News and resources
Explore our publications on a wide range of topics, to find the powerful facts, stories and approaches that underpin our work to make the extractive industry more open, accountable and participatory.
Active filters
Niger: human rights defenders still unjustly detained for more than six months
Johannesburg, 15 September 2020 *** Update 30 September 2020: Moudi Moussa and Halidou Mounkaila have been released on bail. ** Update 29 September 2020: Maikoul Zodi has been released on bail. On 15 September 2020 it will be six months since three human rights defenders were jailed in Niger simply for participating in peaceful protests calling for […]
Democratic Republic of Congo: harassment of Jean Claude Katende, a leader in the fight for human rights and transparency
Communique September 2020 Download the PDF version and please disseminate widely. Publish What You Pay (PWYP)’s Africa Steering Committee (ASC) calls on the Democratic Republic of Congo’s (DRC) authorities to do everything possible to end the harassment of Jean-Claude Katende. The accession of the current President and his government gave rise to new hope of […]
Niger: 100-day detention of three activists highlights deterioration of freedom of expression
This article was prepared by Amnesty International (here), which allowed us to publish it on the PWYP site. We invite you to take action using this letter, which we have prepared with Amnesty, as a template for reaching out to relevant local and regional contacts. Authorities in Niger should drop trumped-up charges and immediately release […]
PWYP members’ experiences of closing civic space
Consultation report for 2019 To understand members’ experiences more fully and identify their challenges and needs around civic freedoms, the PWYP Secretariat carried out in-depth profiling of the situation in two countries: Niger and the Republic of the Congo. We then carried out an online survey to find out more about members’ experiences facing increasingly […]
Civic space: Strategic Framework 2020-2022
Civic space: a ground-breaking road map for addressing threats to civic space in the extractive sector PWYP’s Strategic Framework on civic space for 2020-2022 provides a road map for addressing threats to civic space in the extractive sector, in particular those faced by PWYP members. Natural resource activists campaigning against the harmful impact of extraction, […]
Rebels with a cause – a lesson in courage
In 2019, Publish What You Pay (PWYP) recognised the need to develop a long-term strategic approach on civic space, to support the work of our 700 members. Many of them work in increasingly difficult conditions and face growing threats in response to their commitment to transparency and justice in the extractive industries. In 2020, the […]
Niger – PWYP’s Africa Steering Committee strongly condemns the arrest and charges brought against Ali Idrissa amid unrelenting crackdown on civil society
The Africa Steering Committee of Publish What You Pay strongly condemns the arrest and charges brought up against Ali Idrissa* on 14 April as well as the continued detention of six activists arrested a month ago in connection with a corruption scandal involving high-level public officials at Niger’s Ministry of Defense. A recent audit relating to […]
Niger – Civil society organisations call on authorities to end harassment of human rights defenders
Several civil society organisations* have expressed concern over the arrest of at least 15 Nigerien civil society members, and the detention and prosecution of seven of them. These events are taking place in the context of an increasingly deteriorating climate for civil society in Niger where several serious violations of fundamental freedoms have been recorded […]
Transparency dosage critical to help the fight against violence in artisanal and small-scale mining
As the government of Zimbabwe takes action to contain machete gangs who have wreaked havoc in almost every key gold producing areas in Zimbabwe, mining sector transparency reforms must not go under the policy radar. To a large extent, Publish What You Pay-Zimbabwe believes that opacity, the secretive way in which the mining sector operates […]
Time to act: Protect defenders who speak up against business impact on people and planet
On Human Rights Day, the UN Working Group on Business and Human Rights together with the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders and a group of civil society organizationsi are highlighting a key message from the recent UN Forum on Business and Human Rights (Geneva, 25-27 November 2019): that the international community must take concrete actions […]
IMF: Delay Vote on Equatorial Guinea Loan
Risk of Subsidizing Systemic Abuses, Corruption (Washington, DC) – The International Monetary Fund (IMF)’s Executive Board should delay a planned December 2019 vote on a US$280 million loan agreement with Equatorial Guinea, eight human rights and good governance organizations and eight prominent experts said today in a letter to the IMF Executive Board. The program preceding the loan […]
Civic Space in Equatorial Guinea – Information and Recommendations from civil society
The existence of an enabling environment for civil society – and particularly the ability for civil society to participate freely and actively in the EITI process as well as to contribute to debates about natural resources governance – is central to the EITI process. In line with EITI Requirement 1.3 civil society needs to be […]