Background
Imagine if a company paid the government to mine for gold or drill for oil in your backyard—but didn’t ask for your permission, pay you, or give you important information about the project. Right now, oil, gas, and mining companies are doing this all around the world, often in the poorest countries.
Oxfam America's campaign—called the Right to Know, Right to Decide—aims to arm local citizens with the information they need to weigh the costs versus the benefits and decide whether to provide consent for the projects to move forward.
More and more, poor people are asserting their right to decide if or how they want oil, gas, and mining development to take place in their community—and their right to know about the impacts and benefits of these projects.
If they are consulted in advance, local people can decide whether they want companies to begin or expand operations on their land. And if they know how much companies are paying their government for their natural resources, they can call for a fair share of the profits to go to community needs like education, health care, and jobs.
Oxfam America has a long history of supporting these community rights in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the US. In Ghana, we help communities access information about water contamination caused by mining. In Cambodia, we support a coalition of local nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) working to ensure that the revenues from the country's coming oil boom are shared in a transparent way. In El Salvador, we work with grassroots organizations to promote informed public debate about mining projects. And in the US, we support efforts by Native American communities to protect their sacred sites from encroachment by mining.
