According to this article from France’s Le Monde praising U.S. lawmakers, the Wall Street reform package recently passed by the U.S. Congress and signed by President Obama includes elements likely to help people in countries that have great oil and mineral wealth – but equally great corruption – finally reap some of the benefits of mining and oil drilling.
For Le Monde, the managing director of the Catholic Committee Against Hunger and For Development, Bernard Pinaud, writes in part:
Mining companies listed in New York will have to declare the payments they make to the governments of each country in which they operate. We’re talking about 90 percent of global oil and gas companies and 80 percent of the mining giants. After a similar measure instituted at the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in May, a new era – one of transparency – is now taking shape in the mining sector. An initial parry against that paradox of wealth, which sees the citizens of Nigeria, Burma, Angola, Guatemala or the Congo come to regret the abundance under their land, which to them has become a synonym for violence, corruption, environmental plunder and misery. … This should allow three and a half billion inhabitants of nations rich in raw material to better measure and control the share of revenue that comes back to their governments.
Companies that buy minerals from the Democratic Republic of Congo must declare themselves to the police of Wall Street and take so-called “due diligence” measures to ensure that their activities don’t contribute to the enrichment of armed groups. The challenge?: stop feeding the war for control of those minerals which, for fifteen years, has made every day in the east of that country as deadly as the September 11, 2001 attacks.
Of course, the mobilization of civil society would have remained a dead letter if it hadn’t found the ear of politicians willing to personally lead the battle. U.S. senators, Democratic and Republicans alike, have accepted their responsibilities – with the approval of Barack Obama. It will also require vigilance on the part of American civil society to ensure that these legislative victories are reflected in the implementation.
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