MPs Statement

Tegucigalpa, 13 September, 2007

At the invitation of His Eminence Cardinal Oscar Andres Rodriguez, we, members of the British and Canadian Parliaments, have spent four days in Honduras. The purpose of our visit has been to hear from all sides in the debate on mining in Honduras, and to offer our support to Caritas Honduras and other sectors of civil society in their efforts to secure a just and responsible mining law. We have appreciated the openness and availability of everyone we have met, from local communities to the highest levels of Congress.

Ethical standards in extractive industries, including gold mining, have become highly significant on the international agenda, as we see the disruptive effects in terms of conflict and corruption of oil extraction, diamond and gold mining around the world. The governments of both the United Kingdom and Canada have participated in international efforts to set standards of transparency for extractive industries. In Canada, a round table consultation representing all sectors, including mining companies, has recently recommended that Ottawa should establish a Canadian Corporate Social Responsibility Standard, and appoint an independent ombudsman to verify compliance with such a standard.

As foreign MPs, we recognise that our first duty is to ensure that mining companies from our own countries behave with integrity in their dealings with countries such as Honduras. As such, we are highly aware of the significance of the debate around gold mining in Honduras. We live in one world. We wish to do whatever we can to promote the protection of the environment and justice for local communities in Honduras.

During our stay, we have met with a broad cross section of Honduran government and civil society representatives. We have visited the Siria Valley, where we met with local communities and the managers of the San Martin mine. We have come to two conclusions:

While there is not absolute national unanimity, there is a broad consensus on the urgent need for reforms to the mining law, and the widespread desire that the present discussions on the reforms should lead to the adoption of the bill in Congress. Our last meetings took place with Roberto Micheletti Bain, president of the National Congress, and Arnoldo Aviles, president of the Bill Committee on Natural Resources. Mr. Micheletti gave a firm commitment that the reforms bill, if returned to the Congress by the Executive, would be fully debated by the Congress in plenary before the end of the current session. This commitment was reiterated by Arnoldo Aviles. We have every confidence that this will become reality by the end of the year.

We are convinced that the conflicts around gold mining in Honduras are the consequence of the deficiencies of the present mining law. Our visit to the communities in the Siria Valley and the San Martin mine run by Entre Mares (Goldcorp) illustrated this. We are also convinced that the lack of a clear regulatory framework allows mining companies to define the terms of engagement with the government of Honduras, with local communities and with the environment.

A reform of the law alone will not be sufficient to correct this situation: we see an urgent need to strengthen the technical and operational capacity of state institutions including increased human, technical and financial resources that are needed to adequately monitor and regulate transnational mining corporations that already have vastly superior resources at their disposal.

We are aware that this debate is one that transcends national borders, and the responsible extraction of natural resources is an issue that concerns us all. We pledge to bring these issues to the attention of our own governments, and we recognise that effective regulation in Honduras must be complemented by regulation in the home countries of the mining corporations. We call on all home countries of mining, oil and gas corporations operating in the countries of the Global South, in particular on Canada, to enact standards of corporate social responsibility in overseas operations.

Keith Hill, MP (Labour)Streatham, United Kingdom
Stephen Pound, MP (Labour) Ealing North, United Kingdom
Alexa McDonough, MP (New Democratic Party) Halifax, Canada