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DRC mining industry is a prime example of how corporate power threatens women’s rights

This is why feminist activists are mobilising behind a proposed international treaty to regulate the impacts of transnational corporations.

By Valerie Bah
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Women artisanal miners near the Kamitunga gold mines.

Women artisanal miners near the Kamitunga gold mines. Photo: Marie-Rose Shakalili.

On a research trip to the Kamituga gold mine in her home province of South Kivu, in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), activist Marie-Rose Shakalili noticed something that’s often minimised in stories about mining in her country: that “women work disproportionately hard, breaking up stones, transporting and sifting them, grinding them into powder.”

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Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0