Global Witness ANNUAL REVIEW 2008 ABOUT GLOBAL WITNESS
ANNUAL REPORT 2008 global witness ANNUAL REVIEW 2008 ABOUT GLOBAL WITNESS THEY [GLOBAL WITNESS] EPITOMISE THE COMMITMENT, CREATIVITY AND DILIGENCE THAT SHOULD BE THE HALLMARK OF LEADERSHIP – WHETHER OF NON-PROFIT ADVOCACY GROUPS, COMPANIES, OR NATIONS…MOST NOTABLY [GLOBAL WITNESS] HAVE REJECTED EASY ANSWERS THAT, FOR TRUE CHAMPIONS OF PEACE, ARE FLEETING AND EMPTY. TONY P. HALL AND FRANK R. WOLF, MEMBERS OF US CONGRESS AND PATRICK LEAHY, US SENATOR RECOMMENDATION LETTER FOR THE 2003 NOBEL PEACE PRIZE GLOBAL WITNESS INVESTIGATES AND CAMPAIGNS Throughout 2008 Global Witness continued to make TO PREVENT NATURAL RESOURCE-RELATED CONFLICT great strides towards breaking the links between natural AND CORRUPTION AND ASSOCIATED ENVIRONMENTAL resource extraction and conflict, corruption and human AND HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSES. rights and environmental abuses across the world. From investigations into conflict minerals in the In 2006, aid flows to Africa totalled $49 billion while Democratic Republic of Congo and illegal logging in payments for natural resources were an incredible Liberia, to a new and ambitious strand of work on $250 billion. This discrepancy illustrates the potential banks and financial institutions, Global Witness that natural resources have to eliminate poverty continued to use its analysis, awareness-raising, and promote economic growth. The trade in natural lobbying, and policy development to advocate for resources is huge – and so are the profits associated systemic change. with it. However, often the benefits are diverted or co-opted by elites who ride roughshod over human By exposing the roots of conflict and corruption, and rights in their attempts at self-enrichment. Extensive refusing to accept that some problems are too large to corruption, particularly in vulnerable countries, including be tackled, or some attitudes too entrenched to be those that are coming out of lengthy periods of conflict, challenged, Global Witness seeks not just front-line exacerbates inequality and entrenches poverty.
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