African legal experts and grassroots movements are building a unified continental front to end the legal loopholes that allow multinational corporations to violate human rights with impunity in Africa.
A high-level regional Indaba starting in Johannesburg South Africa on Wednesday, aims to hammer out a single, aggressive African position to force parent companies to face justice for the actions of their subsidiaries across borders. Activists argue that current domestic laws are completely useless against foreign-headquartered mining giants and extractive industries when human rights abuses occur on African soil.
The two-day strategy session, hosted by heavy-hitting legal and civil society groups including Lawyers for Human Rights, is designed to weaponise a proposed United Nations binding treaty on business and human rights specifically to suit African realities.
Speaking ahead of the summit, Phyllia Ngoatje, a Junior Attorney at Lawyers for Human Rights, warned that the current legal architecture leaves vulnerable local communities entirely unprotected against corporate giants.
“Currently, as it stands, the legal architecture does not provide a conducive environment for the protection of human rights abuses, especially for mining-affected communities and other communities that are affected by transnational corporations. If we look at the manner in which transnational corporations act with corporate impunity, we see the manner in which human rights violations are running rampant. There’s a sense that legal remedies in the domestic landscape just aren’t sufficient. And that’s why there’s a need for a legally binding treaty that is international and is able to hold transnational corporations to account, because there’s just nothing in the domestic landscape that allows for extra-territorial jurisdiction to apply.”
Historically, fragmented negotiations have watered down Africa’s bargaining power in global forums. By documenting distinct African experiences, ranging from displaced mining communities to affected fisherfolk, the summit seeks to establish strict legal liability rules, ensuring that global corporations can finally be held legally accountable where the actual damage is done.
–ChannelAfrica–
