In a press release issued on 13 June, Global Witness, a UK-based organisation that fights against corruption and looks into links between natural resource exploitation and conflict, has welcomed the recent British government endorsement to the 2015 anti-corruption law, which had been under review.

The UK government concluded that the law had been a success in bringing greater transparency to the oil and mining sectors. Global Witness and other civil society actors are now calling on decision-makers in the United States and the EU to take note; they are currently reviewing similar laws.

Dominic Eagleton, Oil Campaigner at Global Witness said that “Today, the UK government has reinforced its commitment to the fight against rampant corruption in the oil and mining industries. Its ringing endorsement of this vital law sets a positive example for decision-makers in the US and EU, where similar transparency rules for extractive companies are also coming under review.”

Global Witness continues: “Since the law came into effect in 2015 in the UK, oil, gas and mining companies have published payments worth at least $260 billion in 107 countries.” The law represents an essential tool that holds governments and companies to account and enables local civil society to trace where the money is, and, by so doing, demand a fair distribution of the income, especially towards those communities living near mining operations.