Security guards for world’s largest gold mining company rape and kill locals in Papua New Guinea.

For decades, security guards at Barrick Gold Corporation’s gold mine in the remote highlands of Porgera, Papua New Guinea (PNG), have systematically committed acts of violence against the local population. Hundreds of women and girls living near the mine have been brutally raped by the mine’s security guards patrolling in or near the mine and local men and boys have been beaten, shot, and killed. The mine has also devastated the local environment and destroyed traditional lands.

EarthRights International represented dozens of women who survived these sexual assaults in a non-judicial Remedial Framework process established by Barrick, advocating for a more just process and better benefits. And when some of our clients rejected the Remedial Framework, believing that it was inadequate to compensate for the trauma they had suffered, we moved forward with plans to file a lawsuit against the company.

In April 2015, Barrick Gold Corporation and ERI reached a negotiated settlement.