Support labor rights in gold mining in Colombia

This past month, the Amigos de Chocó foundation (Amichocó) continued with its project for the implementation of Labor rights and the Fairtrade/Fairmined standard in Colombia in the municipality of Segovia, Antioquia as part of a partnership developed with mining labor organizations.  The aim of the program is to improve labor rights in mines and promote the fair trade of gold for artisanal miners. This will be accomplished by allowing the organization of miners to confront labor issues with legal assistance, and to apply for FT/FM certification.  Through workshops with ARM and the National School of Syndicalism and visits to the field, Amichocó has already reached phase 3 of the project, despite a 3-month hiatus due to security concerns in the northeast of Antioquia. 

The initial stages created network of institutional support to help miners become more aware of violations against their labor rights. This has been achieved through alliances with local mining associations and legal representatives. Future plans call for a more comprehensive diagnostic of the El Cogote and the El Apique Rubí mines. In collaboration with these same local mining associations, Amichocó plans to further investigate the conditions experienced by miners, including the illegal use of child labor. Where needed, intervention will be taken to improve the conditions of miners and remove children from the mines. This same investigation is also being carried out small mining operation in the same region of Antioquia.      

By working closely with labor leaders and its partner organization in ARM (The Alliance for Responsible Mining), Amichocó hopes to establish a fair trade standard for both large and small-scale mining operation in Northeastern Antioquia. Future workshops together with ARM will further educate workers and their leader on their rights and help them notify responsible parties when they are violated.  

On February 7 AMICHOCÓ Foundation hosted the Workshop on Decent Work in Small Mining. This workshop is part of an agreement signed last year with the National Labor School (ENS, for its acronym in Spanish) for project "Fair Trade and Responsible Mining" that AMICHOCÓ is conducting in collaboration with Solidarity.

In this workshop, were invited some members of the team of the Foundation Alliance for Responsible Mining, ARM, as well as representatives of organizations supporting the project, Hernando Henao, president of ASOMINA and Marla Uribe, the labor inspector district of Segovia and Remedios, leader of the Interagency Committee for the Elimination of Child Labour. Finally, also attended by two representatives of two organizations of artisanal and small – scale mining in the region.

This activity is part of the component and Labor Rights Project aims to empower organizations in the region and the team working on the issue of decent work.

The development of the activity was as follows: First addressed the general guidelines for the construction of indicators-Identification of relevant variables and ways of measuring these variables. In a second time, will the issue of measuring decent work in Colombia, then give way to the characterization of forced labor in Colombia, with an emphasis on child labor, about progress and challenges.