Environment - Passion of the Present

Archive for the ‘Environment’ Category

Responsible Mining: Companies Can’t Go it Alone

February 10th, 2011 | Author: Chris Albin-Lackey

Human Rights Watch recently released a report that details brutal gang rapes and other abuses allegedly carried out by employees of Barrick Gold in Papua New Guinea. Barrick, a Canadian firm, is the world’s largest gold producer and Porgera is one of the world’s largest gold mines. Now the company is scrambling to put things right, investing in new mechanisms for oversight and accountability and firing some of its private security personnel while others are being hauled away by the police.

Human Rights Watch recently released a report that details brutal gang rapes and other abuses allegedly carried out by employees of Barrick Gold in Papua New Guinea. Barrick, a Canadian firm, is the world’s largest gold producer and Porgera is one of the world’s largest gold mines.

Posted in Asia, Business, Canada, Commentary, Corporations, Environment, ESC Rights, Extractive Industries, gender-based violence, Global Initiatives, Papua New Guinea, Sexual Violence, Women's Rights | Comments Closed

Gold’s Costly Dividend

February 1st, 2011 | Author: Human Rights Watch

Human Rights Impacts of Papua New Guinea’s Porgera Gold Mine

This report identifies systemic failures on the part of Toronto-based Barrick Gold that kept the company from recognizing the risk of abuses, and responding to allegations that abuses had occurred.

Read the Press Release

Read the Report
ISBN: 1-56432-738-8

Posted in Asia, Business, Environment, Extractive Industries, Papua New Guinea, Report | Comments Closed

Papua New Guinea: Serious Abuses at Barrick Gold Mine

February 1st, 2011 | Author: Human Rights Watch

Private security personnel employed at a gold mine in Papua New Guinea have been implicated in alleged gang rapes and other violent abuses, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. The Porgera mine has produced billions of dollars of gold in its twenty years of operation, and is operated and 95 percent owned by Barrick Gold, a Canadian company that is the world’s largest gold producer.

(Toronto) – Private security personnel employed at a gold mine in Papua New Guinea have been implicated in alleged gang rapes and other violent abuses, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today.

Posted in Asia, Business, Canada, Corporations, Environment, ESC Rights, Extractive Industries, gender-based violence, Global Initiatives, Papua New Guinea, Press release, Sexual Violence, Women's Rights | Comments Closed

World Report: Governments Soft-Talking Abusers

January 24th, 2011 | Author: Human Rights Watch

Too many governments are accepting the rationalizations and subterfuges of repressive governments, replacing pressure to respect human rights with softer approaches such as private “dialogue” and “cooperation,” Human Rights Watch said today in releasing its World Report 2011. Instead of standing up firmly against abusive leaders, many governments, including the European Union, adopt policies that do not generate pressure for change.

Posted in Africa, Asia, Environment, ESC Rights, Europe/Central Asia, European Union Foreign Policy, free speech, Global, HRC, Human Rights Defenders, International Justice, Middle East/N. Africa, Press release, United Nations, United States | Comments Closed

Lead Poisoning in Nigeria "Unprecedented"

December 2nd, 2010 | Author: Joe Amon

Lead poisoning has killed more than 400 children in the state of Zamfara in the past six months. The tragedy unfolding in Zamfara is not a simple act of nature. Rather, it’s the latest testament to the Nigerian government’s failure to make the health of its citizens a priority.

Lead poisoning usually causes life-long debilitating illness, not immediate death. Yet in the state of Zamfara, a poor, arid region in northern Nigeria, lead poisoning has killed more than 400 children in the past six months.

Posted in Africa, Business, Children's Rights, Cholera, Commentary, Environment, Environmental health, Extractive Industries, Health, Lead Poisoning, Nigeria | Comments Closed

Why Democracies Don’t Get Cholera

October 25th, 2010 | Author: Joseph Amon

Amartya Sen famously said that famines do not occur in well-run, democratic countries. The same is almost always true for cholera epidemics.

Posted in Americas, Cholera, Commentary, Democracy, Disasters and displaced populations, Environment, Haiti, Health, Health care access, Internally Displaced People, Public Health, Water | Comments Closed

UN Security Council: Better Shelter, Security Needed for Haiti Victims

February 19th, 2010 | Author: Human Rights Watch

The United Nations Security Council should make improving the quality and security of camps for displaced victims of Haiti’s devastating earthquake a top priority. The Security Council is being briefed today on the humanitarian situation in Haiti by the UN emergency relief coordinator, John Holmes, and the head of the Peacekeeping Department, Alain Le Roy.

Posted in Americas, Disasters and displaced populations, Environment, ESC Rights, food access, gender-based violence, Haiti, Health, Health care access, internally displaced, internally displaced women, Migrants, Press release, shelter, United Nations, Women and Security, Women's Rights | Comments Closed

Kosovo: Act Now to Close Poisoned Camps

June 24th, 2009 | Author: Human Rights Watch

The Kosovo authorities need to work with international donors to close lead-contaminated camps occupied by internally displaced Roma without delay, relocate their inhabitants, and provide medical treatment for lead poisoning.

(Brussels) – The Kosovo authorities need to work with international donors to close lead-contaminated camps occupied by internally displaced Roma without delay, relocate their inhabitants, and provide medical treatment for lead poisoning, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today.

Posted in Children's Rights, Environment, ESC Rights, Europe/Central Asia, Health, Internally Displaced People, Kosovo, Press release | Comments Closed

Peru: Investigate Violence in Bagua

June 10th, 2009 | Author: Human Rights Watch

We have received credible reports that police forces violently attempted to end a demonstration by indigenous groups in the province of Bagua on Friday, June 5. The demonstration came at the end of several weeks of protests demanding that the García administration abandon a series of legislative decrees that would facilitate economic activities in the Peruvian Amazon.

Ms. Gladys Margot Echaíz Ramos
Attorney General of Perú
Ministerio Público-Fiscalía De La Nación
Av. Abancay Cdra 5
Lima

Dear Ms. Echaíz,

Posted in Americas, Environment, Free Expression, Peru, Police Brutality, Press release | Comments Closed

Nigeria: Niger Delta Gang Violence Goes Unpunished

March 28th, 2008 | Author: Human Rights Watch

The Nigerian government’s failure to hold accountable politicians and gang leaders responsible for a deadly wave of post-election violence in the oil-rich Niger Delta threatens to bring further bloodshed.

(Abuja) – The Nigerian government’s failure to hold accountable politicians and gang leaders responsible for a deadly wave of post-election violence in the oil-rich Niger Delta threatens to bring further bloodshed, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today.

Posted in Africa, Business, Corporations, Criminal Justice, Environment, ESC Rights, Extractive Industries, Nigeria, Police Brutality, Press release | Comments Closed