Human Rights in the Extractive Industries

Environmental pollution through oil leakages in the Niger delta, forced evictions of Indigenous peoples from their ancestral lands and the exploitation of children in gold and diamond mines are among the most prominent cases of human rights violations caused by or directly associated with extractive industries. However, they are by far not the only examples. In one of his first interim reports, the then newly appointed Special Representative of the Secretary-General on the issue of human rights and transnational corporations and other business enterprises, John Ruggie noted in 2006: The extractive industries (...) account for most allegations of the worst abuses, up to and including complicity in crimes against humanity. These are typically for acts committed by public and private security forces protecting company assets and property; large-scale Corruption; violations of labour rights; and a broad array of abuses in relation to local communities, especially Indigenous people