Liberia- 1st- Extractives sector

CHAPTER TWO: SITUATIONAL ANALYSIS
2.1. Introduction
[…] The various stakeholders’ consultations and research conducted between 2019 and 2023 revealed that various human rights violations and abuses occurred across the Liberian business sectors – including industrial and artisanal mining… r etail and services, manufacturing, fishery, and agribusiness. These abuses happen irrespective of the size or niche of business operations. These abuses happen irrespective of the size or niche of business operations. Sexual harassment and sexual exploitation and abuse (SEA), low remuneration and poor working conditions, including inadequate safety gears, gender discrimination and employment discrimination against persons with disabilities, non-compliance with legal best practices, violation of corporate responsibility in concessional areas, illegal harvesting of timber and mineral resources – these are among several crosscutting concerns that have always attended the business, workplace, and human rights landscape. These findings were also highlighted in the report of the United Nations Working Group on Business and Human Rights following their visit to Liberia from 31 October to 11 November 2022.

2.2. Liberia’s Experience with Business and Human Rights
[…] Over the decades, the extraction and commercialization of the country’s natural resources have been a source of tension and sometimes conflict between forest and resource-dwelling communities, companies, and the government. These have mostly been concerning marginalization of the local communities in policy formulation and other decision-making processes, limited benefits, and inaccessibility of benefits from the companies and the government to communities living in and around the resources.[…].

2.3 Thematic Focus of the NAPBHR
2.3.1. Land and Natural Resources
The Liberian economy heavily relies on the mining sector, particularly iron ore, which contributed almost half of the country’s earnings before 1990. Since 2006, significant investments from major players like Arcelor Mittal, Bea Mountain, China Union, and others, have fuelled the sector. While iron ore dominates, Liberia also possesses substantial deposits of diamonds, gold, manganese, bauxite, uranium, zinc, and lead. Mineral exports, including raw or semi-finished products, constitute 20% of the country’s total export earnings, with large international companies holding mineral development agreements. […]
A decade of policy and legal reforms targeting land and the natural resource sector and progress towards more inclusive decision-making about natural resources and benefit sharing is reshaping the relationships among communities, the government, and the private sector. In principle, this marks a dramatic and progressive shift from past predatory approaches to governance when large segments of the Liberian population “were systematically excluded and marginalized from institutions of political governance and access to key economic assets”10 including land and land-based resources.

2.3.2. Labor Rights
[…] There is limited data on industrial accidents relative to mining, construction, forestry, fishing, and agriculture which are considered the most dangerous sectors. Hazardous occupations are especially dangerous in the informal sector, such as illegal fishing, logging, and mining, where the lack of regulation and remediation contributes to fatalities. […]
2.3.4. Environment
[…] Among the chief perpetrators involved in environmental misuse and despoiling the fragile balance in nature are businesses such as logging, manufacturing, commercial agriculture, overfishing, mining, sand/mineral extraction. When such businesses and others remain unregulated, their operations contribute enormously to chronic or long-term illnesses and deaths. International instruments such as the Universal Declaration of Human rights and the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights clearly express the rights of people to a clean and healthy environment.

The NAPBHR consultations identified the following concerns related to environmental protection:
[…]

9. Environmental degradation by artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) interests.

2.3.5 Transparency and Accountability
[…] As Liberia strives to implement its national development goals, public corruption, impunity, and weak accountability undermine the envisioned agenda. These challenges emanating from businesses and others seeking to misappropriate the public treasury have given birth to the establishment of integrity bodies charged with ensuring transparency and accountability. The Liberia Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (LEITI), the General Auditing Commission (GAC), the Internal Auditing Bureau (IAA), and the Liberia Anti-Corruption Commission (LACC) are some such integrity institutionsLEITI was established in 2007 for the purpose of promoting good resource governance through the implementation of the international criteria and principles of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI). In July 2021, the Liberian Government agreed to join the Open Extractive Program (OEP), a brainchild of the Open Ownership (OO), which is being conjointly implemented with EITI. The OEP is dedicated to enabling government and companies to disclose high quality and open Beneficial Ownership (BO) information, build capacity of key stakeholders to use and analyze BO data and organize regional and global peer exchange program to facilitate sharing of implementation challenges, opportunities, and successes. In August 2022, the Liberia Business Registry and LEITI, along with other international partners, also developed a decision document and organized consultation with key stakeholders to deliberate on core aspects of the planned BO regulations. The project was launched by the Government of Liberia on 29 September 2023. […].

CHAPTER THREE: POLICY ACTIONS
3.1. Land and Natural Resources
To address the human rights concerns related to land and natural resources, the government of Liberia intends to do the following:
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b) Corporate Responsibility to Respect the rights to land and natural resources:
i. Businesses shall have Community Relations Guidelines as part of their corporate accountability. This shall be developed in conjunction with the community stakeholders – in this case, in communities offering leases for concession plantations and mining concerns.

3.4. Environment and Natural Resources
The following policy action shall be undertaken to address human rights issues related to the environment.
a) Under the State Duty to Protect the Environment, the government commits to the following:
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iii. For environmental hazards and workplace safety standards, the EPA shall step up its periodic monitoring and inspection of company premises and operations. Also, the surroundings of manufacturing, construction, and extractive industries shall be monitored to ascertain compliance with environmental standards. […].