Unsustainable International Law: Transnational Resource Extraction and Violence Against Women

Abstract

Violence against women in the context of resource extraction is perpetrated in a variety of circumstances by a variety of actors in the Global North and the Global South. This article focuses on sexual violence against women, including rape in the particular context of transnational North-South resource extraction. Transnational mining and oil & gas companies often become complicit in violence, including sexual violence against women, through the acts of their security providers. The article describes three situations in which Canadian extractive corporations have been implicated in rape and gang rape perpetrated by their security forces. It goes on to consider the distinct types of harm that result from sexual violence and assesses the structural factors that facilitate such violence and support its persistence. It argues that the international legal system maintains a gendered regulatory gap that contributes to the structural violence that operates to further marginalize and oppress women in two interrelated ways. It concludes by considering opportunities to address this issue in different law-making fora.

Keywords: violence against women, rape, transnational resource extraction, international law, international human rights law, United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights