One of the formative influences of the RPAN project is work done at the University of Leuven on the theme of ‘qualified advocacy’. Here are two explorations of this theme by Elias Lopez SJ: one focusing on advocacy at the institutions of the European Union, the other reflecting on synergies among Jesuit social apostolates.
Download text by Elias Lopez: PDF
Download text on Jesuit Social Apostolates: PDF
RPAN Update
The current situation in the Congo is one of hope. With the first democratic elections in over forty years, people smell change in the air. The question still remains though: how to address justice for crimes of the past? The vast, mostly illegal, exploitation of natural resources, including coltan, tin ore, gold, diamonds and copper and cobalt, among others, during the years of the war funded both various militia and rebel groups and various governments’ troops . There existed corruption, extensive damage to the environment and human rights violations.
However, what are the existing possibilities for addressing past wrongs and finding justice for foreign actors in the conflict in the Congo, who are based in Europe? In 1999 the European Parliament adopted a resolution on EU Standards for European Enterprises Operating in Developing Countries , in which it asked the European Commission and the European Council to establish legally binding standards with extra-territorial effect, for European transnational corporations in order to ensure that they comply with international law as well as the OECD Guidelines and the ILO Declaration . These standards refer to those developed by other existing international bodies such as the World Bank, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Covenants on Civil and Political Rights and Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women, the 1994 draft UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, and the UN Declaration on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination.
The Parliament has also proposed in their resolution in response to the Commission’s communication on conflict prevention that “the harmful influence which certain private and public undertakings have in unstable regions should be acknowledged by creating a legally binding framework with sanctions for companies which contribute to conflicts in unstable regions”. They have also emphasized the importance in engaging corporate social responsibility “in order to arrive at a concept of binding and accountable rules for EU companies trading and producing in third countries in accordance with human rights and ILO standards”, in their report on trade and poverty.
Until now, the European Commission has taken no action. There are voluntary guidelines, but, crucially, no legally binding framework.
If we look at the response to the UN Panel of Experts on the Illegal Exploitation of Natural Resources and Other Forms of Wealth of the Democratic Republic of the Congo reports over the years, we can easily be disappointed. Set up as a reporting body, the Panel of Experts had no follow-up powers themselves. The OECD was handed the task for implementation on the recommendations of the Panel but at best had the quasi-jurisdictional National Contact Points (NCPs) to refer to.
OECD guidelines for Multinational Enterprises
According to one leading Professor on international law, human rights, and multinationals, the NCPs “view their role as one of mediation, of encouraging good practice, of observing the confidentiality of commercial information so as not to endanger co-operation with companies”, whereas “others, especially NGOs, have called for them to develop their role more as arbitrators and not mediators”. The main challenges faced by the NCPs, not only for cases referred from the Congo investigation, but in general, include:
Strengthening Legal Frameworks and Developing Legal Tools
Some NGOs believe that working to influence on the OECD guidelines and the functioning of the NCPs is a diversion from true accountability, which can only come from developing legal tools. Yet, according to the European Commission’s directorate general Enterprise, corporate social responsibility is “a concept whereby companies integrate social and environmental concerns in their business operations and in their interaction with their stakeholders on a voluntary basis”. This definition emphasizes CSR as a voluntary concept. Seeing that the European Commission has until now, taken no action on these issues, what are the possibilities for developing legal tools and strengthening existing frameworks?
One major challenge is that no single country wants to act alone on these issues, as they would be putting their own companies at a severe competitive disadvantage. An uncompromising stance would simply drive companies to relocate to within a more tolerant jurisdiction, which means that a solution can only be found at a European level through a unified approach to extraterritorial legislation for human rights abuse and financial crimes. There does exist an upcoming framework decision to harmonise legislation on extraterritorial crimes across the EU which would help the twenty-five member states to implement such legislation, and which would affect all companies having assets within the EU in the same way whether or not they are incorporated here.
Concluding Remarks
While building a network for peace advocacy on the problem of natural resource exploitation within the Congo, we are aware that the question of what can be done from a European perspective can be seen through at least three lenses:
Each issue is equally important, and advocacy is required in order to improve each in order to continue the search for justice and to allow preventative measures to exist for future cases both within and outside of the Congo.
Human Rights and Transnational Corporations – UN SR to the SG
Since 2005 the UN Special Representative (SR) to the Secretary General (SG), John Ruggie, has been investigating the issue of business and human rights. In March 2007 he presented his findings to the UN Human Rights Council, requesting as well an extension of his two-year mandate by another year. He pointed out that little improvement towards the responsibility of corporations (especially with regard to international human rights) had been made in spite of the significant increase in voluntary initiatives. The problem he indicates is that state-owned enterprises rarely participate in corporate voluntary initiatives. By extending the mandate for one more year further recommendations could be made.
His report results from regional multi-stakeholder consultations in Johannesburg, Bangkok, and Bogotá, as well as expert consultations from extractive and financial service industries, with civil society, firms in developing countries, discussions with multilateral institutions and government officials.
With the expansion of global markets in the last few decades, transnational corporations have increasingly dominated markets through their rapid expansion of operations and holdings abroad. Yet as John Ruggie mentions in his report, there exists an “institutional misalignment” between the reach and impact of economic actors and the ability of our societies to manage the negative consequences of this. The result is lack of reparations or adequate sanctions against these actors. His recommendations were the realigning of relationships between these groups, which although a long-term process, were key in supporting market mechanisms that could curtail the social harms imposed on the market by economic actors.
Full Report: Business and Human Rights: Mapping International Standards of Responsibility and Accountability for Corporate Acts (PDF)
More Information: Business and Human Rights Resource Center
RPAN: The Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Great Lakes
In 1998, following Laurent Kabila´s victory against Mobutu, war returned to the Democratic Republic of the Congo with a rebel offensive supported by Rwanda and Uganda in what would become known as Africa’s First World War due to the participation of up to six other nations in the war on Congolese soil. Since 2003, Congo has been in a post-war transitional phase. This process has been hampered by on-going violence in the eastern provinces of North and South Kivu and the Ituri district of Orientale Province; slow progress on political reform attributed to institutional weakness and lack of political will; and the marginalization of key groups in the political process, causing fears of long-term unrest and dissatisfaction within the country. Peace in the Congo would have a stabilizing affect in a region with multiple civil wars involving neighbouring states. The war in the Congo has been the deadliest war since the Second World War, with 3.8 million deaths since the start of the war in 1998.
The Congo is a nation larger than Western Europe and contains some of the world’s richest mineral resources. During the war, and still today, states, enterprises and people around the world have benefited from these resources at the suffering of the Congolese. Continued exploitation, human rights abuses, and environmental degradation have benefited others through the trade of gold, diamonds, coltan, and other minerals being exported from the Congo to Western Europe, the United States, and the Far East.
It Takes Two to Tango
The RPAN project focuses on the good governance aspect of the exploitation of natural resources in the Congo and the role this could have in the promotion of peace. While institution-building and the fight against corruption in this fragile state are important, accordingly the same struggle exists for good governance within the private sector both within the Congo and abroad. Specifically, the role foreign companies play in the exploitation of resources, especially in the East must be examined in terms of human, social, cultural, and economic rights, as well as in terms of environmental impact and economic justice. The question is, how can we encourage foreign companies to play a more beneficial and less harmful role to the local communities in the Congo through efforts at promoting appropriate corporate social responsibility and other more binding frameworks, especially at an European-wide level. In the words of one African Jesuit, what we see occurring and what we need to work to prevent “is exploitation under the guise of globalisation”.
The importance of this issue is made clear by the acknowledgement of the Council of the European Union of the detrimental effect that economics can have on conflicts. The Council supports addressing economic factors that fuel conflict as expressed in their Position concerning conflict prevention, management resolution in Africa, explicitly stating it will work “actively towards finding means to suppress illegal exploitation of natural resources which contributes to the eruption, escalation and continuation of violent conflicts” and to “where appropriate, use restrictive measures, including economic and financial sanctions, targeted at actors who profit from and exacerbate violent conflicts. In this context, there is a need to further reflect on the (positive or negative) role to be played by the private sector in the area of conflict prevention and resolution.” Such a statement, especially given its source, is clearly significant for OCIPE, based as it is in Brussels and working in relation to the EU.
Tanya Ziegler
A European and American Exploration of the Democratic Republic of the Congo
A Conversation with the Jesuits in the Congo
In the process of building a peace advocacy network between Jesuit institutions, several of us from the United States Jesuit Conference and the Jesuit European Office (OCIPE) travelled together to the Democratic Republic of Congo to discuss with Jesuits at CEPAS (Centre d’Etudes pour l’Action Sociale) about priorities. The main functional priorities outlined by CEPAS were training, research, publications/communication, and cooperation with Congolese civil society. The three research areas to be focused on are peace and conflict, natural resources – including diamonds, gold, coltan, cobalt, copper, timber, water and oil – and debt relief. From us they requested collaboration in the form of exploring methods of advocacy and through the exchange of information, especially in following high-level conferences and seminars in which Congolese issues are being discussed: secondly support in possible visits to the United States and Europe.
Natural Resources
At CEPAS, research on diamonds, gold and coltan will be the first part of a longer-term study on the subject of natural resources. The paradox of Congo’s natural resources has been stated many times: Congo has a vast wealth in terms of resources, but is extremely poor as a nation. Congo is a “geological scandal” in which the people and economy are not profiting, but if we consider that Congo’s primary reserves of minerals have not yet been accessed, there remains a strong possibility of future benefits. Even today mining provides the Congo with millions of dollars of foreign exchange, even if different regions continue to face specific challenges.
Mining in the Kivus
Challenges in the mining sector in the Kivus include a lack of financing and of expertise, poor infrastructure, and lack of market access. The lack of investment in the country, partly due to it being discouraged by the government, prevents the development of a viable business climate.
The prevalence of extensive artisanal mining (and the lack of industrial mining) in the Kivus has led to a high level of poverty, child labor, an increase in health problems among the population (since many people work in extreme environments), and an increase in the displacement of people. This suggests that the presence of a large multinational could improve the lives of people by providing a secure livelihood structure. Such a structure would allow for appropriate employment and wages, might help prevent children from leaving their studies to work in the mines, and would be a source of investment and technology transfer into the Kivus. No positive co-habitation between artisanal miners and industrial mining exists in this region.
Even without the presence of industrial mining possibilities, much could be done to improve the situation of artisanal miners in the Kivus. For example, currently they are inhibited from travelling to larger cities to sell their minerals, and at the same time prevented from knowing the real value and selling price of their minerals. Similarly, they need official identification cards to travel from a mining region to a town of sale, which acts as a massive obstacle to miners desiring to sell directly to the market instead of through a middleman purchaser.
Another affliction of artisanal miners in the Kivus is the “taxes” which the miners, who dig almost with bare hands and feet, are forced to pay at every step on the road from the mines to transport centers such as Bukavu. The artisanal miners not only suffer from the imposition of these “taxes” but also, due to their isolation in mining areas, from their lack of access to information on the true price and value of their minerals, so that they are often forced to sell their goods at whatever price is offered to them, however unfair. Many of these problems could be dealt with by the formation of cooperatives or other arrangements that would unify the power of these artisanal workers.
A key example highlighting these issues is the mining of coltan. Because the region lacks both financing and technology, coltan is exported to Rwanda for even the first phase of refining. There are no coltan refineries in the Congo itself, causing a loss of value at the first stage of production and indicating clearly the significant need for greater investment and technology transfer. Some feel that even without foreign investment, such projects could go ahead in the Congo with local capital if the financial sector were reformed. At the same time, the difficulty in market access for minerals from the Congo is also highlighted. Currently Congolese businessmen have difficulty selling their coltan on the world market because of the international resistance to Congolese coltan, which had been denounced due to its mining during the war. There should be ways that legitimate Congolese exports could be noted and acceptable, even favored, as Congo becomes more peaceful.
Mining in Katanga
In Katanga the key mineral resources are copper, cobalt and heterogenite. Several international companies are involved. In Lubumbashi, the STL plant, the ‘Big Hill Project’, is a conglomerate of OMG (USA) Forrest Corporation (Belgium) and Gécamines. In the villages of Tenke and Fungurume, the American corporation Phelps Dodge is in the early stages of a huge development, which will refine as well as mine copper and cobalt. Indian companies (such as SOMIKA) and Chinese companies are also increasingly engaged in Katanga and are commonly accused of extremely bad practice with regard to their workers, of seriously polluting water sources, and of exporting unrefined ore with almost no benefit to the host economy. These Asian-owned plants were not open to inspection by our group.
As elsewhere in Congo, there are, for the first time, genuine hopes that the democratically elected government will have the legitimacy and capacity to enforce the mining code to a far greater extent than before. Similarly, international companies are exposed to the supervision of powerful auditors, and are notably vulnerable to negative or qualified reports: though this factor is far less significant in the absence of an active civil society (as, for example, in China). Nevertheless the long heritage of the previous mining code still blights Katanga: further, even now, both the will and the capacity of the new Government remain unproven.
Secondly, thousands of artisanal miners work on the fringes of the corporate sector, exploiting the low-grade material that the bigger enterprises leave aside, and selling either direct to the company concerned or through an elaborate chain of intermediaries, The artisanals have no capacity to assess the value of their own product and in practice have no alternative than to accept whatever is price is offered. As elsewhere, they also work without supervision and without protective clothing or proper equipment, so that the work is highly dangerous. Every week sees deaths among the artisanals, including children often ten years of age or younger.
Finally, the heavy lorries that carry the unrefined product from the mining areas to the borders are gradually destroying the already poor roads. Further, many such loads include radioactive material; with great risk to the drivers and even to the areas through which pass the lorries.
The Potential of International Advocacy
At an international level, advocacy is needed to address certain systemic national and international challenges facing Congo. The key guiding principle from CEPAS is to safeguard the possibility of peace in the country.
Advocacy on good governance and transparency, especially on the issue of the “looting” of minerals, is essential. Some feel that there is a culture of “negative selection” carried over from the days under dictatorship. Central governments may, for example, resist the presence of highly skilled people in potentially competing levels of local government. On the contrary CEPAS believes that local, countervailing power is seen as essential to good governance.
Another essential international advocacy perspective is that of using Congo’s income from natural resources to rebuild the country by supporting initiatives which allow the Congo to retain more value within the country – for example, through the building of refineries for minerals. While aid may be good, still more important is the implementation of fair national and international laws, and the improvement of the country’s business climate.
Advocacy on the Congo’s lack of adequate roads, a lack that prevents the free flow of people and information is also essential. A final key aspect is the need to strengthen security in the Congo, not only on the borders to prevent looting and smuggling of illegally mined or logged goods by foreigners, but also by way of internal army reform, in terms of governance, transparency, and corruption.
In 2005 the European Commission released their communication to the other European Institutions on a Euro-African pact to accelerate Africa’s development. In light of Europe’s changing relationship with Africa, and the changes taking place both on that continent and our own, it seemed a strategy for development and partnership was needed. This relationship can be highlighted in three ways: Europe has strong trade links with Africa, is Africa’s largest aid donor, and individual European countries have long-established political, economic and cultural links to various African countries. The desire for a ‘comprehensive, integrated and long-term framework’ was a key reason for the development of a strategy for Africa.
The key objectives of this strategy are not just to work towards the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), including issues such as peace and security, sustainable development, human rights and regional and continental integration, but also to strengthen the ties between the two regions in order to address these common challenges. These common challenges are to be addressed through the strengthening and promotion of multilateral institutions and ‘people-centred’ partnerships as well as holistic approaches to development.
The strategy itself focuses on important inter-dependent areas in three key areas: peace and security, governance and human rights, and trade and regional integration. These three areas are considered crucial prerequisites to reaching the MDGs. It is clear that without peace and security, sustainable development is not an achievable goal. Decades of conflict have rendered economic development in different African countries near impossible. Similarly, the goal of good governance and human rights is critical towards sustainable development and is approached through the strengthening of national institutions as well as support for the appropriate legal and regulatory frameworks. Finally, the economic environment must be suitable for the achievement of the MDGs. Currently, Africa accounts for only two percent of world trade. The need for sustainable economic growth through, among other instruments, multilateral trade and regional integration is a key aspect of development in Africa.
The European strategy for accelerating Africa’s development also focuses on tackling the MDGs directly. Key areas of development recognised by the European Commission include cooperation, human and social issues, environment, migration, agriculture and food security and infrastructure. One of the main goals of strategy here is policy coherence, not only on the European side but also on the African side. Greater cooperation on aid effectiveness and coherence in European policy especially for sustainable development is one goal, along with sustained funding. In the area of human and social development key issues are job creation, gender policies, and skill and educational development. These also link to the issue of migration, specifically the increasing focus on the link between migration and development, and the implementation of an EU-Africa Action Plan on Trafficking of Human Beings. Additionally the EU is supporting the fight against desertification, deforestation, and loss of biodiversity and aiding capacity building efforts for the management of natural resources. Finally, the EU is supporting food security programmes and infrastructure initiatives such as access to affordable and sustainable energy and fighting the digital divide.
Through this Joint Strategy which will provide the framework for EU-Africa relations, institutions on both sides hope to bridge the development divide through achievements in the key areas of peace and security, governance and human rights and regional and trade integration along with key development issues.
Sources
• Outline for the Joint EU-Africa Strategy by the Ministerial Troika Meeting of 15 May (PDF)
• Africa-Europe Energy Forum, Berlin 6-7 March 2007 (PDF)
• EU Fact Sheet: Progress Report on the Implementation of the EU Strategy for Africa (PDF)
• EU Strategy for Africa: Towards a Euro-African pact to accelerate Africa’s development (PDF)
RPAN - Congo
RPAN: Aims and Objectives
1. The first objective of the project is to provide a network for peace advocacy for the Congo. The objective of building a network focuses on the three main areas of diplomacy – field diplomacy, political diplomacy, and expertise diplomacy – through network building with NGOs, social centers, university institutions and capacities, and projects on peace work and peace advocacy. This networking, what we call people-centered networking (or relational networking) has the following objectives:
2. The second aim of the project is to develop and carry out the advocacy program on the identified priority issues. Currently there are three aspects of advocacy relating to the issue of exploitation of natural resources and the role of multinationals, which come into question:
Focal Point: OCIPE
OCIPE has taken on this project because Africa is one of the five priority areas for the Society of Jesus and the first priority among its social ministries. Additionally, OCIPE’s first thematic priority speaks of Solidarity within the EU, between the EU and its neighbour states, and in the relationship between the European Union and the developing world, especially Africa. Additionally, the Society has recognized as a dimension of justice the “growing consciousness of the interdependence of all peoples in one common heritage’ and has determined ‘to collaborate with other national and international groups or organizations, both non-governmental and official . . . for a more just international order”.
Additionally, the presence of the Jesuits in different spheres of diplomacy, in the field, and in the academic and political worlds, allows for a personal but global network of those concerned with justice and peace in the Congo and the Great Lakes region. This added-value of the network of the Jesuits allows the RPAN project to be the first step of a broad initiative with a long-term vision that will be supported by Jesuit Social Apostolate Secretariat and will eventually tackle other project topics.
Subscribe to
our quarterly Newsletter:
Download "The European Context of Jesuit Mission" as PDF
Spanish version: El contexto europeo de la misión jesuita (PDF)
Art
The construction of Europe is an art. It is the art of the possible.
Jacques Chirac
Download "Healing a Broken World - Special Report on Ecology"
From Brussels with… Frank Turner’s blog – Brussels Internationalclick and subscribe:
