Event Date: November 24, 2011 - 12:30 pm
Location: Social Sciences Building, 120 Universi

PATRICIA FEENY, Rights and Accountability in Development, and ANDIE LAMB, Global Witness.

Presented by CIPS and the Human Rights Research and Education Center.
Free. In English. Registration is not required.

Anvil Mining, a company with headquarters in Canada, has been accused of being complicit in human rights abuses in the DRC, including an attack on civilians in Kilwa, Katanga Province, in October 2004. Company officials and military officers were acquitted by a military court in the DRC (in a process the UN described as seriously flawed). Now, victims and their families from Kilwa are suing Anvil in a court in Montreal.  The trial judge initially allowed the case to proceed but Anvil has appealed, challenging the jurisdiction of the Canadian courts.

Patricia Feeney of Rights and Accountability in Development, and Andie Lamb of Global Witness, two of the NGOs that have joined the class action against Anvil, will discuss the case, which may have important implications for the global effort to hold companies accountable in their home countries for breaches of international law committed elsewhere.