Human Rights

According to global forecasts, the price of copper, Chile's main export, will remain high in 2008 thanks to strong demand from China. But just who will benefit from this bonanza is up for debate. Read More

Nearly a decade after some of the most powerful companies in the world - often under considerable criticism and consumer pressure - began an effort to eliminate sweatshop labor conditions in Asia, worker abuse is still commonplace in many of the Chinese factories that supply Western companies, according to labor rights groups. Read More

Thousands of foreign workers have come to the Kurdish districts in northern Iraq in the last three years. Many have been deceived by unscrupulous agents who arrange the journeys, like the Bangladesh-based Travel Mix agency. Read More

Jamie Leigh Jones was just 20 in 2005 when she took a leap of faith to work in Iraq for her employer, military contractor Kellogg, Brown & Root, then a subsidiary of Halliburton. She went on a mission she believed in. Shortly after her arrival in Iraq, however, Jones' ambitions were dashed in an alleged gang rape by co-workers. Read More

A 2006 report by the Child Welfare Committee found that 12 of 22 children from a village in the impoverished eastern state of Bihar were re-trafficked, mostly to different states, within a year after being rescued from a Delhi hand-embroidery sweatshop. Read More

Mining are embarking on another round of deals that promises industry juggernauts with great influence over the cost of raw materials -- and, by extension, the price of consumer electronics, cars and new apartment blocks. Read More

The Papua New Guinea government has appealed to the public to keep away from the Porgera gold mine after security guards shot dead an alleged illegal miner. Read More

A Democratic senator said Wednesday that Christmas tree ornaments sold at Wal-Mart Stores and other major retailers were made in a Chinese sweatshop. Read More

On the Indonesian island of Bali, thousands of senior government officials are negotiating a plan to slow global warming. The coal, gas and oil companies that are major producers of greenhouse gases are finally taking notice of these high-level political discussions, and many have mounted spirited public relations exercises to defend themselves. Read More

Canadian mining companies continue to come under scrutiny from civil society organisations for international human rights violations and environmental damage that critics say the Canadian government has done little to check. Read More