Congo - Democratic Republic

Des organisations non gouvernementales congolaises et internationales saluent aujourd’hui la publication de l’examen des contrats miniers par le gouvernement de la République démocratique du Congo (RDC) et demandent à ce dernier de veiller à ce que la renégociation des contrats se déroule ouvertement et de manière équitable.

The Congolese government’s ‘fast track solution’ to its mining contract review may turn out to be a false trail unless it addresses civil society concerns, warns a coalition of Congolese and international non-governmental organisations (NGOs) today [1].

Joint news release: At the start of the Mining Indaba conference in Cape Town, an international coalition of non-governmental organizations warns that the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)’s mining contract review process has been hijacked. The organizations say that it is increasingly apparent that new deals are being struck behind closed doors despite the lack of completion or transparency in the review process.

"State of Mine, An Investigation of Canada's Extractive Industries", a special edition of The Dominion Newspaper, was published in November 2008 and is now available online.

(Joint news release) Congolese and international non-governmental organisations welcomed the publication of the review of mining contracts by the government of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and called on the government to ensure that the renegotiation of contracts is conducted openly and fairly.

[Joint news release] As the Mining Indaba 2008 conference gears up in Cape Town, an international coalition of non-governmental organizations warns that the Democratic Republic of Congo’s mining contract review process has been hijacked, and that new deals are being struck behind closed doors.

(Berlin, Brussels, Kinshasa, London, Lubumbashi, Montreal, Ottawa, Washington) A coalition of non-governmental organisations from Europe, North America, and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) launched an international appeal today demanding the publication of the final report of the ministerial commission on the review of mining contracts without delay.

On May 2nd, 2007, as part of an "International Day of Action" against Barrick, protests took place in six different countries as well as in Toronto, Canada, where Barrick is based.

On the same day, Canada's second largest gold mining company, GoldCorp, was protested at their annual meeting in Vancouver.

For more information about these actions, go to www.protestbarrick.net.

The Canadian mining map was produced by the Halifax Initiative during the National Roundtables on Corporate Social Responsibility and the Canadian Extractive Industry in Developing Countries. The Roundtables, which took place between June and November of 2006, fulfilled one of the recommendations made in the groundbreaking report, Mining in Developing Countries and Corporate Social Responsibility, tabled by the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Trade (SCFAIT) in June 2005.