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Index: AFR 62/001/2013
June 2013
PROFITS AND LOSS
MINING AND HUMAN RIGHTS IN KATANGA,
DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO
The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has some of the world’s
most important mineral reserves, including copper and cobalt. However,
natural resource wealth has not brought lasting benefit to the majority
of the people; on the contrary, mining has been associated with serious
and widespread human rights violations.
In the southern province of Katanga, people’s lives have been torn apart
as a result of mining operations. Small-scale miners working in appalling
conditions have suffered arbitrary detention, beatings, ill-treatment or
even death at the hands of the police or the mines’ security personnel.
Communities have been forcibly evicted from mining areas without
compensation, or consultation.
Chinese companies are on course to become the most influential
foreign economic actors in the extractive sector in Katanga and the
DRC. They will have a major impact on the lives of millions. But how well
do these companies comply with their responsibility to respect human
rights, and what is the role of the DRC and Chinese governments in
regulating the companies?
This report highlights significant human rights abuses in Katanga’s
mining sector, involving Chinese – as well as other – companies. It calls on
mining companies to abide by the law and uphold their responsibility to
respect human rights, and on governments to hold the industry to account.