"Urgent Request that Barrick Halt Forced Evictions and Carry out Independent Due Diligence on Violence and Human Rights Abuses Associated with Forced Evictions at the North Mara Gold Mine"

In September MiningWatch undertook a seventh human rights assessment at the North Mara Gold Mine. We focussed on human rights impacts related to the mine since Barrick took over management control in September 2019. Our findings are detailed in MiningWatch’s recent report “‘He was murdered’: Violence against Kuria High after Barrick Takeover of Mine.”...

Today, we write to raise urgent concern about forced evictions underway, since 2021, in the village of Komarera to make way for mine expansion. Barrick is a member of ICMM, which recognizes that “[w]hen the voluntary nature of resettlement cannot be confirmed, resettlement should be treated as involuntary.” The accounts we documented make it clear that, at least in those cases, these evictions are not voluntary...

Given what we have documented, MiningWatch calls on Barrick to...voluntarily and urgently halt the assessment and forced eviction process;..carry out a transparent due diligence process on, among others, the issues that we have documented, preferably by an independent third party. The report of this third party should be made public;...ensure that people who have already been harmed by this process can safely file their complaints and receive equitable compensation for their losses; [and] revised the process to align it with international human rights standards and the rights of the vulnerable people affected by the mine expansion.