Thousands of abandoned mines litter South Africa, and many communities are stuck living in their shadow. Abandoned coal mines pose a grave ecological risk to these communities, polluting critical water sources and arable land, and specifically endanger the safety and lives of people who return to these unsafe mines in the hopes of earning a scant income. So what's going on? When a company opens a mine, they are legally required to ensure that when the mining stops, the mine can be decommissioned to appropriate standards. But this isn’t happening. Since there is no profit in making a decommissioned mine safe, many companies simply abandon them and move on, putting local communities at risk. And the South African government has done little or nothing to rectify this. We spoke with Environment and Human Rights Fellow Vuyisile Ncube about her new report and how we can ensure communities are able to push the government to do better, including by holding mining companies to account. READ MORE »
Changes to the Week in RightsTo keep bringing you the best weekly round-up of human rights news, we’ve made some improvements to the Week in Rights that we plan to roll out in the near future. A brand-new design will allow us to give you even more of the world’s biggest news stories, as investigated by our human rights experts. It also means giving you more of the story. HRW has been covering numerous issues for months, years, and sometimes decades. We plan on sharing more of this deep work and how it connects to today’s breaking news. You will also see more videos, social media, and more of our favorite things from the week. One more thing – you can expect the Week in Rights to land in your inbox on Friday. It is a week in review, after all. We are proud of this new direction, and hope you enjoy it. Thank you for subscribing and for being part of the global human rights movement! |
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