Joint Letter to United Nations Member States

Excellencies,

Two years ago, the UN Secretary-General recognized that the increasing demand for minerals risked perpetuating extractive patterns, environmental and human rights harms, and geopolitical tensions. The Panel on Critical Energy Transition Minerals that he convened charted a path towards a new era of just, equitable, rights-respecting and accountable mineral governance, one where resource-rich countries, workers, Indigenous Peoples, women, youth and affected communities take part in deciding whether and how to use their mineral resources, share fairly in the benefits and are protected from harm.

Today, the pressure to extract minerals for green technologies, artificial intelligence and military purposes has increased dramatically, entrenching historical extractive patterns and making the paradigm shift even more urgent.

Deal-making is swiftly outpacing protections and accountability, with mounting reports of human rights and environmental harms. National security imperatives are invoked to fast-track permitting in producing countries and to bypass safeguards, while evidence on the impact of extraction on communities, Indigenous Peoples and the environment continues to grow. Speed and opacity drive negotiations. Producer countries are pressured to grant access to their minerals in exchange for security or health resources. Trade rules, traceability mechanisms and governance frameworks are being rewritten by a handful of countries with limited participation from producing countries and affected groups. Minerals remain at the heart of conflicts regionally and globally. Legitimate concerns over the impacts of mineral projects are too often portrayed as obstacles to the energy transition, fueling attacks against human rights, environment and Indigenous defenders and civic space. Mineral consumption patterns are left unquestioned.

Amidst these challenges, opportunities are also emerging. The Guiding Principles of the UN Secretary-General’s Panel serve as a blueprint for change across international and national processes. Producer countries are increasingly asserting their aspirations to move beyond extraction towards more diversified industrialisation and electrification. Consumer countries are beginning to prioritize circularity as a pathway to supply chain security and acknowledge the need for benefits and burdens to be more equitably shared. Affected communities and Indigenous Peoples increasingly resist exploitative models and narratives and demand recognition as rights-holders with a central role in decision-making.

At this critical point in time, international cooperation must prevail over competition. Cooperation is the only route to ensure equitable and just mineral value chains that respect human rights and planetary boundaries, bring development opportunities and deliver affordable, clean, and reliable energy for all.

As urgency to change course grows, Member States, once again gathered by the Secretary-General, have a unique opportunity to commit to concerted action towards justice and equity. We – more than 100 organizations united across movements for development, justice, human rights and Indigenous Peoples’ rights, sustainability and climate action – call on them to:

1. Support Resource-Rich Country Efforts to Operationalize the Guiding Principles of the UN Secretary-General’s Panel on Critical Energy Transition Minerals. From the UN Environmental Assembly to the Security Council, producer countries are proposing global mechanisms that would leverage UN processes to reduce environmental harms from mining and address the sector’s role in driving conflict. Such producer country-led initiatives are key opportunities to shape global action towards justice and equity.
2. Launch the Country Support Platforms of the UN Task Force on Critical Energy Transition Minerals. Building on the high levels of engagement and consultation that the Task Force Technical Clusters have demonstrated, the country platforms should bring stakeholders, rightsholders and development partners together to coordinate efforts for the development and implementation of tools and policy targets to advance goals defined by producing countries and their populations.
3. Ensure that the incoming UN Secretary-General maintains justice and equity in mineral value chains as a priority, continues building on the Panel’s work, and supports the UN’s leadership on rights-based mineral governance, backed by a dedicated mandate and budget line.
4. Establish a Special Envoy for Equitable and Just Mineral Governance, mandated to monitor the implementation of the UNSG Panel’s Guiding Principles and Recommendations, through equitable engagement with developing producer countries, stakeholders and rightsholders, and report annually to the General Assembly to inform the priorities of the UN system and international collaboration.
5. Operationalize a strong Just Transition Mechanism at COP31, building on the decision agreed at COP30, to support developing mineral producing countries’ efforts to strengthen their institutional and regulatory environments; and place equitable mineral governance on the agenda of the summit on just transition announced by the Secretary-General ahead of COP31.
6. Ensure that the multilateral development banks’ minerals strategies, projects and policies — including the MDBs’ Joint Collaboration Framework — are aligned with the UN Secretary-General Panel’s Guiding Principles. Multilateral development banks and public finance mechanisms must be key pillars of an international architecture designed to respect human rights, including Indigenous Peoples’ rights, and safeguard the environment by channeling funds to high operating standards and safeguards, enforcement capacity, public-interest infrastructure and project preparation. See the MDBs’ Joint Collaboration Framework.
7. Build mutually beneficial partnerships: Ensure credible and legitimate rules and partnerships are jointly defined by all producing and consuming countries, with the meaningful, full and effective participation of Indigenous Peoples, workers, local communities and other rights-holders affected by extraction, processing, transport and recycling. Ensure government-to-government agreements embed cooperation mechanisms to secure strong anti-corruption measures, rights and environmental safeguards – including to protect defenders and uphold Indigenous Peoples’ rights to self-determination through their effective participation and respect of their Free, Prior and Informed Consent as affirmed by the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) – technical and financial assistance for producer countries’ strategy development, and investment in regulatory capacity and technology transfer; forge regional coalitions to build negotiating leverage and raise standards, and avoid a race to the bottom.
8. Advance the process to agree on ambitious and equitable material sufficiency, efficiency and circularity targets, together with timelines for their implementation, as recommended by the Secretary-General’s Panel. These targets will help drive the economic transformation needed to achieve more equitable and efficient resource use, reduce pressure on people and ecosystems, and lessen dependence on primary raw material extraction.

Geopolitical rivalry cannot justify trampling rights, the environment and the sovereignty of producing countries. Now is the moment for Member States to marshall the political, technical and financial support and cooperation to build a new model rooted in justice, equity and accountability, that leaves no one behind.

Signatories

Source: Resource Justice Network