The United Nations was not left out of the groups concerns. According to the group, the UN should guarantee the rights of people in extractive areas. They therefore called on the Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary General on Business and Human Rights to develop an effective mandatory regulatory human rights framework for Transnational Corporations and other business enterprises that allows for sanctions in severe cases of non-compliance. "We call on the General Assembly and on all UN member states to support the approval of the Draft Declaration of Indigenous Peoples' Rights, including their right to free, prior and informed consent, and to extend this right to all affected local communities."

World Bank, AfDB endorse EITI

The coalition, on July 19, 2007 organised a lunch meeting with senior Ghanaian journalists at Alisa Hotel, Accra; among them, economic, social and environment reporters from the state-owned Daily Graphic, Ghana News Agency, Public Agenda, Asempa FM, and the president of the League of Environmental Journalists. The purpose was to provide an update of the EITI implementation in Ghana, and to discuss the findings of Ghana’s first audit report.   

 
Dealing with the Social, Environmental and Human Rights Issues

A major worrying trend in Ghana’s mining sector today is the increasing militarization of mining communities by state security apparatus in collaboration with the mining companies. This particular development has increased tension and mistrust between the companies and the communities in which they operate, with some community members dismissing the EITI initiative as not addressing the core of the concerns they have with regard to the activities of mining companies.

Civil Society in Ghana continues to pursue the human rights abuses and other issues not currently addressed by EITI within the framework of a national coalition on mining. Most of the members of PWYP-Ghana also belong to the National Coalition on Mining (NCOM), which seeks to carry forward those human right concerns not captured in the EITI framework. NCOM currently has a petition before the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) in respect of some shooting incidents in the Ashanti and Western regional mining enclaves.

The Sub-Regional Outlook of the Ghana Campaign

The medium to long term strategic objective of ISODEC, and of the PWYP-Ghana campaign is to build the capacities of civil society groups in all the West Africa natural resource endowed countries, and to move towards a sub-regional movement holding governments in the sub-region accountable for the management and exploitation of the natural resource wealth of the countries. We also aim at getting West African governments to adopt a common natural resource extraction code to pull the breaks on the race to the bottom in their unhealthy competition to attract investment into their extractive sectors.

To this end, ISODEC, in collaboration with OSIWA is setting up a West African panel of experts on extractives to provide continuous technical support to both civil society and governments in their work on extractives.
 
Meanwhile, ISODEC has during the last three years been supporting the National Coalition on Extractives (NACE) of Sierra Leone to plan, strategise and launch their campaign on PWYP, and has been providing on-going training in budget analysis and monitoring, as well as in the analysis and understanding of the legal and regulatory regime governing the mining sector in Sierra Leone.

Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative
World Bank/Gov'ts asked to ensure human rights in extractive sector

Civil Society groups, CIDSE and Partner organizations across the globe that participated in the just ended World Social Forum in Nairobi Kenya have asked the World Bank to implement the original recommendations of the Extractive Industries Review report which includes the need to secure the free, prior and informed consent of local people.
They have also asked Trans-national Corporations to respect their contracts with host governments, which must be in line with national laws and international human rights and environmental standards, while asking governments to allow for renegotiation of contracts which are not in the best interests of affected communities. They are also to obtain the free, prior and informed consent of indigenous people and local communities before operations commence and to respect the right of such communities to say "No" to projects that are not in their best interests. Such free, prior and informed consent must be a condition of any contract signed with the host government.

In a paper titled "PROSPECTING FOR SOLUTIONS" issued on January 23 which carried recommendations on the impact of oil, mining and logging on development, to companies, governments, International Financial Institutions (IFIs) and the United Nations, the group expressed their disgust for the current spate of pollution and underdevelopment going on in mining communities among others.
"We are deeply concerned that rather than benefit from their natural resources, local people in areas of natural resource exploitation, such as oil, gas, mining and logging, experience increased poverty," adding "We believe that a country's natural resources belong to its citizens and should be used in the best interests of the people."

According to the statement, these natural resources are God given and should serve all mankind and future generations. They also asked the Trans National Corporations to sign on to the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) and ensure publication of all payments and contracts made to governments. Besides, TNCs are to ensure that their operations do not cause or exacerbate conflict. However, where it does, they should suspend operations until the conflict has been resolved to the satisfaction of all parties. "The World Bank and other Regional Development Banks should consider the particular circumstances of each country and the right of its population to determine their own development," the groups said. The Bank according to the group should observe a moratorium on the funding of extractive projects to evaluate the costs and benefits of extractive industries, taking into consideration the economic, social and environmental impacts. They also asked the Bank and other international financial institutions to end their policies of wholesale liberalisation and privatisation of the extractives sector.

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