In his latest dispatch from the field, the Enough Project’s Goma-based field researcher Fidel Bafilemba reports on a coalition of prominent Congolese civil society organizations working to address the linkage between natural resource exploitation and human rights abuses in the region. Their partnership is known as the Support Platform for Traceability, and Transparency in the Management of Natural Resources, or GATT-RN. Bafilemba writes:
Against formidable odds, these groups are operating in an environment where even Congolese President Kabila has acknowledged the domination of Eastern Congo’s minerals trade by “a type of mafia.” However, the efforts of GATT-RN’s members’ are earning the group regional and international recognition as a reliable interlocutor. (…) By educating local communities about the various traceability tools including the ICGLR’s RINR framework, the OECD due diligence guidelines, and the U.S. conflict minerals legislation, GATT-RN aims to be a whistleblower for any violations in the stated commitments of the various Congolese mining stakeholders.
Read more about their fight for mining reform in our full field dispatch.
Photo: Tin ore (Sasha Lezhnev/ Enough Project)