Submission to the United Nations’ Special Rapporteur on toxics and human rights, to inform the Rapporteur’s 2025 thematic report to the UN Human Rights Council.

The role of mercenaries, mercenary-related actors and private military and/or security companies (PMSCs) in the exploitation of natural resources.

Submission to the United Nations Working Group on the use of mercenaries to inform the Working Group's report to be presented to the 60th Session of the Human Rights Council in September 2025.

This submission updates and expands on MiningWatch Canada’s 2019 submission to the United Nations Working Group on the use of mercenaries with a focus on: 

On May 28, Québec’s Minister of Natural Resources and Forests, Maïté Blanchette Vézina, tabled Bill 63, an Act to amend the Mining Act and other provisions. The Coalition Québec meilleure mine (QMM) carried out an exhaustive analysis of the bill. In this brief, we present our general comments and proposed amendments. A detailed article-by-article analysis of the bill is available in the French version of this brief, originally published in September 2024 and available online.  

MiningWatch Canada launched as a pan-Canadian initiative on April 1, 1999, on the heels of a decade that saw an unprecedented global expansion of mining brought about by economic globalization. Indigenous, environmental, social justice, and labour organizations came together with different backgrounds and experiences to respond to threats posed by irresponsible mining practices in Canada and around the world.

Experts from the Environmental Law Alliance Worldwide (ELAW) say First Quantum’s Cobre Panama tailings dam is at very serious and imminent risk of failure due to internal erosion and a lack of proper monitoring. ELAW's report analyzes the Ninth Monitoring Report, presented by Minera Panama, a subsidiary of First Quantum Minerals that operates the Cobre Panama mine, in September 2024, together with other documents that were provided by the Ministry of Environment to ELAW experts who visited Panama in November 2024. 

For over a decade, MiningWatch Canada and the Canadian Network on Corporate Accountability (CNCA) have advocated for an effective and independent ombudsperson with the powers to compel documents and witness testimony, in an effort to hold Canadian companies accountable for abuse at their operations overseas. 

This year, MiningWatch gathered information on alleged violence against Kuria villagers in 2023 and 2024 carried out by police assigned to the mine. We received information on 28 cases and conducted interviews with alleged victims and family members of those who have been killed. The 28 cases include villagers who have been shot and killed, shot and survived, beaten to death, arrested and tortured, and maimed in a life-altering way through being hit by a teargas canister.

Canada and Ecuador are in their fourth round of negotiations towards a free trade agreement set to dramatically expand Canadian mining investment in the South American country.

MiningWatch Canada and the Coalition Québec Meilleure Mine hereby submit their joint comments on the Government of Canada's Emergency Order to Protect Boreal Caribou Habitat in Quebec (hereinafter, the "Federal Order") as part of the consultation process announced on June 19, 2024 and ending today.

To accompany a meeting with UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders, Mary Lawlor, we provide six case studies spanning 17 years that demonstrate Canada's failures to respect human rights when it comes to mining. The first two case studies precede Canada’s adoption in 2016 of Voices at Risk: Canada’s Guidelines on Supporting Human Rights Defenders (Voices at Risk). Events outlined in the four subsequent case studies take place after the adoption of Voices at Risk.

Our annual report provides some key highlights from MiningWatch's work in 2023, with additional information about our financial position in 2023.

International Campaigns: Holding government and industry accountable for mining abuses abroad 

Panamanian organizations released a report documenting the rights violations and criminalization of activists during last year’s large-scale protests over First Quantum Minerals’ copper mine, Cobre Panamá.

The Shuar Arutam People (PSHA) filed a complaint against Solaris Resources Inc. (TSX: SLS) before the British Columbia Securities Commission over its failure to continuously disclose material information to shareholders regarding its Warintza mining project which overlaps PSHA’s titled territory. In spite of PSHA's explicit and continuous rejection of the Warintza project, Vancouver-based Solaris has kept moving forward with its mining plans in the Amazon, one of the most biodiverse areas on the planet.

In Quebec, the media often singles out the mining industry for being a repeat offender. This reputation stems from the bad practices of certain mine developers who have abandoned contaminated mine sites and left Quebec residents on the hook for billions of dollars for restoration, turned rivers red for dozens of kilometres, or have used lakes as dumping grounds for the tailings from iron ore processing plants.

Mine waste safety expert Dr. Steven Emerman released findings of his independent review of Barrick Gold’s Environmental and Social Impact Assessment for the Naranjo Tailings Storage Facility (TSF), warning that the Canadian mining giant is failing to adequately disclose the environmental and social risks posed by its planned expansion at the Pueblo Viejo mine in the Dominican Republic.

Lighting summary:

Brief prepared for the country visit of the UN Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation, Pedro Arrojo-Agudo.

Since 1999, MiningWatch has provided technical expertise and advocacy support to hundreds of communities across the globe as they assert their rights to safe drinking water and sanitation in the face of imminent and past harm by industrial mining.