Democratic Republic of Congo has vast natural resource wealth.  Yet historically and still today, the extraction of these resources too often fuels conflict, widespread dispossession of people from their land, forced and child labour, and pollution that harms people’s health.

On 31 October 2014 in New York, Business & Human Rights Resource Centre held the 5th annual event in the Mary Robinson Speaker Series on Business & Human Rights: “Managing Congo’s resource wealth – from plunder to shared prosperity? 

Following a powerful keynote speech by Emmanuel Umpula Nkumba of AFREWATCH in Democratic Republic of Congo, there was a lively debate between panelists from civil society, business and government.

Mary Robinson introduced Emmanuel Nkumba.  In addition to Mary and Emmanuel, the panelists were: Holly Dranginis, Enough Project; Michael Loch, Motorola Solutions; Patrick Alley, Global Witness; Elizabeth Keefe, US State Department; Aliou Diouf, Business & Human Rights Resource Centre.