failed to capture the realities on the ground for individuals and communities, and that the panels painted a misleading picture that obscured the main goal of protecting human rights for vulnerable and marginalized groups.  None of the panel discussions addressed the fundamental challenges of protecting affected communities’ rights, which include significant asymmetries of power, information and resources between companies and communities.  There was also little participation of affected communities (especially indigenous communities), grassroots organizations, or unions. 

On the third day, however, community groups finally took center stage during a session organized by ACCESS Facility, Futuro Sostenible and Fundacion Cambio Democratico, which addressed the question “What is effective remedy?” During that session, participants from community organizations shared their many (many!) repeated attempts at seeking remedy for human rights abuses, and Lien heard familiar stories from across the continent of the grievances suffered by communities.  At the Tintaya mine in Peru, for example, communities faced land expropriation without compensation, harmful environmental impacts, dangerous company infrastructure, and a lack of benefit sharing by the company with the communities.  At the Marlin mine in Guatemala, communities were not properly consulted about the mine project and were largely opposed to the mine’s operation due to  grave concerns about dangerous metals in the water that could harm the communities’ health and ecosystem.  At Chevron’s oil operations in Ecuador, toxic substances released into the water harmed community health and traditional life, and at Cerrejón’s operations in the village of Tabaco, Colombia, Afro-Colombian communities suffered violent expropriation from their lands. 

Gatherings such as the one in Medellín a few weeks ago have the potential to bear witness to the impacts, harms, and abuses, challenges in the region, in addition to providing a space for participatory dialogue that critically examines issues facing communities and how business and government can prevent those harms.  Lien felt that realizing such potential—whether of bearing witness or engaging in meaningful dialogue—would require some changes, such as bringing more voices into the room, adjusting the format of the sessions, and encouraging companies to view affected communities not as objects but as human beings deserved of respect and dignity.