DCAF Panel Shared Ways to Improve Human Rights on DRC Mine Sites through Dialogue

On 29 November 2022, DCAF hosted two human rights defender CSOs – the Observatoire Gouvernance et Paix (OGP) and Justicia Asbl to share lessons learned from their experiences promoting dialogue and conflict resolution during a panel discussion, with commentary by an expert from the Geneva Centre for Business and Human Rights. Highlights included:

• Leveraging the DRC Government’s support for international standards like the Voluntary Principles on Security and Human Rights.
• Improving the identification and resolution of the worst forms of child labour on mine sites;
• Training one of the largest Chinese industrial cobalt and copper miners on preventing and addressing human rights incidents, including conflict with artisanal miners.

The event was held on the sidelines of the 11th Annual UN Forum on Business and Human Rights and underscored how multistakeholder approaches to business and human rights offer new possibilities to resolving security and human rights concerns linked to the global drive to ‘green energy’.  Justicia Asbl and OGP lead Voluntary Principles Working Groups in southern DRC’s rich cobalt and copper belt and eastern DRC’s “conflict minerals” zone. These working groups gather government representatives, civil society, and companies to facilitate the identification, monitoring, prevention and resolution of security and human rights issues in the DRC mining sector.

Since 2018, DCAF has been supporting OGP and Justicia in their innovative approach to develop and sustain direct dialogue between companies, government officials and civil society. Read the lessons learned study here and case studies from Twangiza, Nyabibwe and Bitale.

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