16 Nov 2016

…[I]n an open letter to the United Nations, 119 indigenous women who were sexually assaulted by security guards at Barrick Gold’s mine in Porgera, Papua New Guinea appealed for UN intervention in their fight to obtain fair remedies from the company…

The letter, signed by all 119 women, states their grave dissatisfaction with the amount of compensation awarded under the company’s remedy mechanism, and asks for compensation equal to that received by eleven women who were represented by attorneys from US-based NGO EarthRights International. Those represented by EarthRights received a confidential settlement outside the remedy mechanism believed to be as much as four times greater than the amount the 119 women received.

Seeking equitable compensation, the women submitted their letter…at the 5th Annual UN Forum on Business and Human Rights in Geneva…