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UNITY STATEMENT
OF THE INTERNATIONAL CAUCUS ON MINING AND WTO
Boys and Girls Club Association, Hongkong
December 15, 2005

We, indigenous peoples (IP), women, artisanal/small-scale miners and mining-affected communities, environmental advocates and activists, and representing people's movements in China, Ghana, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Mongolia, Peru, Philippines, United Kingdom, United States of America have gathered in the International Caucus on Mining and the World Trade Organization (WTO) in Hong Kong to forge a common understanding of the developments in global mining and the people's resistance to continuing plunder and destruction by mining transnational corporations (TNCs).

We have also gathered to denounce the 6th Ministerial Meeting of the WTO, which through negotiations on Non-Agricultural Market Access (NAMA) and General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) want to further liberalize local industries and gain direct control of the world's mineral resources.

2. For the past decades, mining struggles have intensified as globalization policies sweep through more than 120 mineralized countries all over the world . Mining TNCs, with their agents and minions in bureaucracies and international financial institutions, have distorted, dismantled and amended constitutions, national policies and laws, systems and norms to be able to outrightly plunder and exploit what are left of the world’s mineral resources. In the name of profit, they have deprived the peoples of the world of their inherent right to benefit from these natural resources for their own livelihood and for their countries' own development. Meanwhile, the people are left to suffer from the destruction and pollution that their mining operations have wreaked.

3. We are proud to be part of the mining struggles raging in countries like India, Kenya, Tanzania, Ghana and other African countries, China, Peru, Bangladesh, Indonesia and the Philippines. We have condemned the blatant violations of economic, social and cultural human rights and massive displacement of indigenous peoples and peasants. We condemn the displacement of peoples, disruption of livelihoods, destruction of ecosystem, militarization, land grabbing, killings, violation of land rights act. We have decried abuses of mine workers and their rights and welfare. We denounce the mining TNCs for their environmental impacts and their infringement on our national sovereignty.

4. We are aware that the mining TNCs are re-surging as the prices and demand for minerals in the international market is on the uptrend. They are reasserting their plundering agenda through false promises of sustainable development and sustainable mining constructs, through deceitful image-building projects like Corporate Environmental Social Responsibility, Code of Ethics and Code of Conduct, and through public-relations gimmickry such as presenting showcases of Best Practices. This mining agenda is now being pushed in the current round of the Ministerial Meeting of the WTO in Hong Kong.

5. Mining TNCs, their governments, WTO, World Bank, and international financial institutions (IFIs) are conspiring to impose their globalization policies on third world governments to further liberalize mining investments, trade, services and market access. Arrayed against these, some third world governments posture and make a show of defiance but in the end they collaborate with foreign investors and creditors to disenfranchise the world’s people of their resources and the very means to life.

In this light, we reaffirm our collective position for the people and for the environment:

1. Oppose the globalization of the mining industry through policies of privatization, liberalization and deregulation, as those set down in the GATS and NAMA agreements. Oppose all anti-people and pro-TNC mining policies.
2. Ban destructive mining methods and technologies such as open-pit mining, and riverine and submarine-tailings disposal. No more mining in agricultural and protected areas.
3. Develop and ensure implementation of mining standards and practices that genuinely protect the rights and welfare of the people and environment. Hold mining TNCs and national governments responsible and punishable for the social, economic and environmental impacts wrought by their large-scale mining operations. Immediate and adequate compensation for mining-affected people and rehabilitation of the environment.
4. Uphold and protect the rights of indigenous and aboriginal peoples to self-determination and ancestral domain in mining areas.
5. Oppose the militarization in mining areas. Justice to victims of human rights violations in the name of corporate mining.
6. Expose the duplicity of the global mining industry in their promotion of mining TNCs projects and operations as socially, economically, culturally and environmentally acceptable. Expose and oppose NGOs that in any way collaborate in the promotion of this propaganda.
7. Promote mine workers' right to decent wages and benefits, right to organize, and to work in a safe working environment.
8. Re-orient mining industries to genuinely address people's needs and nations' needs to develop and industrialize.

Adopted by participants of the International Caucus on Mining and WTO, held at the Boys' and Girls' Clubs Association, Lockhart Street, Hong Kong, on December 15, 2005.

1) BARCIK (BANGLADESH)
2) CENTER FOR ENVIRONMENTAL CONCERNS (PHILIPPINES)
3) CHINA ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION NGO
4) COMMUNITY RESOURCE INSTITUTE (KENYA)
5) CORDILLERA PEOPLES ALLIANCE (PHILIPPINES)
6) DIVERSE WOMEN FOR DIVERSITY
7) FRIENDS OF THE EARTH INTERNATIONAL
8) GUIZHOU HIGHLAND DEVELOPMENT INSTITUTION (CHINA)
9) IBON FOUNDATION (PHILIPPINES)
10) IMPACT (KENYA)
11) JARINGAN ADVOKASI TAMBANG (JATAM)
12) KALIKASAN PEOPLE'S NETWORK FOR THE ENVIRONMENT (PHILIPPINES)
13) KUELAP (PERU)
14) LRC-KSK/FRIENDS OF THE EARTH (PHILIPPINES)
15) MINES AND COMMUNITIES (UNITED KINGDOM)
16) NAFLU-KMU (PHILIPPINES)
17) PHILDHRRA/ATM (PHILIPPINES)
18) SOUTHERN TAGALOG ENVIRONMENTAL ACTION MOVEMENT
19) SPTN HPS (INDONESIA)
20) THIRD WORLD NETWORK AFRICA
21) VOICE (BANGLADESH)