Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gxg78 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-23T23:55:34.816Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The interaction between humanitarian non-governmental organisations and extractive industries: a perspective from Médecins Sans Frontières

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 September 2013

Philippe Calain
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This opinion note explores some aspects of the relationship between humanitarian non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and extractive industries. Médecins sans Frontières (Doctors without Borders, MSF) has endorsed a policy of non-engagement with the corporate sector of the extractive industries, particularly when it comes to financial donations. This is coherent with MSF being first and foremost a medical organisation, and one that adheres to the humanitarian principles of independence and neutrality. For humanitarian actors, the prospect of future environmental disasters and environmental conflicts calls for the anticipation of novel encounters, not only with environmental organisations but also with the extractive sector. Unlike environmental organisations, extractive industries are prone to generating or perpetuating different forms of violence, often putting extractive companies on a par with the parties to armed conflicts. In situations where a dialogue with extractive companies would be needed to optimise care and access to victims, humanitarian organisations should carefully weigh pragmatic considerations against the risk of being co-opted as medical providers of mitigation measures.

Keywords

MSFextractive industriesarmed conflictcorporate social responsibilitylocal communitiesneutralityconflicts of interest
Type
Opinion Note
Information
International Review of the Red Cross , Volume 94 , Issue 887: Business, violence and conflict , September 2012 , pp. 1115 - 1124
Copyright
Copyright © International Committee of the Red Cross 2013 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 See Fischer-Kowalski, Marina et al. , Decoupling Natural Resource Use and Environmental Impacts from Economic Growth, report of the Working Group on Decoupling to the International Resource Panel, Nairobi, United Nations Environment Programme, 2011Google Scholar, Figure 2.1 and pp. 10–11, available at: www.unep.org/resourcepanel/decoupling/files/pdf/decoupling_report_english.pdf. All internet references were accessed in 2013 unless otherwise stated.

2 See, for example, Michelle Faul, ‘Africa's oldest park threatened by rebels, now oil’, in The Guardian, 5 October 2012, available at: www.guardian.co.uk/world/feedarticle/10470121/print.

3 See, for example, Romero, Simon, ‘Brazil expands mines to drive future, but cost is a treasured link to its past’, in New York Times, 15 December 2012Google Scholar, available at: www.nytimes.com/2012/12/16/world/americas/in-brazil-caves-would-be-lost-in-mining-project.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0.

4 Sibaud, Philippe, Opening the Pandora Box: The New Wave of Land Grabbing by the Extractive industries and the Devastating Impact on Earth, The Gaia Foundation, London, 2012Google Scholar, available at: www.gaiafoundation.org/sites/default/files/PandorasBoxReportFinal.pdf.

5 For example, artisanal gold mining has been the cause of an ongoing outbreak of lead poisoning in Zamfara State, Nigeria. See Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), Lead Poisoning Crisis in Zamfara State, Northern Nigeria, MSF Briefing Paper, May 2012Google Scholar, available at: www.doctorswithoutborders.org/publications/reports/2012/Lead%20Poisoning%20Crisis%20in%20Zamfara%20State%20Northern%20Nigeria.pdf.

6 In the eastern provinces of the Democratic Republic of Congo, the army and militias control many sites of mineral extraction, including deposits of gold and metals of the tin group. See International Alert, The Role of the Exploitation of Natural Resources in Fuelling and Prolonging Crises in the Eastern DRC, International Alert, London, 2009Google Scholar, available at: www.international-alert.org/sites/default/files/publications/Natural_Resources_Jan_10.pdf.

7 de Berne, Déclaration (ed.), SwissTrading SA: la Suisse, le négoce et la malédiction des matières premières, 1st edition, Editions d'en bas, Lausanne, 2011, ch. 13, pp. 215–222Google Scholar.

8 Calain, Philippe, ‘Oil for health in sub-Saharan Africa: health systems in a “resource curse” environment’, in Globalization and Health, Vol. 4, No. 10, 2008CrossRefGoogle Scholar (online), available at: www.globalizationandhealth.com/content/4/1/10.

9 Calain, Philippe, ‘What is the relationship of medical humanitarian organisations with mining and other extractive industries?’, in PLoS Medicine, Vol. 9, No. 8, 2012CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed, available at: www.plosmedicine.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pmed.1001302.

10 Di John, Jonathan, ‘Is there really a resource curse? A critical survey of theory evidence’, in Global Governance, Vol. 17, 2011, pp. 167–184Google Scholar.

11 See, for example, Gender Action and Friends of the Earth International, Broken Promises: Gender Impacts of the World Bank-Financed West-African and Chad-Cameroon Pipelines, 2011Google Scholar, available at: www.genderaction.org/publications/11/chad-cam-wagp-pipelines.pdf.

12 See, for example, Sweeney, John, ‘Glencore mine linked to child labour’, in BBC Panorama, 16 April 2012Google Scholar, available at: www.bbc.co.uk/news/17702487.

13 For example, see Aid, Christian, The Scorched Earth: Oil and War in Sudan, Christian Aid UK, London, 2001Google Scholar, part 2, chs. 2–4, pp. 12–29; European Coalition on Oil in Sudan, Unpaid Debt: the Legacy of Lundin, Petronas and OMW in Block 5A, Sudan 1997–2003, June 2010, available at: www.ecosonline.org/reports/2010/UNPAID_DEBT_fullreportweb.pdf.

14 See Déclaration de Berne, above note 7, p. 315.

15 Catherine Coumans, ‘Whose development? Mining, local resistance and development agendas’, Mining Watch Canada, 29 November 2011, available at: www.miningwatch.ca/article/whose-development-mining-local-resistance-and-development-agendas.

16 See, for example, Rick Westerhead, ‘Donors closing wallets to Canadian charities who work with CIDA, mining companies’, in Toronto Star, 31 January 2013, available at: www.thestar.com/news/world/2013/01/31/donors_closing_wallets_to_canadian_charities_who_work_with_cida_mining_companies.html.

17 MSF, ‘Corporate Fundraising Statement’, internal document, October 2010.

18 Jean Saslawsky, ‘Financing humanitarian aid’, XIV Humanitarian Congress Berlin, 12 October 2012, available at: http://humanitarian-congress-berlin.org/files/8013/5064/5592/Jean_Saslawsky_-_Financing_Humanitarian_Aid__12_Oct_2012.pdf.

19 See P. Calain, above note 9.

20 Global Health Watch, ‘Chapter C6: Oil extraction and health in the Niger Delta’, in Global Health Watch 2: an alternative World Health Report, Zed Books, London and New York, 2008, pp. 170–184.

21 Bebbington, Anthony J. and Bury, Jeffrey T., ‘Institutional challenges for mining and sustainability in Peru’, in PNAS, Vol. 106, No. 41, pp. 17296–17301CrossRefGoogle Scholar, available at: www.pnas.org/content/early/2009/09/23/0906057106.full.pdf+html.

22 De Soysa, Indra and Gizelis, Ismene, ‘The natural resource curse and the spread of HIV/AIDS, 1990–2008’, in Social Science & Medicine, Vol. 77, 2013, pp. 90–96CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

23 Stuckler, David, Basu, Sanjay, McKee, Martin, and Lurie, Mark, ‘Mining and risk of tuberculosis in sub-Saharan Africa’, in American Journal of Public Health, Vol. 101, No. 3, 2011, pp. 524–530CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed.

24 Chatham House, The IDRAM Initiative: Extractive Industries Infectious Disease Risk Assessment and Management – Stakeholder Roundtable, Meeting Summary, Centre on Global Health Security, November 2012Google Scholar, available at: www.chathamhouse.org/publications/papers/view/187975.

25 Shah, Naman K., ‘Corporate philanthropy and conflicts of interest in public health: ExxonMobil, Equatorial Guinea, and malaria’, in Journal of Public Health Policy, Vol. 34, No. 1, 2013, pp. 121–136CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed.

26 Mackintosh, Kate, The Principles of Humanitarian Action in International Humanitarian Law, HPG Report 5, Humanitarian Policy Group, Overseas Development Institute, London, 2000Google Scholar, available at: www.odi.org.uk/sites/odi.org.uk/files/odi-assets/publications-opinion-files/305.pdf.

27 Rist, Gilbert, The History of Development, 3rd edition, Zed Books, London, 2008, pp. 21–24Google Scholar.

28 See, for example, the headlines of Mines and Communities, available at: www.minesandcommunities.org.

29 VanDeveer, Stacy D., Still Digging: Extractive Industries, Resource Curses, and Transnational Governance in the Anthropocene, Transatlantic Academy Paper Series, January 2013Google Scholar, available at: www.transatlanticacademy.org/sites/default/files/publications/VanDeveer_StillDigging_Jan13_web.pdf.

30 Chris Newsom, Conflict in the Niger Delta, Special Report 271, United States Institute of Peace, June 2011, available at: www.usip.org/sites/default/files/resources/Conflict_Niger_Delta.pdf.

31 Hamilton, Anne, Oil-Exploitation as a Factor of Violence in the Context of 2012 South Sudan–Sudan Border Conflict, Social Science Research Network, 25 April 2012CrossRefGoogle Scholar, available at: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2046167.

32 Mukwege, Denis Mukengere and Nangini, Cathy, ‘Rape with extreme violence: the new pathology in South Kivu, Democratic Republic of Congo’, in PLoS Medicine, Vol. 6, No. 12, 2009Google ScholarPubMed, available at: www.plosmedicine.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pmed.1000204.

33 United Nations Organization Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Report on the Conclusions of the Special Investigation into Allegations of Summary Executions and Other Violations of Human Rights Committed by the FARDC in Kilwa (Province of Katanga) on 15 October 2004, MONUC Kinshasa, September 2005, pp. 8–10Google Scholar, available at: http://raid-uk.org/docs/Kilwa_Trial/MONUC_report_oct05_eng_translated_by_RAID.pdf. See also Global Witness, No Justice in Canada for Congolese Massacre Victims as Canada's Supreme Court Dismisses Leave to Appeal in Case against Anvil Mining, 1 November 2012, available at: www.globalwitness.org/library/no-justice-canada-congolese-massacre-victims-canada%E2%80%99s-supreme-court-dismisses-leave-appeal.

34 Witzig, Richard and Ascencios, Massiel, ‘The road to extinction: case study of resource exportation, disease importation, and human rights violations against the Urarina in the Peruvian Amazon’, in Health and Human Rights, Vol. 4, No. 1, 1999, pp. 60–81CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed.

35 ILO Convention No. 169, available at: www.ilo.org/indigenous/Conventions/no169/lang–en/index.htm.

36 For a legal definition of non-international armed conflicts, see Vité, Sylvain, ‘Typology of armed conflicts in international humanitarian law: legal concepts and actual situations’, in International Review of the Red Cross, Vol. 91, No. 873, 2009, pp. 69–94CrossRefGoogle Scholar, available at: www.icrc.org/eng/assets/files/other/irrc-873-vite.pdf.

37 Neutrality is not mentioned in the Geneva Conventions. See K. Mackintosh, above note 26, p. 8.

38 Baur, Dorothea and Schmitz, Hans Peter, ‘Corporations and NGOs: when accountability leads to co-optation’, in Journal of Business Ethics, Vol. 106, No. 1, 2012, pp. 9–21CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

39 Uche, Chibuike, ‘Oil, British interests and the Nigerian Civil War’, in Journal of African History, Vol. 49, No. 1, 2008, pp. 111–135CrossRefGoogle Scholar.