Community Opposition
Imagine that one day, a helicopter lands near your home. The wind it generates knocks down trees. Men emerge from the helicopter. They have tools that you have never seen before and speak another language. You did not know that they were coming. You do not know why they are here.
Conversations with people from communities under mining permits revealed that the majority of residents did not know that the government had authorized company officials to walk the land or even that their land may contain minerals. The men, women, and children of these communities learned that there may be gold and other metals in the soil the day that company officials arrived–by helicopter, by truck, by boat. In Haitian culture, when you enter the courtyard of a family, you announce your presence: Onè! Honor. To receive the visitors, the residents say respè! Respect.
Moun yo pa di onè. Nou pa di respè. Yo jis antre.
The foreigners did not say “honor.” We did not say “respect.”
They just entered.
– Resident of La Montagne
Community opposition to mining in Haiti is increasingly well documented. In a 2020 feature on mining in the Caribbean, MINE magazine noted that mining is “controversial” in Haitian communities, and referenced a community declaration denouncing Newmont. In 2017, an investment consulting firm contracted by the Government of Haiti concluded that Haiti is not competitive for mining investment. The report notes lack of infrastructure, political stability, regulatory environment. It also, however, lists “strong, cohesive, and vocal opposition to mining in Haiti in the foreseeable future” as a threat to the industry (see page 36).
Haitian communities do not only stand against mining. They also stand FOR an alternative future of Haiti – a “Mining-Free” Haiti based on the fulfillment of human rights and a sustainable future.
Through saying no to mining, the community is strengthened.
The resistance movement in Haiti is not just against mining.
It is for clean water, healthy communities, konbit farming, traditional community, collective farming, and perhaps most centrally, self-determination and development a la Ayisyen—in a Haitian way.
We can live without gold, We cannot live without water
Yes to life, No to Mining Exploitation!
– Open Letter from Haitian Organization in Morne Pele Denouncing Gold Mining
Farmers cannot live without land, water and seeds, and we know that once mining companies build a mine, our water and land are threatened.
Voices from the Community
Mackenson Jean hikes to La Miel, under Newmont mining permit located in the foothills above Le Borgne, Northwest Haiti. 2013. Photo: Ellie Happel.
Water, Land and the Environment
Haitian communities are concerned with the environmental harms of mining. They point to how Haiti’s pre-existing vulnerabilities to natural disasters will only be exacerbated by mining activity. Furthermore, mining contaminates water and destroys agricultural land—both of which are central to the livelihoods of so many Haitians.
Our environment is already the most vulnerable in Latin America, and we suffer from earthquakes, hurricanes and floods every year...Mineral exploitation is a potential disaster – it threatens our health, our water, our land, and the rest of the environment.”
– Open Letter from Haitian Organizations in Morne Pele
Access to Information
Haitian community groups are also concerned about the lack of transparency surrounding the development of the mineral sector. Some residents of communities where mining companies have explored for gold and copper have complained of individuals entering their lands, marking their property, taking samples without permission, and failing to provide adequate information about the purposes of these preliminary mining activities. Community members have expressed frustration at being excluded from decisions that affect their lives. They have complained that companies rarely give information about the risks mining poses and that the State has issued permits without informing the people.
In order to have a real debate about whether or not mining is an appropriate economic activity in Haiti, the affected communities are demanding that the company provide accurate information about the risks and benefits that a given mine may bring.
“We have no access to information. I learned on the radio that the government has signed contracts with mining companies. But there is no mechanism in place to inform local people or to let them know how we should react to foreigners coming to mine here.”
– Local Authority from Bas de Saint Anne, Northwest Haiti
“We emphasize that companies come to do business, and that although they may make many promises, they generally fail to fulfill them, we also consider that companies rarely give information about the risks and consequences mining poses, especially for workers, farmers, union members, and the rest of the population. We see that companies have not provided information in the areas where they have worked so far”
– Open Letter from Haitian Organizations in Morne Pele
Kolektif Jistis Min projects images of open pit mining to residents of the Central Plateau, Haiti. 2014. Photo: Ellie Happel.
COMPLAINT AGAINST THE WORLD BANK
In 2015, Haitian community members, Kolekftif Jistis Min, the Global Justice Clinic, and Accountability Counsel filed a complaint to the Inspection Panel, the internal complaint mechanism of the World Bank. The complaint sought to hold the World Bank to account for failing to respect its own environmental and human rights standards in its provision of technical assistance to redraft Haiti’s mining law. The complaint highlights procedural concerns–the law was drafted with input from companies that hold permits in Haiti, but no input from affected communities–as well as substantive concerns–the law fails to protect Haiti’s environment or the rights of affected community members. The Inspection Panel found the concerns stated in the complaint “serious and legitimate.” However, due to a technicality, the Inspection Panel rejected the complaint.
In response, more than 90 civil society organizations signed a letter to demand that the Bank takes responsibility, and to note the injustice of the loophole.
IACHR Hearing on Violation of the Right to Information
In 2015, Kolektif Jistis Min and the Global Justice Clinic testified before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights on the right to access to information in Haiti. KJM, GJC and a third coalition, the Megaprojects Observatory, urged the government of Haiti to adopt legislation to implement the right to access information. They also called on the government to provide affected communities with information concerning tourism and mining development projects, and urged the government not to enact the draft mining law, citing that it would undermine transparency.
International Solidarity
“We consider the experiences of other countries, we see that mineral exploitation is a potential disaster—it threatens our health, our water, our land, and the rest of our environment.”
– Open Letter from Haitian Organizations in Morne Pele
Haitian organizations and communities have turned to similarly situated communities in other parts of the world to learn about the risks of mining. KJM and ally organizations have hosted activists, advocates, and community leaders from El Salvador, Mexico, Guatemala, Peru, the Dominican Republic, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Burkina Faso, Honduras, and Colombia, among others. KJM members and community members have also traveled to communities that sit within the shadow of mines, including in Guatemala, the Dominican Republic, Costa Rica, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Ghana. Through this exchange, Haitian residents have learned that poverty and underdevelopment—rather than wealth and prosperity—are too often the consequences of natural resource extraction. Leaders and activists from other countries encourage KJM and other social movement organizations to recognize that now—before a company installs itself and builds a mine—is the most important moment for resistance. Haitian organizations continue to learn from experienced counterparts in other countries that encourage them to demystify the propaganda that says that mineral exploitation brings jobs and development.
“Right now, we should be learning from and showing the active mining resistance by communities in Latin America, which can give hope to the Haitian people.”
– Open Letter from Haitian Organizations in Morne Pele
Activists and organizers from Haiti, Canada, El Salvador, Mexico and the U.S. speak before residents of Port-de-Paix, Northwest Haiti. 2016. Credit: Jean Rober.
We the undersigned—farmer organizations, workers, and citizens of the North Department, especially from Morne Pele—raise our voices to denounce gold and other metal mining in the North, particularly in Morne Pele, Quartier Morin.