Suriname
Cambior Inc.
EDC: $100(+) million political risk insurance[1]
CPP: $14 million[2]
The Aucaner (or N’djuka) Maroon community of Nieuw Koffiekamp is located in the heart of the Gross Rosebel mining concession. Relocated in the 1960s to make way for a hydroelectric dam, Nieuw Koffiekamp now faces a second relocation which, according to a human rights expert, “would be tantamount to [its] cultural and social death.”[3] Maroon authorities were not consulted about the project, and groups within the community vociferously oppose relocation.[4] Suriname lacks legislation that requires mine proponents to undertake environmental impact assessments and is the only country in the Western Hemisphere that does not recognize the rights of indigenous or tribal populations.[5] Critics argue that the country’s draft Mining Act discriminates against these populations and a UN human rights body has called on the Government of Suriname to rectify this problem.[6]
[2] CPP Investment Board Canadian Equity Holdings as of March 31, 2006.
[3] MacKay, Fergus. 2002. “Mining in Suriname: Multinationals, the State and the Maroon Community of Nieuw Koffiekamp” in Human Rights and the Environment: Conflicts and Norms in a Globalizing World, edited by Lyuba Zarsky. The Nautilus Institute.
[4] Ibid.
[5] Kambel and MacKay. 1999. The Rights of Indigenous Peoples and Maroons in Suriname, IWGIA Document No. 96, Copenhagen.
[6] See, for example, “Request for the Initiation of an Urgent Action and Follow Up Procedure in relation to the Imminent Adoption of Racially Discriminatory Legislation by the Republic of Suriname,” submitted to the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination by The Association of Indigenous Village Leaders in Suriname, Stichting Sanomaro Esa, The Association of Saramaka Authorities and The Forest Peoples Programme, 6 January, 2004;
The Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination’s recommendations in its report “Follow-Up Procedure: Suriname,” Sixty-Sixth session, 21 February-11 March 2005, issued on 9 March 2005. http://www.ohchr.org/english/bodies/cerd/docs/CERD.C.66.SUR.Dec.3.pdf;
Decision 1 (69) of the Sixty-Ninth Session.
http://www.ohchr.org/english/bodies/cerd/docs/early_warning/cerd_c_dec_sur_3.doc