Report on rights violation under study

September 11, 2008 pg 34

Story: Musah Yahaya Jafaru
STAKEHOLDERS in the country’s mining industry are strategising on how to protect the rights of both people in mining communities and operators of big mining concessions.
Consequently, the stakeholders, namely the Ministry of Lands, Forestry and Mines, the Minerals Commission, the Ghana Chamber of Mines and mining concessions have come out with a report containing recommendations on how to stop the violations of the rights of the people and operators.
The Public Relations Officer of the Ministry of Lands, Forestry and Mines, Mr Charles Wereko, who made this known to the Daily Graphic, said the report was being studied by the stakeholders in preparation for possible actions.
He was reacting to the State of Human Rights in Mining Communities in Ghana 2008 report, which indicated that the rights of people in mining areas are being violated in Ghana. The report, published by the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ), cited widespread pollution of water bodies by mining companies, deprivation and loss of livelihood as a result of mining and excesses by state security agencies as some of the human rights violations.
Mr Wereko did not give details of the report but indicated that the recommendations sought to address the concerns of both indigenes of mining areas and owners of big concessions.
According to him, there had been an upsurge of encroachment on the concessions of big mining companies by small illegal miners.
He also noted that some of the water bodies in mining communities had been polluted, and indicated that some of the allegations had to be proved by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
Mr Wereko indicated that the operators of mining concessions employed the services of security agencies or private security guards to guard their concessions.
He said such security guards prevented illegal miners from straying to the concessions, which the illegal miners complained of as violation of their rights.
Nonetheless, Mr Wereko said so far as the people were Ghanaians, the government was committed to protecting their rights by ensuring that they were not being harassed by the security guards.
Besides, he said, the Minerals Commission was also considering the possibility of reaching an agreement with big mining concessions to cede some part of their concessions that they were not mining to small-scale mining companies.
“They are considering having enclaves within the concessions where the small-scale miners can operate,” he stressed.
In that regard, he said the Minerals Commission had asked small-scale mining companies to register their companies with the Commission as a way of regularising their operations.
However, he said, very few companies had so far registered with the Commission, thus making attempts at helping the small-scale miners difficult.
According to Mr Wereko, the stakeholders wanted to “come out with a broad strategy to ensure that the concession of large companies are not encroached on, and also look at the rights of illegal miners”.