Recent research triggers the need to better understand the relationship between corporate social responsibility (CSR), multinational mining companies, and state behaviour. In particular, the nascent concept of home state responsibility (HSR) remains challenged with unknowns, as it is not clearly understood how this emerging concept differs from a government-censored CSR, and why it matters. In this talk, Dr. Compaoré asks what issues, insights and prospects the concept of home state responsibility brings to debates on local-global dynamics in Africa’s mining sector. This is a critical question for debates on the resource-conflict nexus, especially at a time when African state and non-state actors are increasingly contesting the role of multinational mining corporations, and displaying greater agency in the governance of their mineral resources. Specifically, the tripartite dynamics between host states, mining companies and home states bring to light multiple dimensions of sovereignties, and also involve contestations from local communities affected by mining projects. Informed by a legal pluralist framework to regulation that is anchored within a Third World Approach to International Law, the analysis addresses whether and to what extent, the innovative concept of HSR may be a tool and/or a hindrance in addressing governance challenges in Africa’s mining sector.
About the speaker
W. R. Nadège Compaoré is a Balsillie School of International Affairs (BSIA) Postdoctoral Fellow. Prior to joining the BSIA, she was respectively a Research Analyst at the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research and a SSHRC Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Social Science at York University. Her work lies at the intersection of Global Political Economy, International Relations and International Law scholarships, which guide her analysis of global and regional governance measures targeting the oil, gas and mining industries in Africa. Nadège’s research draws from extensive fieldwork in Gabon, Ghana, and South Africa, respectively funded by SSHRC, CIGI, and the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA). Her ongoing project investigates the changing nature of mining legislations in Africa, and the implications of these changes for multinational corporations, as well as for state behaviour in both host and home countries. Her work has been published in journals such as International Studies Review, Etudes Internationales, Millennium: Journal of International Studies, and Contemporary Politics. Nadège is co-editor of New Approaches to the Governance of Natural Resources: Insights from Africa (Palgrave, 2015). She holds a PhD in Political Studies from Queen’s University.
