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The Barrick Gold case: How Human Rights Watch interacts with large Corporations

    The Harvard Club of The Netherlands is pleased to invite you to an event with Christopher Albin-Lackey, director at the Business & Human Rights program of Human Rights Watch (see a short bio below). During the event Mr. Albin-Lackey will talk about the work of Human Rights Watch on corporations and Human Rights Watch’ investigations into allegations of human rights abuse involving multinationals. In doing so, he will present the case of Barrick Gold, the world’s leading gold company, based in Canada but active worldwide. Barrick Gold owns the Porgera Gold mine in Papua New Guinea, where Human Rights Watch investigated and documented human rights violations. The relationship between Human Rights Watch and Barrick Gold developed over time from one of mutual suspicion to one of something approaching partnership in figuring out the best ways to address human rights problems that they ultimately agreed were real and needed to be addressed.

    The presentation will be followed by a Q&A with plenty of room for discussion. After the talk we invite you to continue discussions in an informal setting with drinks and snacks.Christopher Albin-Lackey is a senior researcher in (and temporarily replacing Arvind Ganesan as the director of) the Business and Human Rights Program. He carries out research and advocacy work on human rights issues related to extractive industries as well as the human rights impact of corruption in resource-rich countries.  From 2008 until 2010, Albin-Lackey was a senior researcher in Human Rights Watch’s Africa Division specializing on the Horn of Africa and Kenya. Prior to that, he was the Nigeria researcher at Human Rights Watch, focusing on issues including local government corruption in the oil-producing Niger Delta; abuses connected to Nigeria’s 2007 elections; and government discrimination against “non-indigene” populations across Nigeria. He also worked as a fellow for Human Rights Watch, covering Ethiopia in the run-up to that country’s controversial 2005 elections. Albin-Lackey lived in Ethiopia and Madagascar as a Peace Corps volunteer before joining the organization. Albin-Lackey has a Bachelor of Arts in Public Policy from Boston University and a JD from Columbia Law School.

    When

    Thursday, May 7, 2015, 5.30-7.30pm

    Where

    De Brauw Blackstone Westbroek Advocaten N.V.
    Claude Debussylaan 80
    1082 MD Amsterdam
    The Netherlands

    RSVP to laratalsma@gmail.com