NGOs Back Government Over Mineral Rights

The Centre for Applied Legal Studies (CALS) and the Legal Resources Centre (LRC), in support of the government, have applied for permission to assist a World Bank tribunal in a legal challenge to the Mineral and Petroleum Resources Act.

CALS and the LRC have applied together with international NGOs, the Centre for International Environmental Law and Interights and the International Centre for the Legal Protection of Human Rights, to assist the arbitration tribunal in interpreting the relevant South African mining legislation in context of the country’s constitution and relevant international human rights law.

CALS and the LRC argue that the act is in line with the country’s constitutional and international human rights obligations.

Several Italian citizens and Luxembourg corporations are suing South Africa for compensation for what they consider to be the “expropriation of the mineral rights” to their granite-quarrying businesses.

To read the article titled, “Law bodies to back state over mineral rights,” click here.