Quaqua legal12/27/2023 ![]() ![]() He believes nothing works better in a democracy than the rule of law. Michel Yoboue, Executive Director, Group for Research and Advocacy on Extractive Industries (GRPIE), of Côte d’Ivoire could not hold back his enthusiasm about the achievement of forming a body that would fight to amplify the plight of the neglected and abused people in the region. The parties agreed in a communique to use the findings to design advocacy campaigns to ensure that land and natural resource laws and regulations are people friendly and that governments and corporations in the region will be held accountable to their obligations to protect, respect and fulfill rights. The idea was conceived in September 2012 at a meeting of civil society activists in Monrovia, organized by Green Advocates International (Liberia), to research and publish natural resource rights and governance profiles of countries in the Mano River Union (MRU) basin. The others are Abu Brima, Executive Director of the Network Movement for Justice and Development (NMJD), Sierra Leone Michel Yoboue, Executive Director, Group for Research and Advocacy on Extractive Industries (GRPIE), Côte d’Ivoire and Kabinet Sesay, then Executive Director, Center for Commerce and International Development (CECIDE), Guinea. It is time to ACT”.Īlfred Brownell is one of four activists behind the formation of the MRU CSO Platform. He’s all too aware that “communities in concession areas experience a range of negative impacts from the destruction of farmlands, to pollution of water sources, desecration of sacred sites and burial grounds and inadequate compensation for uprooting them from their livelihoods.” He thinks by bringing vulnerable communities together in the Mano River Union Civil Society Natural Resources Rights and Governance Platform (MRU-CSO Platform), “there would be collective actions in brining much needed justice, accountability and relief to the suffering masses across the region who are most affected by multinational corporations – grabbing their land and destroying their habitats with impunity.” Adding, “Governments in West Africa cannot and must not outsource their responsibilities to protect the rights of their citizens and the environment. is the Founder and Lead Campaigner for Green Advocates International, the 2019 Goldman Prize Winner. Saa Pascal Tenguiano, Guinean lawyer and Executive Director for the Center for Commerce and International Development (CECIDE) said “The scale and impact of the environmental degradation and abuses perpetrated by these companies, coupled with their failure to honor social corporate responsibilities to affected communities, make it hard to resist the feeling that, like their host and home governments, these concessionaires must be made to account.”Īttorney Alfred Lahai Brownell, Sr. Poor people suffer forceful displacement, denial of their livelihoods and destruction of their properties. Various accounts show how foreign companies, with the backing of their host and home governments, violate local community rights with impunity. Yes, governments in the region need investments to boost their economies and create jobs for their struggling people, so it goes without saying that the people had to survive at the mercy of their governments’ pursuit of foreign investments regardless of the consequences for human rights and the environment. But we want these multinational companies to be accountable while tapping out our natural resources…,” said the Board Chairman of the Sierra Leone Network on the Right to Food (SiLNoRF), Raymond Senesie. “Being that it is the government that is inviting them (the multinational companies), they are sure of receiving protection. ![]() There is a maxim that ‘one who aids and abets a theft is equally a thief.’ No wonder trillions are siphoned off the region in illicit flows from poor destitute communities to rich capitals in the West, joined recently by China, India and others. How unfortunate that ‘resource curse’ ascription remains an ignominious tag on the region.īad governance and corruption easily come to mind when lamenting the woes of the people, but one should consider for a moment how multinational corporations, from countries that profess to champion rights, accountability, anti-corruption and justice, have been running to the region exploiting natural resources with no human face in the name of foreign direct investment. There is paradox in the fact that the people and countries in the region are among some of the poorest and least developed in the world. This rich and sprawling natural endowment has always been an attraction and destination of some of the biggest corporations from around the world.
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