A Message from the Founder of CorporateWatch Liberia

A MESSAGE FROM THE FOUNDER OF CORPORATEWATCH LIBERIA I write in the spirit of respect — for the rule of law; the dignity of every Liberian; and for a remedy of ArcelorMittal's unchecked harm and abuse in Liberia. For twenty years, Liberia has hosted one of the world's largest steel companies. In that time, our institution has documented 93 cases in the ArcelorMittal Harm Registry: 34 lives lost and over 2,981 people harmed, labour rulings unenforced on the public record, and environmental fines imposed again and again — while not one case stands fully investigated with its ruling implemented. ArcelorMittal Liberia is Ground Zero — where harm and unethical practices are enormous. These are documented facts, and the record stands open to correction by anyone holding better evidence. I address this message to six seats of responsibility. TO THE GOVERNMENT OF LIBERIA — The verdict of zero is yours to answer as much as the company's. Your Ministry of Labour has ruled and not been obeyed; your courts and ministries hold files that have waited years for action. The concession was extended to 2050 in your name. Let the same hand that signed the extension sign the enforcement: publish the texts, implement the rulings, and let the State be seen standing with its own people. Our institution offers its record to every branch — Executive, Legislature and Judiciary — and its founder remains open to discussing the way forward. TO THE BOARD OF ARCELORMITTAL — Place this record before your highest body. Publish what is withheld: the Phase 2 environmental study the company says was approved but has never made public, and the text of the amended concession. Implement the rulings that Liberia's own institutions have already made. And hold every company in your supply chain to the responsible-sourcing code the group has published — in Liberia as in Europe. TO THE SHAREHOLDERS — Ask, in your stewardship, the questions this record raises. A company that reports Liberia's ore in its results must also answer for Liberia's people in its governance. Investment carries responsibility as well as return. TO THE FINANCIERS AND BANKS — Test this record in your environmental and social risk review, as you would that of any counterparty. Behind the credit lines and the bond issues stands a Liberian record: an environmental study never published; an amended concession whose ratification is public but whose text is not; and an EITI assessment that finds the company's contract transparency in Liberia "not met." A financier's responsibility does not end at the signature on a facility. Ask for the documents. Ask what has been remedied. Finance, exercised with open eyes, can be a force for the accountability this record demands. TO THE INTERNATIONAL LABOUR INSTITUTIONS — Liberia's workers are in this record: contractors whose Ministry of Labour ruling of US$308,000 stands unimplemented on the public record; drivers and operators injured and, in case after case, unanswered; a Decent Work Act whose standards are law and whose enforcement is the missing chapter. We ask that the concession labour record of Liberia be taken up within your supervisory and technical work. The rulings exist. What is missing is enforcement — and enforcement is where international labour standards either live or die. TO THE INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS INSTITUTIONS — This record is kept the way your mandates require: case by case, source by source, with documented, reported and alleged kept apart, and no victim named without consent. Our submission to the United Nations' legacy-harms process stands prepared on this evidence. We ask that the record be received wherever your mandates reach — and that those who document harm in concession countries be protected, not punished, for the documenting. Accountability is not hostility. Transparency is not an attack. They are the conditions under which a concession can honour both its investors and the people on whose land it stands. Our door remains open to structured dialogue, on the record. The record itself remains open to all. Ann-Dora Gbormie Founder, CorporateWatch Liberia corporatewatchliberia.org

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