The UN Working Group on Business and Human Rights held its first forum on December 4 and 5 in Geneva. The Halifax Initiative spoke at the forum on a panel concerning public financial institutions and human rights. ECA-Watch, CIEL and BankTrack disseminated the attached document at the forum containing analysis and recommendations regarding financial institutons and human rights.

Statement by the Halifax Initiative, the Latin American Observatory of Environmental Conflicts and MiningWatch Canada concerning Barrick Gold's disasterous second quarter results and its 'star' project, Pascua Lama.

Article prepared for the 'Global Capital, Global Rights' workshop convened by SFU and UBC. The text discusses civil society efforts in support of Bill C-300, legislation that sought to create accountability mechanisms regarding the provision of government support to Canadian extractive companies that operate overseas.

Statement by the Latin American Observatory of Environmental Conflicts concerning Barrick Gold's failure to secure financing from Export Development Canada and the U.S. Export-Import Bank for its Pascua Lama project on the border between Chile and Argentina.

In this letter to Export Development Canada and the U.S. Export-Import Bank, Chilean and Argentine organizations express harsh criticisms regarding the public agencies' due diligence processes concerning Barrick Gold's application for support for Pascua Lama.

The international civil society network, ECA-Watch, provides substantive input on the latest iteration of the OECD 'Common Approaches' regarding export credit agencies.

On September 15, 2011, the Canadian government's Centre for Excellence in Corporate Social Responsibilty held a workshop with John Ruggie entitled, 'Implications of the Guiding Principles for the Implementation of the UN Framework for CSR in the Canadian Extratcive Sector.' The Halifax Initiative participated on behalf of the Canadian Network on Corporate Accountability as the civil society respondent to Mr. Ruggie.

Canadian mining interests in countries around the world are valued at tens of billions of dollars. Karyn Keenan looks at efforts by local communities to hold mining companies to account for human rights abuses. 'The issue of access to remedy for the victims of corporate abuse requires urgent attention,' she writes.
Keenan describes recent efforts by non-nationals who are affected by Canadian mining companies to seek redress through the Canadian justice system.

See full article in Pambazuka News. 

See Spanish version.