Anneke Van Woudenberg on Anvil Mining in the DR Congo

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In 2004, more than 70 people were killed in a massacre in Kilwa, in DR Congo, for which families of the victims have fought for justice for more than a decade. On 4th August 2017, the African Commission on Human and People's Rights held the Congolese Government accountable for the human rights violations, and criticised Anvil Mining, an Australian-Canadian mining company, which was accused of having provided logistical support. Rights and Accountability in Development (RAID), is a human rights organisation that campaigned for justice.

In this interview, IHRB's Salil Tripathi speaks to Anneke Van Woudenberg, RAID's executive director, about the incident, the campaign to get justice, the search for remedy, and the implications of the verdict for the accountability of corporations.

Before RAID, Van Woudenberg was deputy director for Africa at Human Rights Watch, where she conducted in-depth fact-finding research and wrote reports on human rights violations across Africa, especially in the DRC and the Great Lakes region. She has testified in international war crimes cases, briefed the UN Security Council, the US Congress and the British and European Parliaments, and is a frequent commentator in the international press. Prior to Human Rights Watch, Anneke was the country director for Oxfam in Congo. She has also worked as a researcher in the British and Canadian parliaments, followed by six years in the private sector for a large multinational bank and Andersen Consulting. Anneke has a Masters Degree in International Relations from the London School of Economics and a Bachelor Degree (High Honours) in Political Science from Carleton University, Canada.