{"id":220,"date":"2015-01-06T20:55:06","date_gmt":"2015-01-06T20:55:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitederitreamedia.com\/blog12\/?p=220"},"modified":"2015-01-11T05:25:54","modified_gmt":"2015-01-11T05:25:54","slug":"canadian-mining-companies-and-corporate-accountability-%ef%81%b3-162015","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitederitreamedia.com\/blog12\/2015\/01\/06\/canadian-mining-companies-and-corporate-accountability-%ef%81%b3-162015\/","title":{"rendered":"Canadian Mining Companies and Corporate Accountability \uf073 1\/6\/2015"},"content":{"rendered":"

Michael Kourabas<\/a> | Monday January 5th, 2015 | Leave a Comment<\/a><\/h1>\n
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\"455141840_c857f90606_z\"Canadian multinationals beware: Your home and native land may now be the forum of choice for plaintiffs seeking to bring\u00a0international human rights lawsuits.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

In November, Canadian mining firm, Nevsun Resources<\/a>, was sued<\/a> in a Vancouver court by three Eritrean refugees alleging<\/a> that Nevsun \u201caided, abetted, contributed to and became an accomplice to the use of forced labor, crimes against humanity and other human rights abuses\u201d at an Eritrean mine. \u00a0The Nevsun case<\/a> is just the most recent\u00a0human rights suit\u00a0to appear\u00a0in Canadian court, where the alleged harm was\u00a0committed by a\u00a0Canadian\u00a0corporation operating abroad.<\/p>\n

The allegations<\/h2>\n

The Eritrean plaintiffs are former employees of the Bisha Mining Share Co.<\/a>\u00a0(BMSC), a project jointly-operated by Vancouver-based Nevsun and the Eritrean state-owned Segen Construction. \u00a0Prior to their employment at BMSC, the plaintiffs were conscripted into the Eritrean army as part of Eritrea\u2019s much-criticized national service program. \u00a0In 2013, Human Rights Watch (HRW) linked the Eritrean service program<\/a>, which requires all able-bodied Eritrean men and most\u00a0women to either join the military or work for state-owned companies, to the mass exploitation of workers in Eritrea\u2019s burgeoning mining sector.<\/p>\n

At BMSC, the plaintiffs claim<\/a> they were made to work grueling hours under deplorable conditions, for insufficient compensation, and without proper medical care, shelter or food. \u00a0The conscripted Eritreans were forcibly confined to the mine \u2014 separate from the foreign workers \u2014 and under persistent watch by security personnel. \u00a0If they left the mine site without authorization, plaintiffs claim conscripts were subjected to severe punishment.<\/p>\n

According to the complaint, forced labor is so widespread and inhumane at BMSC that it constitutes<\/a> a crime against humanity.<\/span><\/p>\n

Nevsun responded to the suit by claiming the allegations were unfounded and that the Bisha mine has consistently adhered to \u201cinternational standards of governance, workplace conditions, and health and safety.\u201d \u00a0Nevsun further claims that, since 2009, it has had in place procedures to ensure that forced labor does not exist at the Bisha mine. \u00a0As the author of the aforementioned HRW report pointed out<\/a> to The Guardian, \u201cIt will be hard to take [Nevsun\u2019s assurances] very seriously if the company reacts to this lawsuit by insisting that the problem never existed to begin with.\u201d \u00a0In fact, the 2013 HRW report called out<\/a> the company by name, warning that \u201cNevsun\u2019s experiences show that by developing projects in Eritrea, mining firms are walking into a potential minefield of human rights problems.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mining in a pariah state<\/h2>\n

Human Rights Watch\u00a0characterizes Eritrea as a \u201cpariah state\u201d operating<\/a> a \u201cuniquely abusive program of indefinite forced labor.\u201d \u00a0Though the country\u2019s national service program was initially meant to last just 18 months, it has devolved<\/a> into a program of perpetual imprisonment, with conscripts now fated to work for the state indefinitely and under the constant threat of violence. \u00a0In recent years, the conscript program has been used to supply labor for a growing number of international mining projects that are seeking to exploit the country\u2019s heretofore largely unexplored mineral resources.<\/p>\n

Nevsun, like most international mining companies seeking to operate in Eritrea, was forced to partner with a state-owned entity, Segen Construction, which purportedly stymied<\/a> Nevsun\u2019s attempts to investigate allegations of forced labor (which came as a result of the 2013 HRW report).<\/p>\n

Last week, the U.K. parliament offered its own critique of the Eritrean government\u2019s labor policies, passing an \u201cearly day motion<\/a>\u201d signed by 41 MPs and\u00a0calling on Eritrea to allow an investigatory visit from the United Nation\u2019s Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Eritrea. \u00a0The motion cited<\/a> Eritrea\u2019s practices of \u201carbitrary arrest and detention and compulsory military service,\u201d which have contributed to an \u201cexodus of Eritreans, now reaching 5,000 a month,\u201d fleeing the country for Europe. \u00a0The MPs also called attention<\/a> to the \u201ccollusion\u201d between the Eritrean government and \u201cinternational mining companies from the U.K., Canada and Australia,\u201d which have leveraged the government\u2019s forced labor program to their benefit.<\/p>\n

A growing trend in Canada<\/h2>\n

The Nevsun litigation follows a series of other high-profile human rights cases filed in Canada by foreign plaintiffs against international mining companies. \u00a0The first cases<\/a> of the type were brought in Ontario in 2010<\/a> against Toronto-based mining firm\u00a0Hudbay Minerals<\/a>. \u00a0In three related lawsuits against Hudbay, members of the indigenous Mayan Q\u2019eqchi\u2019 population in El Estor, Guatemala, allege that Hudbay and its wholly-owned subsidiaries were complicit in murder, shooting and gang-rape committed by security forces operating at Hudbay\u2019s open-pit nickel mine in eastern Guatemala. \u00a0In July 2013, an Ontario judge ruled that the case could proceed to trial in Canadian court.<\/p>\n

More recently, in June 2014, seven Guatemalan men<\/a> sued Tahoe Resources<\/a>, another Vancouver-based mining company, for shooting injuries suffered when Tahoe security personnel fired at them at close range.<\/p>\n

Commentators have suggested<\/a> that the 2013 Hudbay<\/i> ruling could help plaintiffs in the Tahoe and Nevsun cases, and potentially open the door to other cases against Canadian companies accused of committing human rights abuses overseas.<\/p>\n

This is particularly important because the door appears to be closing to foreign plaintiffs elsewhere in the world.<\/p>\n

According to the Business & Human Rights Resource Center<\/a>, the majority of the 108 legal cases profiled<\/a> by the Center relate to extraterritorial claims arising in countries with weak, corrupt or nonexistent judicial systems. \u00a0Yet, in many companies\u2019 home countries \u2014 that is, the countries in which they are based \u2014 surviving jurisdictional challenges to extraterritorial claims can be near impossible.<\/p>\n

In the United States, where the Supreme Court\u2019s 2013 decision in Kiobel v. Shell<\/i><\/a> drastically limited the jurisdictional scope<\/a> of the Alien Tort Statute and the viability of claims concerning human rights abuses allegedly committed abroad, this is especially true. \u00a0The vast majority<\/a> of appellate and district courts to consider extraterritorial claims in the wake of Kiobel<\/i> have sided with corporate defendants, leading Bloomberg to declare<\/a> last month: \u201cU.S. corporations [are] winning [the] fight over human rights lawsuits.\u201d<\/p>\n

Image credit: Flickr\/rene-germany<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Michael Kourabas | Monday January 5th, 2015 | Leave a Comment Canadian multinationals beware: Your home and native land may now be the forum of choice for plaintiffs seeking to bring\u00a0international human rights lawsuits. In November, Canadian mining firm, Nevsun Resources, was sued in a Vancouver court by three Eritrean refugees alleging that Nevsun \u201caided, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"image","meta":{"_ml_titleColor":"#000000","_ml_titleFont":"Roboto","_ml_titleFontSize":1.1359999999999998987476601541857235133647918701171875,"_ml_titleFontWeight":"400","_ml_titleLineHeight":1.3000000000000000444089209850062616169452667236328125,"_ml_metaColor":"#708090","_ml_metaFont":"Montserrat","_ml_metaFontSize":0.67849999999999999200639422269887290894985198974609375,"_ml_metaFontWeight":"400","_ml_metaLineHeight":0.92000000000000003996802888650563545525074005126953125,"_ml_bodyColor":"#a9a9a9","_ml_bodyFont":"Open Sans","_ml_bodyFontSize":0.84999999999999997779553950749686919152736663818359375,"_ml_bodyFontWeight":"400","_ml_bodyLineHeight":1.1999999999999999555910790149937383830547332763671875,"_ml_wooPriceColor":"#666","_ml_wooPriceFont":"Open Sans","_ml_wooPriceFontSize":0.90000000000000002220446049250313080847263336181640625,"_ml_wooPriceFontWeight":"400","_ml_wooPriceLineHeight":1.270000000000000017763568394002504646778106689453125,"_ml_headingColor":"#000","_ml_headingFont":"Merriweather","_ml_headingFontSize":2.020000000000000017763568394002504646778106689453125,"_ml_headingFontWeight":"700","_ml_headingLineHeight":1.4699999999999999733546474089962430298328399658203125,"_mlglobal_userfontcolors":{"headingColorUser":[],"titleColorUser":[],"metaColorUser":[],"bodyColorUser":[],"wooPriceColorUser":[]},"_s2mail":"yes","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nCanadian Mining Companies and Corporate Accountability \uf073 1\/6\/2015 - UNITED ERITREA MEDIA<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Canadian Mining Companies and Corporate Accountability \uf073 1\/6\/2015 - UNITED ERITREA MEDIA\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Michael Kourabas | Monday January 5th, 2015 | Leave a Comment Canadian multinationals beware: Your home and native land may now be the forum of choice for plaintiffs seeking to bring\u00a0international human rights lawsuits. 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