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Category: Pacific Rim/OceanaGold
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Published: Tuesday, 29 September 2015 11:41
By: Antonia Recinos - Radio Victoria / Translation: Sigrun Pallesen and Marina Bonetti
On the 15th of August 2015, I was invited to participate in a mission of solidarity to the region of Didipío, Nueva Vizcaya, the Philippines. The mission’s goal was to understand the battles and realities of the communities where the Australian mine company OceanaGold operated since 2013.
At first glance the impression is one of a quiet community. At the side of the road, huts come into view from which, once in a while, a girl or boy appears, with a curious look on these strangers that are arriving.
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Category: Mining prohibition El Salvador
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Published: Friday, 17 July 2015 11:47
Joakin Salazar - Colatino
"Total disagreement with metal mining" is the result of the poll conducted by the University Institute of Public Opinion (IUDOP) of the Central American University, Jose Simeon Cañas (UCA), which states that 77% of population believe that the Salvadoran State should permanently prohibit mining in El Salvador.
Download survey (in Spanish) here
The survey "Opinions and Perceptions toward Metallic Mining in El Salvador", seeks to give a voice to people who live in the 23 municipalities of the country where permits have been for the exploration for metallic mining have been extended.
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Category: Mining and Human Rights
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Published: Sunday, 12 July 2015 13:57
In eight articles various cases are presened that aim to serve as tools of action for activists to use in their fight for justice against the systematic violation of human rights and other crimes committed by transnational corporations.
Violations of human rights and the rights of peoples and nature have become inherent to transnational corporations’ operations and can only be equated with their growing economic and political power. What is more, these corporate violations have become systematic and corporations are certain of the impunity of their operations, which is becoming evident in an increasing number of areas of our lives, as corporations advance in the dispossession and appropriation of the commons. To confront all of this, popular resistance has become increasingly globalised and coordinated by linking up counterpowers opposing the most powerful corporations on the planet.
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Category: Mining and Human Rights
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Published: Sunday, 12 July 2015 13:02
Six years after the assassination of Marcelo Rivera, family members and environmental leaders of Cabañas continue to demand justice.
“We are outraged that after six years, families of people who worked for the welfare of Salvadoran society are not able to find truth" said Miguel Rivera a community member of San Isidro Cabañas and brother of Marcelo Rivera during a press conference at the Attorney General Office of El Salvador.
"What we are asking for is the truth, we are the relatives of Marcelo Rivera, Dora Sorto and Ramiro Rivera, environmentalists of San Isidro, Cabañas, and we want Attorney General Luis Martinez to work efficiently to find the masterminds who currently walk the streets free, with impunity... my brother was kidnapped and tortured before he was murdered... we want an in depth investigation that leads to charge the masterminds who ordered the murder of our friends and family" he added
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Category: Pacific Rim/OceanaGold
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Published: Saturday, 11 July 2015 16:35
Claire Provost and Matt Kennard - The Guardian
Fifty years ago, an international legal system was created to protect the rights of foreign investors. Today, as companies win billions in damages, insiders say it has got dangerously out of control
Luis Parada’s office is just four blocks from the White House, in the heart of K Street, Washington’s lobbying row – a stretch of steel and glass buildings once dubbed the “road to riches”, when influence-peddling became an American growth industry. Parada, a soft-spoken 55-year-old from El Salvador, is one of a handful of lawyers in the world who specialise in defending sovereign states against lawsuits lodged by multinational corporations. He is the lawyer for the defence in an obscure but increasingly powerful field of international law – where foreign investors can sue governments in a network of tribunals for billions of dollars.
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Category: Pacific Rim/OceanaGold
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Published: Saturday, 11 July 2015 16:22
By teleSUR / Heather Gies
The Central American country of El Salvador could be forced to pay US$301 million to Canadian-Australian mining multinational OceanaGold as the two face off in a World Bank investor-state tribunal with proven tendency to favor corporate interests over arguments for protecting national sovereignty, the environment, and human rights.
The pending case in El Salvador gives a glimpse into what can likely be expected if controversial trade deals like the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) and Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) go through. With strong “investor protections,” the TPP and TTIP will pave the way for many more instances of investor-state settlements that allow companies to sue governments for billions through highly secretive hearings and supra-national courts.
The number of such corporate lawsuits levelled against countries in the World Bank’s little-known International Center for the Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) has skyrocketed over the past decade. According to Mining Watch, while just three cases where brought to the body in the year 2000, this climbed to 169 cases in 2013.
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