Bar association wants community involvement in natural resource negotiations

The Mozambican Bar Association (OAM) has called for the involvement of the community in decision-making regarding the exploitation of natural resources.

According to the OAM, the Mozambican authorities need to approve a regulatory framework that allows the participation of communities in the process of negotiating mining and oil concessions.

The recommendations are in the 5th Report on Human Rights in Mozambique, a document authored by the OAM, launched on Thursday in Maputo, at a ceremony led by OAM Chairperson Duarte Casimiro.

The report presented by the head of the OAM’s Human Rights Commission, Ferosa Chauque, also says that the legislation on the sector should respect international, regional and domestic standards, regarding free, informed consent and the right to fair compensation.

“The Mozambican authorities should demand that the multinationals that exploit the natural resources in the country fulfill their obligations to the communities”, she said. “There is a prevalence of extremely high levels of poverty and low development in the communities where megaprojects are implemented, which contrasts with the general perception of the existence of abundant natural resources”.

In addition to the weak capacity of communities to intervene in the negotiations at the community consultation stage and the failure to disseminate the minutes of consultations for the implementation of extractive industry projects, the report found widespread non-compliance with the deadlines for implementation of resettlement.

“We found little transparency in the management of revenues from the 2.75 percent of funds that must be channeled to communities, by companies involved in the extractive industry. There is weak government capacity to monitor all phases of implementation of extractive industry projects”, she said.

Some multinationals, she said, violate human rights within the extractive industry, such as Montepuez Ruby Mining (MRM), which is 75 per cent owned by the British company Gemfields, and mines rubies in the district of Montepuez, in the northern province of Cabo Delgado.

She also criticised the Irish multinational Kenmare, which exploits the heavy sands in Moma district, in Nampula province, where the communities are demanding more boreholes for water, distribution of seeds, community cold storage and allocation of plots to families affected by the expansion of the project.

(AIM)