Zimbabwe confirmed that alluvial diamonds had been discovered in the Marange area in Mutare District in 2006. However, as in many otherAfrican countries, the promise diamond mining holds for economic growth has been eroded by a lack of transparency and accountability. The country’s diamond sector has been bedevilled by smuggling, opaque licensing, human rights abuses, self-enrichment by executives and public officials, and extremely limited accrual of diamond revenues to the fiscus, among others.

This handbook aims to provide an introduction to the key issues driving efforts to promote corporate social responsibility and accountability worldwide. It focuses especially on the links between the environment, labor rights, and human rights in the context of globalisation.The central theme of this handbook is that the institutions and regulatory frameworks now governing the global economy have not adequately protected human rights, the environment, and labor rights.

This paper reports the findings of a US delegation to the Niger Delta to investigate the environmental and human rights record of oil corporations.Evidence shows that the oil companies operating in Nigeria
have not only disregarded their responsibility towards the
environment but have acted in complicity with the military’s

This paper describes the outcomes of the Kimberley Process, which aims to create a certification system for rough diamonds, so excluding illicit diamonds, which fuel conflict, from the global diamond trade.The author focuses on the provisions the process has made for monitoring certified diamonds. He provides an overview of the monitoring provisions of the Kimberley Process as agreed at its March 2002 Ottawa meeting.

This report documents the performance of the world’s second largest mining company with regard to corporate social responsibility (CSR). Despite Anglo American’s participation in various voluntary CSR initiatives, it continues to abuse human rights, fuel conflict and damage the local environment and livelihoods. The report documents a number of Anglo American’s activities which highlight that there is still a long way to go as far as the company's commitment to CSR, including:

This is a guide for companies working in the extractive industries, particularly in the oil and gas sectors and provides basic conflict management advice and guidance. Its objective is to save time, to protect resources and reputations, and to enhance the safety of employees and of the communities in which they do business.The guide presents tools for risk assessment and risk management in conflict settings, including:

While increasing attention has been paid to Chinese attempts to secure natural resources overseas, the case of Burma has often been overlooked. This background provides a summary of the operations of Chinese multinational corporations (MNCs) in Burma in the hydro, oil & gas, and mining sectors. The research finds that more than 26 Chinese multinational corporations (MNCs) are involved in more than 62 hydropower, oil & gas, and mining projects in Burma. The report describes the activities of Chinese MNCs in Burma which include the following:

This report presents the findings of an international fact finding mission to assess human rights, social and environmental impacts of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BYC) oil pipeline, which BP and other companies (as part of the BTC Consortium) are currently building in order to bring oil from Caspian Sea oilfields to Western markets.

This paper investigates the extent to which private companies operating in conflict zones can contribute to Human Rights abuses. In addressing this issue, it focuses on four voluntary frameworks – the UN Global Compact, the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises, the Global Reporting Initiative and, most relevantly, the Voluntary Principles on Security and Human Rights.The research finds that:

This report examines the living conditions of children and youth under 18 years old involved in diamond-related activities. The report documents the production of process of diamonds in Kono District in Sierra Leone; specifies characteristics of the young miners and those involved in various support functions; and identifies the most vulnerable groups of children and adolescents involved in the process.The report finds that:55 percent of the children interviewed in this survey originate from Kono.

In this paper the author takes a ‘political settlements’ approach to examining the political effects of corporate social responsibility (CSR) in developing countries. The political settlements approach uses an integrated understanding of politics, power and institutional forms to explain how, given different political processes and incentives, the same institutional forms can produce different economic and developmental outcomes.

This report assesses the role of the World Bank in the funding and management of the Chad-Cameroon oil and pipeline project. The report argues that the project has fueled violence, impoverished people in the oil fields and along the pipeline route, exacerbated the pressures on indigenous peoples and created new environmental problems. The report highlights how the World Bank’s Implementation Completion Report (ICR) is inconsistent with other independent reports on the project.