The struggle over natural resources often lies at the heart of violent conflicts, fuelling strife in many parts of the world, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres said on Tuesday, urging governments and everyone with a stake in valuable resources, to think hard about how they are managed and exploited.

The risks associated with preventing and resolving such conflicts are “only going to grow” with the increasing impacts of climate change, warned Mr. Guterres, briefing the Security Council.

Citing the example of Africa – where 75 per cent of civil wars since 1990 have been partially funded by resources such as diamonds and valuable minerals – the UN chief highlighted the need for greater cooperation between civil society, governments and international organizations in regulating and controlling such assets.

With the increasing impacts of climate change evident in all regions, the risks are only going to grow – UN chief Guterres

“Through certified extraction, production and fair-trade practices, and with a focus on aiding local communities, lawlessness can be countered, and tangible benefits brought to conflict-affected populations,” he said, noting the positive impact of what is known as the Kimberley process certification scheme, on curbing trade in conflict diamonds.

Resources also ‘catalysts’ for cooperation

In his briefing, the UN chief also emphasized that the wealth generated by shared natural resources, provides an incentive for cooperation and dialogue, such as in the Senegal River and Lake Chad basins in Africa; Lake Titicaca, in South America; or trans-boundary water management in Central Asia.

“And, from my own experience, the Albufeira Convention, agreed during my time as Prime Minister of Portugal, continues to promote good relations and cooperation on water management between Portugal and Spain,” he added.

Mr. Guterres also informed the 15-member Security Council of the Organization’s efforts to mitigate the fallout from competition, highlighting the UN’s work to address climate-related security risks, use of mediation over natural resources as a tool for conflict prevention, and partnerships at all levels.

“We are [also] seeking to strengthen the capacity of women’s networks and organizations to effectively engage in mediation processes around natural resources and the environment, including in the context of climate change,” he continued, noting support schemes for Afro-Colombian women in Colombia on natural resource use, ownership, governance and benefit-sharing.

In addition, a new UN system-wide guidance note to streamline the best approach to resolve conflicts over land use, has been recently finalized, said the Secretary-General.

The guidance note follows a study on land and conflict, published by the UN Human Settlements Programme, UN-Habitat.

Too many businesses are putting profit above human rights and “ignoring” their obligations, while governments fail to “regulate and lead by example”, according to a United Nations human rights report, published on Tuesday.

In the report drawn up by a group of UN rights experts, companies are being urged to comply with the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights , which provides a framework for how States and investors, should address shortcomings in board rooms and business practice at all levels.

Ensuring that human rights are respected across their own activities and value chains, is the most significant contribution most companies can make towards sustainable development–Chair of Working Group on Business and Human Rights

The Chair of the UN Working Group on Business and Human Rights, Dante Pesce, said that that “human rights due-diligence” was fundamentally “about preventing negative impacts on people.” He explained that identifying and being transparent about risks, was the first step toward prevention of abuses.

“Ensuring that human rights are respected across their own activities and value chains, is the most significant contribution most companies can make towards sustainable development,” he added.  

More investors are beginning to take note of human rights risks and pressuring companies to step up their efforts to prevent abuses, according to the report, but further progress needs to be made.

With a few companies leading the way, most are still either unaware of their duty to human rights standards, or unwilling to implement due diligence, said the experts. Greater government action is also required.

“In spite of an overall picture of slow progress, the good news is that human rights due-diligence can be done,” Mr. Pesce said, pressing that businesses can no longer blame a lack of knowledge for inaction.

“Evidence is clearly suggesting that doing the right thing is also the smart thing to do,” he added.

Congolese nationals forced back across the border to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), after being expelled from neighbouring Angola, “are returning to a desperate situation,” a UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) spokesperson said on Tuesday.

Speaking at a media briefing in Geneva, the spokesperson said that the agency is concerned by a “fast-developing humanitarian situation in the Kasai region” of the DRC, where the situation is already fragile: around 200,000 people have arrived over the last two weeks.

The mass population movement follows the Angolan Government’s decision to expel Congolese migrants, many of whom were working in the informal mining sector in the northeast of the country.

The deadline for expulsion expired Monday and, within some areas of Angola, there have been reports of violent clashes between migrants and law enforcement agents. Thousands have been arriving at the border, where complaints have included sexual violence and harassment, bodily frisking and theft of belongings – at the hands of security forces on both sides of the border.

The prospects for the returnees are bleak: they have limited means to travel to their home regions, in an area hit by recent conflict and destruction, and where ethnic tensions are still high.

The UNHCR spokesperson reported over-crowding in the town of Kamako in Kasai Province, on the Angola border, with people staying overnight outdoors, in host families, church compounds, and on the streets.

The spokesperson pointed out that mass expulsions are contrary to country obligations under the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights and that the Agency is asking Angola and DRC to work together to ensure a safe and orderly population movement, and to respect the human rights of those affected.

More than a year into the crisis in Cox’s Bazar, the number of Rohingya refugees has reached nearly one million, with young girls in Bangladesh refugee camps sold into forced labour accounting for the largest group of trafficking victims, reported the UN Migration Agency (IOM) on Tuesday.

The agency says that families desperate to earn money are frequently sending their daughters to work in dangerous environments.

“There is a very limited number of jobs in the camp and for women there is almost nothing. That’s why I went outside of the camp,” one Rohingya woman working gruelling hours for little pay in the fish-processing industry told IOM.

IOM reports that women and girls lured into forced-labour, account for two-thirds of those receiving the agency’s support in Cox’s Bazar; another 10 percent were victims of sexual exploitation. Men and boys are not exempt, accounting for about a third of refugees forced into labour.

“We are struggling to meet our everyday needs and there is no scope to get any job inside the camp,” said one Rohingya father, who was physically abused and unpaid for his work. “So, we agreed to go outside of the camp to work.”

Despite the often false promises of work and a better life, some victims are unaware of the risks, or so desperate to escape the situation, that no measure is too drastic.

IOM’s head of protection services in Cox’s Bazar, Dina Parmer, explained that sometimes, “sacrificing one family member for the sake of the rest of the family” is the rationale.

IOM counter-trafficking and protection staff have helped nearly 100 people who have escaped trafficking situations and returned to Cox’s Bazar since the crisis began in August, 2017, leading to an exodus of more than 700,000 refugees across the border into Bangladesh, escaping human rights abuses.

The agency has provided physical and mental health assistance, legal counselling, shelters and emergency cash assistance to support survivors, but due to the nature of human trafficking, many victims are reluctant to come forward and are unaccounted for.

According to Ms. Parmer, the Rohingya refugee community is extremely vulnerable to human trafficking due to their brutal life experiences, and lack of education wrought by long-term discrimination back home in Myanmar, where they have been an oppressed minority for decades.

IOM and NGO partners are developing creative ways to communicate the dangers of trafficking in the camps, including comic illustrations, street drama and music illustrating real-life stories to spread the message.

The top United Nations human rights official has called on Saudi Arabia and Turkey to “reveal everything they know” about the disappearance of Jamal Khashoggi.

The Saudi journalist and critic of the Kingdom has not been seen since he visited his country’s consulate in Istanbul on the afternoon of 2 October, Michelle Bachelet said in a statement.

Speaking to journalists in Geneva amid news reports that details of Mr. Khashoggi’s death may surface soon, indicating that it was an accident, UN human rights office (OHCHR) spokesperson, Rupert Colville, noted the High Commissioner’s belief that “two weeks is a very long time for the probable scene of a crime not to be subject to a forensic investigation”.

He noted that “in view of the seriousness of the situation”, the High Commissioner had also called for diplomatic immunity to be “waived immediately” to allow for a “prompt, thorough, effective, impartial and transparent” investigation.

Anyone responsible should be held accountable, and that means anyone – Rupert Colville, OHCHR

Protection from national jurisdictions is bestowed on consular premises and officials by treaties such as the 1963 Vienna Convention on Consular Relations, Mr. Colville explained, before noting that Ms. Bachelet had welcomed the agreement between Saudi Arabia and Turkey allowing investigators to enter Saudi buildings in Istanbul.

But potentially serious crimes had been committed, he insisted, and the perpetrators should be held accountable.

“The one thing we really know as a solid fact is that Mr. Khashoggi went into the consulate and he…was never seen coming out again,” Mr. Colville said, adding that it seemed “very probable” that some crime had been committed.

“Enforced disappearance or murder, if that has occurred, extra-judicial killing, either way, those are very serious crimes,” he added. “We all need to know what it was, how it happened and who was responsible and where the evidence leads”.

Responding to a question about whether there was a chance that the probe into Mr. Khashoggi’s disappearance risked becoming a “whitewash”, Mr. Colville said there was no question of impunity.

“Anyone responsible should be held accountable, and that means anyone,” he said, “who committed a crime or who was involved in the planning of the crime or executing it. There should be accountability; if it’s a serious crime, that’s a fundamental principle of law; national law and international law.”