Global Witness - Breaking the links between natural resources, conflict and corruption
Global Witness was not just the first organisation that sought to break the links between the exploitation of natural resources, and conflict and corruption. We gave birth to the concept, and have remained its leading practitioner. Established in 1993 by the three founding directors working from the front rooms of their homes, Global Witness now numbers over forty staff divided between its offices in London and Washington DC, and has built a truly impressive track record of success.
The campaigns Global Witness conceived are now regularly cited in rafts of international policy, treaties and laws, and by leading academic institutions. But more importantly, Global Witness has brought about real change; change that has saved lives, helped to stop wars, that has cost traders in conflict or illicit resources hundreds of millions of dollars, and has seen one of them jailed; hopefully the first of many.
In 1995, within five months of commencement, our very first campaign closed the Thai-Cambodia border to the $20 million per month timber trade between the Khmer Rouge and Thai logging companies. Our work to expose the funding of the Angolan civil war through oil and diamonds put conflict diamonds on the world map, and resulted in the groundbreaking creation of the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme to end the trade in conflict diamonds. The work on the Angolan elite's massive asset stripping of the country off the back of the civil war spawned the now global effort to deliver transparency of extractive industry revenues. Global Witness conceived and co-launched the Publish What You Pay campaign, now a coalition of over 300 NGOs, which in turn created the impetus for the UK to launch the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI), a major international initiative to ensure revenue transparency.
And along the way, in Liberia, Burma, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Indonesia, Sierra Leone and the oil rich Caspian states, Global Witness' investigations have exposed the trade in conflict and illicit resources, have brought government attention to bear on previously untouched criminal operations, and have deprived wars of the funding they need to continue.
But more than this, we have worked with local civil society which operates at great risk under some of the world's most oppressive regimes. We have been able to publicise issues they could not risk publicising themselves, and we have helped create a space for some of these organisations to operate in that they previously didn't have.
Latest Publications
March 2010
Landmark oil and mining transparency initiative faces credibility test as key deadline passes
The Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI), a pioneering initiative to bring more openness to the world's oil and mining industries, faces a major credibility test after 20 out of 22 countries failed to meet a key deadline today.
Global Witness urges Cambodia’s donors to condemn sponsorship of military units by private businesses
Aid donors to Cambodia, including the US, EU, Japan, China and the World Bank, should send a strong message to the government that they will not countenance the bankrolling of Cambodia’s military by private businesses. This call follows the announcement last week by Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen of the formation of 42 official partnerships between private businesses and Cambodian military units.
February 2010
A near miss? Lessons learnt from the allocation of mining licences in the Gola Forest Reserve in Sierra Leone
Between 2005 and 2007, two mining licences were issued in the Gola Forest Reserve in Sierra Leone, even though the area was a proposed national park. This new report identifies weaknesses in Sierra Leone's natural resource governance and attempts to draw lessons for the future.
Parliamentary committee report on libel, privacy and press freedom not strong enough to defend public interest reporting
A report on press standards, privacy and libel makes broadly sensible recommendations but does not go far enough to allay fears that England's laws are a barrier to public-interest campaigning.
Campaigners criticise proposals to define palm oil plantations as forests
The Ecosystems Climate Alliance today criticised the EU and Indonesia for attempting to reclassify palm oil plantations as forests, saying this would be a step backwards in efforts to halt climate change though preventing deforestation.
28 countries accused of facilitating money laundering … but key offenders missing
An international financial crime watchdog has named and shamed countries that are failing to stop dirty money entering the financial system, a move welcomed by Global Witness. However, conspicuously absent are major financial centres and secrecy jurisdictions, many of which also have serious weaknesses in their anti-money laundering regulations.
Metals in mobile phones financing brutal war in Congo
Metals found in everyday electronics items, such as mobile phones and computers, are being mined illegally in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and funding a conflict that has caused millions of deaths, said Global Witness on the opening day of the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.
