Project
Golden Voices in Gold Mining
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Amount Funded
102,000 EUROProject Duration
01 Aug 2017 - 31 Jul 2019 -
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Lead organisation
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Global Rights Alert (GRA) is the leading NGO working to promote good governance of Uganda’s natural resources. This encompasses oil, gas, metallic minerals, land, forests, water bodies, as well as flora and fauna. The organisation was formed in 2007 by Ugandans to address human rights and development. The mission of GRA is to promote social accountability through constructive engagement of rights holders and duty bearers. Working with local communities, GRA facilitates access to information and provides platforms for participation. Because natural resource governance and exploitation can more often increase human rights risks and violations, GRA facilitates communities in natural resource rich areas to access justice. GRA supports communities by building their capacity to advocate for transparency and accountability, monitor human rights trends and give them skills to meaningfully support the country’s development programmes. Building on human rights standards and principles, GRA works to ensure that the livelihoods of vulnerable groups particularly women and children are promoted and protected. CORE VALUES In implementing all the organisational plans, GRA is guided by the following core values: 1. The passion to serve the community 2. Result oriented management 3. Team work 4. Managing GRA as a learning organisation The organisation has a gender policy and her staff have been trained in gender mainstreaming. One of GRA’s core programmes is Gender and Extractives, which is testimony to our belief that women, just like men have a right to development and must be supported to realise their potential.
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Organisation
Global Rights Alert (GRA) is the leading NGO working to promote good governance of Uganda’s natural resources. This encompasses oil, gas, metallic minerals, land, forests, water bodies, as well as flora and fauna. The organisation was formed in 2007 by Ugandans to address human rights and development. The mission of GRA is to promote social accountability through constructive engagement of rights holders and duty bearers. Working with local communities, GRA facilitates access to information and provides platforms for participation. Because natural resource governance and exploitation can more often increase human rights risks and violations, GRA facilitates communities in natural resource rich areas to access justice. GRA supports communities by building their capacity to advocate for transparency and accountability, monitor human rights trends and give them skills to meaningfully support the country’s development programmes. Building on human rights standards and principles, GRA works to ensure that the livelihoods of vulnerable groups particularly women and children are promoted and protected. CORE VALUES In implementing all the organisational plans, GRA is guided by the following core values: 1. The passion to serve the community 2. Result oriented management 3. Team work 4. Managing GRA as a learning organisation The organisation has a gender policy and her staff have been trained in gender mainstreaming. One of GRA’s core programmes is Gender and Extractives, which is testimony to our belief that women, just like men have a right to development and must be supported to realise their potential.
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Project
The Golden Voices in Gold Mining project of Global Rights Alert aims at creating a safe and productive space for women in the gold mines of Mubende and Buhweju districts of Uganda. This is done through: 1) Improving women’s engagements at various platforms to influence and garner support for a safer and productive working environment; 2) Amplifying voices through documentation, media and partnerships; and, 3) Women miners pro-actively engaging in the ongoing policy and legislation framework discussions to govern the mining sector. It is expected that this intervention bolsters a robust advocacy campaign by many stakeholders, improved conditions for women working in artisanal and small-scale mining, and policy and legal frameworks that uphold the protection and support to women in the mining sector.
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The Golden Voices in Gold Mining project of Global Rights Alert aims at creating a safe and productive space for women in the gold mines of Mubende and Buhweju districts of Uganda. This is done through: 1) Improving women’s engagements at various platforms to influence and garner support for a safer and productive working environment; 2) Amplifying voices through documentation, media and partnerships; and, 3) Women miners pro-actively engaging in the ongoing policy and legislation framework discussions to govern the mining sector. It is expected that this intervention bolsters a robust advocacy campaign by many stakeholders, improved conditions for women working in artisanal and small-scale mining, and policy and legal frameworks that uphold the protection and support to women in the mining sector.
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Changing the tide to give women mining rights and mining pit ownership rights
In August 2017, hundreds of Uganda Police Force (UPF) and Uganda Peoples Defense Force (UPDF) officers armed as if war descended on villages in Kitumbi and Bukuya sub counties in Mubende district. They had express instructions from the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Development and Directorate of Immigration to evict and put an end to activities of small scale gold miners in the district. Nine months later, the officers had not left the mines. The officials defending the ‘occupation’ argued that this was necessary to stop illegal mining, environmental degradation, and crime and to restore order for a regulated mining business.
In Uganda, the law states that all minerals belong to the government. Individuals and families who used to own the land in the gold rich areas now being occupied by the security forces are dispossessed via the Mining Act and Policy and related land laws that do not favoring miners. The governance and exploration of natural resources always increases the risk of violation on rights, and when this happens, the victims can rarely afford and expect to get the justice they deserve when pitted against multinational corporates behind these mining activities. This injustice mostly affects small scale traders who do not have the financial muscle to challenge the powerful influential individuals and institutions that regulate this sector. As such, they are also faced with external forces who use government agencies against them.
Global Rights Alert (GRA) therefore came up with the Golden Voices in Gold Mining project to address human rights and developmental challenges in this field by promoting social accountability through constructive engagement of rightsholders and duty bearers. In the process, GRA has worked with local communities in the natural resources rich areas to facilitate access to information and provide platforms for participation and access to justice. GRA achieves this by building the capacity of the rightsholders to advocate for transparency and accountability, monitor human rights trends and gives them skills to meaningfully support the country’s development programmes. This ensures that the livelihoods of vulnerable groups, particularly women and children, are promoted and protected. The aim is to harness an inclusive Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) agenda.
In the mining areas, it is common to find women and children engaged in hard labor, like crushing rocks into stones, to provide for their families. The paradox is that mining areas are situated in some of the poorest areas where social services lie in ruins and there is nothing to show for this mineral wealth.
The mining sector is largely male dominated with women engaged mainly in petty work such as carrying and washing sand for pit owners. These menial jobs are characterized by meagre pay, over-work and unfavorable work conditions. The women lack protective gear, food, walk to the mines at dawn and return at dusk. The women are in the mines 24 hours a day, all month. Their families face collapse, their children have left school and when they get back home they face gender based violence from their partners. The interventions of GRA saw the acquisition of a license that allows women to access mining rights in a formal, well managed and legalized environment. The women can now own mining pits and define their terms of work within the area allocated to them. They are now formally recognized not only within the ministry assembly in Mubende district (Kassanda), but also at district and national level.
More of these stories can be found in the following links:
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