Lands and Natural Resources Minister, Alhaji Collins Dauda
Report available to Today indicates that violations of the rights of people living in mining communities are on the increase.
This was uncovered after a nation-wide investigation conducted by the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) to determine in a systematic manner the nature and causes of violations in the mining sector.
Some of the violations are illegal arrest and detention of community members, torture of persons illegally arrested and detained, assault and battery of youth accused of trespassing on mine property (sometimes involving the use of firearms and other deadly weapons).
The rest are illegal mining and interference (often violent, involving the use of firearms) against citizens engaged in public protests against activities of mining companies.
In all, the team conducted 175 focus group discussions involving 847 people (520 male, 327 female).
Semi-structured interviews were also conducted with 21 institutions and organizations, including civil society organizations.
The results show that there is evidence of widespread violations of human rights of individual members of communities and communities’ collective rights in some mining areas in the country.
The team inspected certain locations in the communities including areas where active mining took place, water bodies and supply points, abandoned pits, factory premises and facilities, damaged houses and buildings, galamsey pits, schools, livelihood facilities and resettlement infrastructure in the mining communities.
The most serious complaints of abuses came from communities within the operational areas of long history of mining and least in those at mine development phase.
While issues of excess force against individuals and of deprivation of livelihoods were more endemic in large-scale mining areas, child labour was absent in these mines but very endemic in small-scale mining areas.
The report concludes that there has been widespread pollution of communities’ water sources, deprivation and loss of livelihoods.
Several examples of excesses by the security agencies and the security contractors of the mining companies were provided and documented.
Some of these excesses had resulted in serious injuries and were sometimes fatal.
Findings included inadequate compensation for destroyed properties, unacceptable alternative livelihood projects, absence of effective channels of communications/consultations between companies and communities, excesses against galamseys, health problems attributed to mining, spillage of cyanide and unfulfilled promises of employment.
According to the report, state institutions with regulatory and monitoring responsibility for the mining sector have not performed optimally due to capacity constraints and advised the government to review the use of the military in the mining communities unless in exceptional circumstances which are beyond the control of the police service.
STORY: FROM NANA YIADOM DANQUAH, WASSA AKROPONG