Karamoja gets App to monitor human rights abuses in mines

Artisanal miners collect marble stones in Loboneit in Rupa Sub-county, Moroto District. PHOTO | PAUL MURUNGI

Community volunteers in Karamoja Sub-region have been equipped with digital tools to monitor human rights violations in mining fields.  

The 20 volunteers, also known as human rights monitors, received the digital and legal tools during a three-day regional training on community-based monitoring extractives by Advocates for Natural Resource and Development (ANARDE) in conjunction with Avocats Sans Frontieres (ASF) in Mbale District. 

The training, which was organised at the weekend, covered key areas of environment, human rights, gender equality, benefits of sharing, and natural resource management.  

The human rights monitors were from community-based organisations in the mining hotspots of Abim, Amudat, Kaabong, Karenga, Kotido, Moroto, Napak Nabilatuk, and Nakapiripirit.

They were equipped with digital smart phones for field monitoring, and are coordinated centrally with an ODK Kobo Collect App to ensure accuracy and consistency.

Mr Frank Tumusiime, the coordinator at ANARDE, said the phones will be used to collect the data by feeding in questionnaires in the App, which will be sent to the central server.

The phone is also connected to a GPS system, where real time data from mining fields will be collected. The data entered will be validated against the existing data.  

“The information will be analysed so that we come up with reports on the current human rights status on the ground. This will be real time data from the ground, and these monitors are spread out in mining communities,” he said.

Mr Tumusiime said this is meant to eliminate any inconsistence and provide credibility of research.

Mining violations

Mr Tumusiime said the journey started in 2017 by the Netherlands and Belgium Development Corporation with the desire to promote access to justice and respect for human rights for mining communities in Karamoja.

He said the first form of violation is environmental degradation, for instance pollution of water bodies affecting the aquatic life, soil, forest cover, and also waste disposal associated with mining.

“We want them to understand the environmental violations, the revenue management aspects, and corporate accountability by checking which companies are liable, and how to work with administrative agencies,” he said.

Mr Tumusiime added that female miners are paid less compared to their male counterparts, and exploited sexually.   

Ms Josephine Lokongo, a human rights monitor from Rupa Sub-county in Moroto District, said women and children are disadvantaged in the mining  sector, a trend the human rights monitors should reverse.

“Women are so vulnerable, yet we are the majority who provide labour for both artisanal and mining companies. We are the ones who meet their household needs but are underpaid,” she said.

Ms Lokongo also said Karamoja women are not benefitting from surface rights compensation from mining companies because of the patriarchal social system.  She added that they are also excluded in negotiations.  

“Once these violations are identified, then, the arm of justice will take its course. This will also include petitioning the Uganda Human Rights Commission, Equal Opportunities and other regional bodies such as the African Court for Human and People’s Rights,” Mr Tumusiime said.

Revenue and compensation dilemma

Karamoja is currently teeming with mining activities after an influx of both local and foreign companies in the sub-region. This is in addition to other artisanal and small scale miners in the area.

Mr Gerald Eneku, the Inspector of Mines from the Directorate of Geological Survey and Mines under the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Development,  said Karamoja hosts a range of mineral resources that are yet to be optimally exploited. 

At least 50 different minerals and precious stones have been documented and, in Moroto District alone, there are recorded prospects of gold, silver, copper, iron, titanium, manganese, niobium, tantalite, chrome, rare earth and radioactive minerals yet very little actual mining has been done for most minerals, with the exception of limestone and marble. 

Mr Eneku, however,  said the full range of economic, social and environmental costs and benefits of large scale mining, artisanal and small scale mining remains unclear in Karamoja due to the limited data disclosure by mining companies and under-declaration of production.

Mr Eneku said currently it is only Tororo Cement that mines limestone in the sub-region that pays royalties in Karamoja, out of the four active mining companies.

Mr Don Binyina from the African Centre for Energy and Mineral Policy (ACEMP), said there is need for contract and revenue transparency.

Mr Binyina equipped the human rights monitors with key legal policy tools such as OECD Due Diligence Guidance, which provides for detailed recommendations to help companies respect human rights and avoid contributing to conflict through their mineral purchasing decisions and practices.

Mr Eneku said the full potential of Karamoja minerals is expected to be realised through an aerial geophysical survey and geological mapping that the Directorate of Geological Mines and Survey will conduct later this year to ascertain the extent of the sub-region’s mineral wealth.

Compensation

Section 83 of the Mining Act 2003, stipulates that when companies pay royalties, the government takes 80 per cent, the district where the mineral is mined takes 10 per cent, sub-county takes 7 per cent and 3 per cent goes to the village.  

Whereas the Land Act of 1998 requires that districts update compensation rates of non-permanent forms such as trees, crops among others, every year, apart from Abim District, most Karamoja districts still lack standard compensation rates.

This has hindered locals from the actual benefit of access to fair compensation of surface rights from mining companies, who largely use ‘guess work’ in determining the actual value of their resources.

Mr Frank Tumusiime, the coordinator at Advocates for Natural Resource and Development, said they are developing standard compensation rates with the districts.