Lima, February 24, 2016. Yesterday in Lima, within the framework of the Global Conference of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI), more than 100 civil society representatives made the decision to prevent the meeting from taking place. of the members’ assembly, the highest governance body of EITI. The interest in carrying out this boycott was the irregular and illegitimate interference in the right of civil society to self-select their representatives in the EITI International Board, and the inclusion of an additional candidate in the list of nominees by civil society who did not had the support of the broad group of civil society.

This is a clear violation of the processes established for the nomination of representatives of civil society in said Council. Prior to this meeting, civil society had tried on various occasions to find a solution demanding the removal of this illegitimate candidate from the list, but this was not done.

Civil society was prepared to enter the membership assembly meeting, on the condition that the illegitimate candidate be removed from the list. In this way, a representative was sent to it to report this position. The current EITI Chair, Clare Short, who was facilitating the meeting, decided to proceed with the meeting despite the fact that most members of civil society were not present. During the meeting, the civil society representative had the opportunity to make a brief intervention, but was prevented from giving a full explanation of civil society concerns about what happened. Due to this proceeding, the decisions made at this meeting are questionable. Although the name of the sixth candidate was eventually removed from the list, this was done in a way and at a time that made it impossible for civil society to participate in the meeting. All this is contrary to the spirit and principles of the initiative and constitutes a violation of the governance process and an attack on the trust that EITI had built over the last decade.

The central principle of EITI is multi-stakeholder collaboration between governments, companies and civil society as peers at all levels of its governance. Yesterday, the initiative’s International Board adopted an EITI International Standard 2016, which includes strengthening the Civil Society Protocol to ensure that civil society can participate fully and freely in EITI processes. The principles contained in this Protocol have been violated with this act. Civil society is deeply concerned by what happened in the nomination process for their representatives to the International Board, as they set a dangerous precedent for effective civil society participation in national EITI processes.

The civil society selection process for the EITI Board was conducted by an independent committee coordinated by the Publish What You Pay (PLWY) coalition, with the support of 800 civil society organizations from around the world. As set out in the Guidelines for EITI Party Groups, [1] PWYP was mandated to facilitate this process through a civil society consultation. Additionally, the civil society nominations process was open to any organization, regardless of whether or not it was affiliated with PWYP. In addition, recognizing the importance of ensuring the presence of non-PWYP civil society on the Nominating Committee, the PWYP Global Council decided that this independent and credible Committee should comprise two members from PWYP and two from non-PWYP organizations. the coalition. This Committee was tasked with ensuring good governance of the selection process and ensuring the identification of competent candidates who could legitimately represent civil society interests on the EITI Board. It is important to note that three of the ten selected nominees come from organizations not affiliated with PWYP.

Civil society welcomes the commitment of EITI Chair nominee Fredrik Reinfeldt to work with PWYP. During the PWYP Global Assembly held this week in Lima, Mr. Reinfeldt addressed PWYP members and noted the critical role the coalition has played in making EITI a robust and trustworthy initiative.

All EITI actors need to maintain their commitment to the EITI principles and protect the independence of civil society. Therefore, we demand that Mr. Reinfeldt immediately convene a meeting with civil society to explore how to address the numerous governance gaps, œ and the deficiencies that this process has brought to light. In this way, we demand that the Articles of the EITI Association be reviewed and that accountability mechanisms be put in place necessary that this attack on civil society space never happen again.

Signed:

Publish What You Pay and other independent civil society organizations

[1] The EITI Guidelines for Stakeholder Groups state that: “Those civil society representatives interested in being represented on the EITI Association or on the Board are invited to contact the Publish What You Pay coalition.”