About Anticorruption

Spilled oil pollutes the water surrounding the Niger Delta village of Pepe-ama. Photograph © Tim Hetherington

What is resource corruption?

Natural resources such as oil, gas, precious metal and mineral deposits, and timber should support economic development in the countries in which they are located. But too often these resources have only fueled the corruption of multinational corporations, legal and finance professionals, and local political leaders who have siphoned the wealth away from state coffers at the expense of local populations, to pad corporate profits and fund luxurious lifestyles.

How severe is the problem?

Corruption costs Africa dearly. An estimated 25 percent of the continent’s official gross domestic product—the market value of all goods and services made within the borders of 47 countries—is lost to corruption each year.

What is the Justice Initiative doing to combat resource corruption?

We are working to create a global web of accountability that allows no escape for those guilty of the theft of public assets in countries with abundant natural resources by increasing the likelihood of detection, conviction, and substantial punishment for corrupt developing country oligarchs, multinational enterprises, and the banking, legal and accounting professionals who facilitate and collude in their crimes.

How do you do that?

By building cases around the world, demonstrating that existing legal tools can be applied to remedying resource corruption, and strengthening legal precedents to facilitate and mainstream the use of those tools for anticorruption by governmental law enforcement and  by civil society. For example, the Justice Initiative is investigating resource-related corruption at the highest levels of government and society in Equatorial Guinea. These efforts have led to a criminal investigation in Spain into alleged money-laundering perpetrated by relatives and other close associates of President Teodoro Obiang Nguema. We also have a  case pending in the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, seeking to hold the Equatoguinean government accountable for massive “spoliation”—the theft of natural resources and attendant wealth from the people to whom they should belong. 

Are there other ways the Justice Initiative is taking on the issue?

We are also working to create an environment more favorable to accountability for grand corruption, through legal and institutional innovation and capacity building, and advocacy to strengthen public support for investigators and courts that are willing to take on meritorious corruption cases that are complex and politically controversial. For example, we are working to revive the use of the international law on pillage as a means to combat corporate involvement in the plunder of natural resources in conflict zones, which has emerged as a primary means of financing armed violence. Pillage has been long recognized as a grave offence under the laws of war, but few corporations or business people have been tried for pillage since just after the Second World War.

Through publishing and distributing our detailed explanation of this important but little know jurisprudence in our book, Corporate War Crimes, Prosecuting Pillage of Natural Resources, and convening meetings on the topic with prosecutors, investigators and the general public, we are helping those who seek to punish and deter trafficking in “blood” resources by corporations and business people profiting from and perpetuating ongoing conflicts.