By Nasratu Kargbo
ECOWAS Parliament has adopted a law that criminalizes illegal mining in all of its member states at the 2024 First extraordinary session held in Freetown Sierra Leone after discussions at the parliamentary seminar on “Illegal mining and its implications in the ECOWAS region”.
According to the Draft Resolution of the ECOWAS Parliament on Illegal Mining in the ECOWAS region, the MPs proposed that they “Legislate to criminalize or increase penalties and sanctions for illegal mining, especially for foreigners, sponsors and perpetrators within the ECOWAS region”.
The document explains that MPs urged the ECOWAS Commission to accelerate the harmonization of laws and ensure they put strategies in place to combat illegal mining in the region, noting that the laws will seek to tackle issues relating to exploration, mining, and marketing of natural resources. It further states that the MPs called for the effective application of existing laws to combat the menace in the region and develop strategies to raise awareness on illegal mining at all levels of society, with more focus on local communities.
According to the draft, one of the recommendations MPs made was that they put an effective mechanism to monitor the entire artisanal mining chain and set up permanent consultation structures between the institutions in charge of the sector, miners, and communities.
They called on member states to put in place robust surveillance systems to track the movement of minerals from site to market, in a bid to make it difficult for clandestine mineral resources to enter the supply chain.
They also urged that the region invests in research and prospecting of mineral resources to have exhaustive data on the mineral resources of member countries and also assist countries in mapping and taking stock of their resources to plan how best to exploit them for the benefit of the population. All of the above recommendations were adopted by MPs.
The extraordinary session which started on the 6th of February ended yesterday. It would be recalled that the parliamentary seminar commenced on the 31st of January and ended on the 2nd of February 2024.
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