2. Protection of the communities’ land rights JINDAL has been the subject of disputes and accusations by affected communities and a significant number of non-governmental organizations, including academics who have claimed and denounced human rights violations – particularly land rights and housing rights of the communities in question – in a context where there is a clear lack of evidence of improvements in the living conditions of these communities as a result of their exploitation of mineral coal. Besides JA, among these organizations5 are also the Mozambican Human Rights League (Liga Moçambicana dos Direitos Humanos), the Mozambican Bar Association (Ordem dos Advogados de Moçambique)6, the Public Integrity Centre (Centro de Integridade Pública)7, various platforms of civil society organizations on the extractive industry, among others.
Jindal A Classic Example of Corporate Impunity
To better understand the legality and sustainability of this process, JA addressed several letters to the Ministry of Land, Environment and Rural Development (Ministério da Terra Ambiente e Desenvolvimento Rural – MITADER), to the governmental institution that preceded it and was designated Ministry for Coordination of Environmental Action (Ministério para a Coordenação da Acção Ambiental – MICOA) and to the Office of the National Directorate of Environmental Impact Assessment (Direcção Nacional de Avaliação de Impacto Ambiental – DNAIA), requesting the full content of JINDAL’s Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA), as well its respective certificate of approval. On the 28th of August 2013, a meeting was held between JA and the then Minister of MICOA, who was accompanied by a team that also included
5 Justiça Ambiental, the Mozambican Human Rights League and the Mozambican Bar Association submitted proceedings in the administrative jurisdiction in order to hold JINDAL and the Mozambican State responsible for violations of the rights of the communities affected by the coal project in Tete. 6 See Report of the Mozambican Bar Association on Human Rights in Mozambique for the year 2015 and 2016. 7 See publications of the Public Integrity Centre available at https://cipmoz.org/index.php/pt/industria-extractiva
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