(Geneva) 2018 has been another dangerous year for human rights defenders seeking justice in cases involving large extraction companies, including Canadian companies. At the UN Forum on Business and Human Rights this week, mining affected communities from Guatemala and Papua New Guinea are asking, “Where is Canada’s Ombudsperson for Responsible Enterprise?” The Canadian government committed to create this mechanism more than ten months ago and has yet to appoint anyone to the post.

MiningWatch Canada has carried out and reported on yearly human rights assessments at Barrick Gold’s North Mara Gold Mine in Tanzania since 2014. We have interviewed 66 victims of violence¹ at the hands of private and public mine security at the mine, including killings, maiming, rape, and gang rape.

(Chiapas, Mexico and Ottawa, Canada) On Monday, family members of Mariano Abarca, along with allied local and national organizations in Mexico, held a press conference in Tuxtla Gutiérrez, Chiapas to announce that they have filed a legal action on constitutional grounds (an amparo) to demand a full investigation into Abarca’s death.

(From the Red Mountain Residents Association) The Willa Mine, located south of Silverton, in the Kootenays region of British Columbia, which has been touted as a profitable investment by a series of different owners over the past 35 years, has been abandoned by its present owners, MX Gold Corporation. For two years the mine has been in a dangerous state of neglect. Huge rocks above the lower portal entrance are very unstable, and the security screening is down.

The Papua New Guinea Supreme Court has ruled a challenge against an almost 30 year old Canadian and Chinese gold mine in the remote highlands will go ahead.

A majority group of landowners from Porgera, Enga Province, are challenging the validity of a mining lease which covers the Porgera Joint Venture’s open pit and underground operations.

(Ottawa) Community members are concerned about a November 4 landslide at the Aurizona mine, operated by Vancouver-based company Equinox Gold, in Brazil's northeastern Maranhão state – just one day before the 3-year anniversary of the BHP/Vale Samarco tailing dam disaster. The mass of material entirely blocked the road connecting Gofredo Viana, the municipal capital, to the community of Aurizona.

Guest Blog: Ryan MacRae, Economics Graduate from Mount Allison University working with the Latin American Mission's Program (LAMP) in Dominican Republic​

(November 5, 2018) On Friday, November 2, 2018, public interest law organizations filed an amicus curiae brief on behalf of the Roşia Montană community affected by an illegal gold mine project in Romania to include their perspectives in arbitration proceedings at the International Center for the Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID), housed at the World Bank.

Researchers find mining company repeatedly violated mining laws and regulations, harming local community

Researchers from the United States, Canada, and the Philippines have released a study on the impact of mining in Nueva Vizcaya, Luzon, the largest Philippine island, by Australian-Canadian company, OceanaGold. They have visited the Didipio gold and copper mine and the surrounding communities four times over the past five years, and have reviewed numerous reports and investigations on the mine.