When activists have exhausted their options for challenging mining corporations at the national level, where can they turn?
One option is the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the club of the richest countries in the world. OECD states have agreed to a set of guidelines to which multinational enterprises headquartered or operating in member states should follow. If activists believe that a mining corporation has violated those guidelines, it can bring a case to an OECD National Contact Point, which OECD states must establish to handle complaints against multinational enterprises.
But how successful have activists been with this process? And what other options exist at the international level? Join three experts and activists for an answer to these questions.
- Katharine Booth is a researcher and policy advisor at OECD Watch, a network of civil society organisations focused on achieving effective remedy for corporate abuses by using the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises and the Guidelines’ non-judicial grievance mechanism.
- Catherine Coumans, Ph.D., is Research Coordinator and Asia-Pacific Program Coordinator at MiningWatch Canada. MiningWatch has filed and accompanied seven cases against Canadian mining companies with the Canadian NCP.
- Lee Tan is a statistician and a social researcher with decades of health, environmental and social justice campaigning experiences, ranging from grassroot activism to policy advocacy at the multilateral institutional level. She leads the Aid/Watch campaign Stop Lynas.