Category: Corporations

A Judgment in South Africa

Sometimes, one’s studies and the developments of the “real world” come together in surprising ways. As I make the very last adjustments to my paper on the engagement of mining corporations with the indigenous right to “free, prior and informed consent”, a South African court ruling makes headlines around the world.… Read More

In this world of technology, most of us possess electronic gadgets. But how often do we stop to think about the mineral components that were obtained to manufacture our laptop or smartphone?… Read More

The UN Forum on Business and Human Rights

From 26-28^thof November 2018, the United Nations Forum on Business and Human Rights was held in Geneva. The Forum is the world’s largest annual gathering on business and human rights with more than 2,000 participants from government, business, community groups and civil society, law firms, investor organizations, UN bodies, national human rights institutions, trade unions, academia and the media [1].… Read More

This movie is about the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon platform and the oil spill that happened in April 2010 in the Gulf of Mexico, off the coast of Louisiana. The whole movie revolves around the events occurred before the explosion and around the moment of the explosion itself, which is good because it gives the spectator an idea of how the oil industry works and of how the different actors relate to each other.… Read More

In the 1947, De Beers created the slogan, “A diamond is forever” (De Beers Group 2018). Little did they expect that several decades later, the same diamond could forever be a reminder of the atrocities of the diamond industry, in which conflict and violence were funded by the mines from which many of these diamonds had been harvested (Marr 2018).  … Read More

For centuries, mining has been an important economic activity to many people in the world. And its impacts, economic, environmental or social may leave an irreversible mark on the landscape and on the lives of the people affected by it.… Read More

Colombia’s economy is rising. The country is experiencing a mining boom, particularly of coal. The coal-rich areas are often found in rural areas where indigenous communities live.In 1976 one of the largest open-pit coal mines of the world was built in the department La Guajira, in the Northeast of Colombia after signing a partnership agreement between the state (Carbones de Colombia SA), Carboncol and Intercor (subsidiary of Exxon).… Read More

Cepal (Economic Commission for Latin Americ and the Caribbean) launches study  that investigates the tax planning of companies and other actors in the mining sector in the Andean countries, providing estimates of illicit capital outflows associated with mining exploitation and of tax resources that are not collected due to this type of practices.… Read More