*NEW PUBLICATION: LEGAL REMEDIES FOR THE RESOURCE CURSE* /A Digest of Experience in Using Law to Combat Natural Resource Corruption/
/*New York, September 6, 2005*/—The Justice Initiative today released a report assessing the availability of legal remedies for addressing corrupt practices in the natural resource industries. Legal Remedies for the Resource Curse is a digest of practical experience in using law to combat corruption across jurisdictions. When resource extraction companies can obtain oil, diamonds, gold, coltan, timber, and other natural resources through covert contacts with unaccountable government officials, the losers are the people in the communities where the wealth originates. The power of corrupt governments frequently derives from monopoly access to natural wealth, bolstered by foreign government and industry allies. Local populations suffer the effects of the “resource curse,” including the destruction of their immediate environment and the social and economic devastation that follows: arbitrary eviction and dispossession, unlawful arrest or harassment, and neglect of health care, housing, and education. This report reviews some of the main legal instruments used to date to combat natural resource corruption—as well as new, untested legal remedies that appear promising. Focusing on resource spoliation in Africa, it provides case studies to demonstrate what has and has not worked. The report treats the “home countries” of resource extraction companies separately from the “host countries” where they operate. It looks at both criminal and civil means of redress. Although corruption in transnational resource extraction is generally subject to inadequate legal safeguards, the report identifies opportunities for civil society action. To date, public interest lawyers have focused primarily on human rights violations and environmental damage associated with the extractive industries. Legal responses to corrupt practice itself remain relatively rare, despite the fact that spoliation can occur independently of human rights or environmental abuse, and often underlies these broader problems where they occur. The establishment of a legal environment that renders the theft of public assets, bribery, and money laundering impossible, or at least unprofitable, would be a significant step toward ending resource spoliation, and diminishing the human rights and environmental violations that accompany it. /Legal Remedies for the Resource Curse/ is available to download on the Justice Initiative website: www.justiceinitiative.org <http://www.justiceinitiative.org>. For a hard copy, please send your postal address to [EMAIL PROTECTED] <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>. ___________________ /The Open Society Justice Initiative, an operational program of the Open Society Institute (OSI), pursues law reform activities grounded in the protection of human rights, and contributes to the development of legal capacity for open societies worldwide. The Justice Initiative combines litigation, legal advocacy, technical assistance, and the dissemination of knowledge to secure advances in five priority areas: national criminal justice, international justice, freedom of information and expression, equality and citizenship, and anticorruption. Its offices are in Abuja, Budapest, and New York./ www.justiceinitiative.org <http://www.justiceinitiative.org/> ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Fair play? Video games influencing politics. Click and talk back! http://us.click.yahoo.com/VpgUKB/pzNLAA/cUmLAA/RR.olB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> *** sustineti [romania_eu_list] prin 1% din impozitul pe 2005 - detalii la http://www.europe.org.ro/euroatlantic_club/unulasuta.php *** Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/romania_eu_list/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
