February 9, 2009
NORWEGIAN PENSION FUND DIVESTS FROM BARRICK GOLD
For more information about Barrick Gold, and work and activism in response to environmental and health harms and human rights violations associated with Barrick Gold mining operations around the world, contact Sakura Saunders: sakura.saunders@gmail.com, www.ProtestBarrick.net
* * * * * * *
EDUCATIONAL-DELEGATION TO GUATEMALA, APRIL 12-17, 2009
Rights Action is leading an educational trip to Guatemala and the Goldcorp Inc-mining affected regions. To join this delegation and for more information: 860-352-2448, info@rightsaction.org, www.rightsaction.org.
To get on/ off Rights Action's email list: http://www.rightsaction.org/lists/?p=subscribe&id=3
* * * * * * *
www.ProtestBarrick.net writes: Special thanks to Catherine Coumans (Mining Watch), Jethro Tulin (ATA), Evans Rubara, Norwegian Church Aid, Techa Beaumont (MPI) and others who have put work into lobbying this fund!
Let us take time to push for the CPP (Canadian Pension Plan), the Ontario's Teacher's Pension Plan, the BCIMC, OMERS (which includes CUPE and CAW), the New York State Pension Fund, and the Ontario Public Servants Employees Union from also divesting their millions from this company.
BARRICK GOLD MINING COMPANY EXCLUDED FROM NORWEGIAN GOVERNMENT PENSION FUND-GLOBAL DUE TO CONTRIBUTION TO SERIOUS ENVIRONMENTAL DAMAGE
Based on a recommendation from the Council on Ethics for the Government Pension Fund – Global, the Ministry of Finance has excluded the Canadian mining company Barrick Gold Corporation from the Fund. Barrick mines for gold in the Porgera mine in Papua New Guinea. The recommendation is based on the assessment that investing in the company entails an unacceptable risk of the Fund contributing to serious environmental damage.
"Pursuant to the Ethical Guidelines, the Government Pension Fund – Global should not invest in companies that cause severe environmental damages. In its assessment, the Council on Ethics concluded that Barrick Gold Corporation is causing severe environmental damages as a direct result of its operations. I have therefore decided to follow the Council on Ethics' recommendation on exclusion of Barrick Gold Corporation from the investment universe of the Fund," says Minister of Finance Kristin Halvorsen.
Barrick Gold is a Canadian mining company and the largest producer of gold in the world, with 27 mines in operation. The Council points out that Barrick Gold's mining activities in several countries have been accused of causing extensive environmental damage.
Due to limited resources, the Council has restricted its investigation to the Porgera mine in Papua New Guinea, which is run by Porgera Joint Venture, in which Barrick Gold has a 95 per cent stake. In the opinion of the Council, the way this mine is run provides sufficient basis for recommending exclusion.
The Council provides an extensive review of the environmental problems linked to depositing waste in the river. The Council attaches particular importance to the risk of accumulation and build up of heavy metals, especially mercury, in the environment. Pollution from the Porgera mine will potentially have serious negative consequences for human life and health.
The Council concludes:
"In light of the documentation at hand, the Council finds that Barrick's operation of the Porgera mine entails an unacceptable risk of extensive and irreversible damage to the natural environment. According to the Council's assessment, the company's riverine disposal practice is in breach of international norms. In the Council's view, the company's assertions that its operations do not cause long-term and irreversible environmental damage carry little credibility. This is reinforced by the lack of openness and transparency in the company's environmental reporting. Considering the intentions presented by the company with regard to production expansion, the Council finds reason to believe that the company's unacceptable practice will continue in the future."
The Ministry of Finance has considered the matter in light of the Council on Ethics' recommendation and has decided to exclude Barrick Gold Corporation from the investment universe of the Government Pension Fund – Global, in accordance with the Ethical Guidelines for the fund.
In a letter dated 30 September 2008, the Ministry of Finance asked Norges Bank to sell its shares in the company. The shares have now all been sold. At the end of July 2008, the Government Pension Fund–Global owned shares worth just under NOK 1 248 million in the company. The decision to sell is made public after the shares have been sold, so as not to affect the sale.
The recommendations from the Council on Ethics for the Government Pension Fund–Global are published on the Ministry of Finance's website. Read more about the Council on Ethics for the Government Pension Fund–Global at www.etikkradet.no.
For more information: sakura.saunders@gmail.com, www.ProtestBarrick.net
"Canada does not yet have laws to ensure that the activities of Canadian mining companies in developing countries conform to human rights standards, including the rights of workers and of indigenous peoples." – Canada's Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Trade. June 2005
"Canadian mining companies are taking advantage of to expand into all corners of the globe, manipulating, slandering, abusing, and even killing those who dare to oppose them, displacing Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities alike, supporting repressive governments and taking advantage of weak ones, and contaminating and destroying sensitive ecosystems." -- Jamie Kneen, MiningWatch Canada. November 2006
* * *
WHAT TO DO
There is no magic formula to holding North American corporate investors, shareholders and governments fully accountable for the environmental and health harms and human rights violations occurring in many countries around the world where our corporations are operating.
These are not unique situations. They are being repeated to varying degrees where many companies are operating across the world.
US and Canadian citizens should write to, and keep writing to, their own politicians, making them aware of these situations, demanding that our governments prioritize global human rights and environmental concerns over global business interests, demanding that our governments pass criminal and civil laws to help hold our corporations accountable if/ when they violate human rights and/or cause environmental and health harms.
This is slow, long-term work. We need to make our governments accountable to us in all facets of global economic relations and policies.
US and Canadian citizens should write to and keep writing to their own Pension Funds and Investment Brokers, to find out what types of corporations and businesses they are investing in, to demand that our investors prioritize global human rights and environmental concerns over profits, to insist that investments be withdrawn if/ when profits are being made at the expense of environmental and health harms and/ or human rights violations.
* * *
TO MAKE TAX-DEDUCTIBLE DONATIONS for Indigenous and community-based organizations in Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Peru and southern Mexico that are resisting the harms caused by large-scale “development” projects (mining, tourism, hydro-electric dams) and implementing their own community development projects (schools and scholarships, health clinics, solidarity economy productive projects, etc), human rights and environment projects, make check payable to "Rights Action" and mail to:
* UNITED STATES: Box 50887, Washington DC, 20091-0887
* CANADA: 552 - 351 Queen St. E, Toronto ON, M5A-1T8
CREDIT-CARD DONATIONS: http://www.rightsaction.org/Templates/donations_index.html
TO JOIN Rights Action’s email list and/or quarterly newsletter list: info@rightsaction.org
CREATE YOUR OWN E-MAIL LIST and re-distribute this and other information
DAILY NEWS: Watch & listen to www.democracynow.org; Read www.upsidedownworld.org, www.dominionpaper.ca
READ: Eduardo Galeano’s “Open Veins of Latin America”; Howard Zinn’s “A People’s History of the United States”; Naomi Klein’s “The Shock Doctrine”;
www.rightsaction.org - Based in Guatemala, Rights Action (with tax-deductible legal status in Canada and USA) funds and works with community-based Indigenous, development, environment and human rights organizations in Guatemala and Honduras, and also in Oaxaca, Chiapas, El Salvador, Peru, Haiti and Nicaragua; and educates about and is involved in activism related to global development, environmental and Indigenous and human rights struggles.