Since our Natural Resources and Human Rights Initiative (NRHRI) launched in 2008, Global Rights has been working at the cutting edge of empowering resource-rich communities to use a human rights lens as a means to address economic and social injustice resulting from actions and inactions of states and corporations.

Global Rights has worked to accompany its six partner NGOs in Congo-Brazzaville, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Guinea in a multi-step learning process to help them become defenders of the rights and interests of local communities and to promote good governance and transparency in every phase of the resource extraction process.

While continuing to mentor our current partners, we are also working with civil society organizations in Mali, Liberia and Sierra Leone.  We are working to empower advocates to use regional and international mechanisms to protect human rights in the context of their work.

Working closely with our Nigeria office, we also recently developed a pilot project focused on the extraction of natural resources in the northern Nigerian state of Zamfara. There, unregulated artisanal mining by members of the local population has led to the deaths of over 300 children and young adults due to acute lead poisoning.

Through awareness-raising and monitoring and documentation trainings, we are developing and executing an advocacy campaign to engage government at all levels to demand transparency and accountability for the protection of their rights.

We are also helping community-based organizations work with appropriate government officials and local actors to strengthen the implementation of laws to end unregulated extraction that violate people’s rights.

Fact Sheets

English | Français

Publications 

Civil Society Organizations in Resource-Rich Communities: Helping Ensure Beneficial Outcomes for All (Business and Human Rights Roundtable and Next Steps Report) English (2012)

Actualizing Human Rights through Good Governance in Natural Resources Management English (2012)

My Right to Demand Change: A Practical Guide to Public Participation, Community Empowerment and Advocacy Concerning Natural Resources Exploitation and Human Rights Violations English  | Français (2011)

Diamants et Droit au Travail Kasaï Oriental RDC Français  (2009) 

*Photo by Maria Koulouris