In this letter to Export Development Canada and the U.S. Export-Import Bank, Chilean and Argentine organizations express harsh criticisms regarding the public agencies' due diligence processes concerning Barrick Gold's application for support for Pascua Lama.

The international civil society network, ECA-Watch, provides substantive input on the latest iteration of the OECD 'Common Approaches' regarding export credit agencies.

On September 15, 2011, the Canadian government's Centre for Excellence in Corporate Social Responsibilty held a workshop with John Ruggie entitled, 'Implications of the Guiding Principles for the Implementation of the UN Framework for CSR in the Canadian Extratcive Sector.' The Halifax Initiative participated on behalf of the Canadian Network on Corporate Accountability as the civil society respondent to Mr. Ruggie.

The role of the World Bank in climate finance; Europeans raise the bar on export credit disclosure; the FTT; glacier protection in Argentina; new UN working group.

Canadian mining interests in countries around the world are valued at tens of billions of dollars.

Selecting new IMF boss; CSOs urge UN to move beyond Ruggie; Argentine civil society sues Barrick Gold; Quebec court accepts jurisdiction in case against Anvil Mining.

ODA accountability consultation; World Bank dumps human rights; Bank report on extractives ignores reality.

Ruggie guidelines stir debate
In 2008, the UN Human Rights Council extended Special Representative John Ruggie’s mandate on business and human rights. Among other things, the Council asked Mr. Ruggie to identify “concrete and practical recommendations on ways to strengthen the fulfilment of the duty of the State to protect all human rights from abuses by or involving transnational corporations.”