Women’s front Int’l women’s group face the challenge of mining

By CORDILLERA WOMEN’S EDUCATION, ACTION & RESEARCH CENTER
www.nordis.net

The International Women and Mining Network or Red Internacional Mujeres y Mineria (RIMM) conducted their strategy planning workshop in Baguio City last July 4-7, 2010. This was hosted by the Cordillera Women’s Education Action Research Center (CWEARC) and the Cordillera Peoples Alliance (CPA) who were part in forming this Network in 1997 in Baguio City. 

Attending the Strategy Planning Workshop were 17  RIMM members from Bolivia, Chile, Peru, Nigeria, United Kingdom, India, Mongolia, Indonesia, Philippines and Papua New Guinea.  The participants recognized the role that RIMM played in serving as the first and only platform that has brought women from different countries to an international level on the mining issue and gender justice.  
RIMM is truly facing a big challenge given the present direction of the mining industry at national and global levels of ever more resolved to extract the remaining mineral and oil resources of the world with national mining laws and policies playing to their favor”, says Vernie Yocogan-Diano of CWEARC who also served as the RIMM coordinator for Asia since 2004.  This makes the strategy planning workshop timely in terms of defining where to bring the Network in the next 3 years, the key issues to be tackled and an improved coordination given the challenge of resources, language and geographical distance of members. 

The participants further acknowledged that women’s actions on the issue of mining have strengthened women’s organizations, developed campaign and advocacy programs which brought the mining issue to various levels of attention and legislation in their own countries, and in some occasions brought the issue to international bodies like the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Peoples and the UN Special Rapporteur on Indigenous Peoples Rights.

Study Sessions on women and mining, mining fact-finding missions particularly in Asia and effective networking with other women’s groups like the Asia Pacific Forum on Women, Law and Development (APWLD) and publication of cases studies of the various impact of mining to food security, land rights, health and other dimension of human rights to women and children, have been useful activities for interaction. These strategies contributed in increasing the analysis and capacity of women’s organizations involved in the mining issue.  

Included in the key issues that RIMM will work on in the next 3 years is addressing the gap issues between women mine workers and women in mine-affected communities to include indigenous and peasant women. It was recognized by RIMM that both have different issues and therefore have different calls.   However, both women mine workers and mine-affected communities, have a common call for justice from mining companies which maybe a range of calls from closure of mining companies with notorious records of various forms of human rights violations, demand for benefits from mining companies and making them responsible to their workers and just compensation for the destruction they cause to the environment, lands of communities and food sources. 

Trends in international mining should be constantly monitored and studied by RIMM. “From mining the lands, the mining corporations are moving to the sea”, expressed Matilda Koma of the Centre for Environmental Research and Development (CERD) in Papua New Guinea and new RIMM coordinator for Australia-Pacific.  

Indonesia which is a major producer of coal in the world, continue to suffer from energy crisis”, shared by Siti Maemunah of JATAM, Indonesia and new RIMM coordinator for Asia.  Oil extraction in Nigeria continues to cause conflict among peoples in the country was shared by Martha Agbani of the Lokiala Community Development Centre in Nigeria. 

Members from Latin America share their persistence in raising more benefits for women who are working in the mines. Some of them have developed the concept of Green Gold under the context of fair trade involving cooperatives or associations of small-scale and artisanal  miners.  Documentation of such experiences will have to be discussed further in RIMM and study the conditions that enable the success of such projects.

Interventions to international processes provided by the UN like the CEDAW, UNPFII and CBD have also been identified to raise local and national level experiences. The Gender Impact Assessment on Mining which was used by some RIMM members will also be enriched and used by member organizations as an additional advocacy tool.  Trainings to enable mine-affected women and their communities to participate in the access of justice on environmental matters, were included in the plan. 

Bhanumathi from India and from the international secretariat noted that RIMM members will share on the responsibilities in addressing the key issues and realizing the activities. As such, regional and thematic coordinators were identified to coordinate the work at regional levels. Thematic coordinators cover indigenous women and communities and labor which includes women in small-scale mining.  The coordinators also composes the international coordinating committee  (ICC) which will ensure that the program set by RIMM will be attained and decide on adjustments that need to be done.# nordis.net