Publications

Voix du Congo: Misisi gold, a polluted supply chain. Causes and consequences.
- APDE, Julien Mapenzi | January 24, 2022
In this Voix du Congo publication, the Congolese civil society organisation Action for Peace and Development (APDE) analyses mining-related incidents reported via the “Kufatilia” platform between July 2020 and June 2021 in the mining region of Misisi.

Maps of checkpoints in South Sudan
- Ken Matthysen, Peer Schouten, Thomas Muller | December 14, 2021
A selection of key maps that accompany the 2021 publication “Checkpoint economy: the political economy of checkpoints in South Sudan, ten years after independence”. Interactive webmap of road-and river checkpoints in South Sudan: A static overview map of all road- and river checkpoints in South Sudan (2020 – 2021 data): A static map with details of all checkpoints, per route (2020 – 2021 data): A

Checkpoint economy: the political economy of checkpoints in South Sudan, ten years after independence
- Ken Matthysen, Peer Schouten | December 10, 2021
Ten years after independence, the world’s youngest country is home to an entrenched political economy of conflict premised on checkpoint taxation. Humanitarian aid is not exempt, reveals a major new mapping report by DIIS and IPIS. When South Sudan became independent ten years ago, oil revenues were supposed to fuel the economy of the world’s newest country. But two years later in 2013, oil prices

Africa armed violence and the illicit arms trade
- Brian Wood, Peter Danssaert | December 1, 2021
Brian Wood and Peter Danssaert recently contributed a chapter on Africa’s illicit arms trade to ‘Gun Trafficking and Violence. From the Global Network to the Local Security Challenge’ edited by David Pérez Esparza, Carlos A. Pérez Ricart, and Eugenio Weigend Vargas (2021). In this chapter the authors consider major structural factors contributing to the illicit trade of small arms and li

Advocating for an improved enabling environment for the production, trade and export of OECD Due Diligence Guidance (DDG)-conformant minerals from eastern DRC
- Levin Sources | November 23, 2021
As part of the Madini project, a review of the current situation, trends and barriers in the production, trade and export of tin, tantalum, tungsten (3T) and gold from eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) was conducted by Levin Sources, with the aim to recommend concrete actions that can improve OECD-conformant sourcing of these minerals from eastern DRC. The link between the exploitation of

The management of lethal materiel in conflict settings: existing challenges and opportunities for the European Peace Facility
- Eric G. Berman | September 8, 2021
This paper, which is a collaboration between Eric G. Berman (Director of the Safeguarding Security Sector Stockpiles (S⁴) Initiative) and IPIS, shows that levels of loss of uniformed personnel serving in peace operations in the Lake Chad Basin region under the Multinational Joint Task Force (MNJTF), as well as the seizure of lethal materiel from state stockpiles, are astonishingly high. Reporting

Annual Report 2020
- IPIS | August 31, 2021
This annual report provides an overview of all of IPIS’ activities in 2020. The report details the work on the different research programmes, and lists all the publications and briefings of 2020. It also outlines the various events and workshops that IPIS has participated in. Finally, the report gives an overview of the 2020 finances and the networks IPIS is a part of. Download Annual report 2020

Madini – Conflict analysis and stakeholder mapping in the mining regions of South Kivu and Ituri
- Guillaume de Brier | August 20, 2021
To ensure that the implementation of the Madini project fits the local context and positively impacts the local population, IPIS conducted a conflict sensitivity analysis in South Kivu and Ituri. The present study highlights that poor governance, along with chronic poverty, are structural causes of violence in mining regions, whereas the presence o

Webmap “Business and Human Rights in Tanzania”
- Laure Gerig, Mieke Thierens, Thomas Muller | August 18, 2021
This interactive map presents an overview of the main project activities and output that IPIS and its project partners CHRAGG and BHRT have delivered as part of their project to “Improve monitoring, research and dialogue on Business and Human Rights in Tanzania ”. This project ran from December 2017 until February 2021. The map locates project activities in Tanzania and allows you to find out more

IPIS Due Diligence series – Comparative analysis between cobalt and 3T sourcing from the DRC
- Guillaume de Brier, Hadassah Arian, Lotte Hoex | July 26, 2021
This report compares the supply chains and traceability of 3T and cobalt ores in order to identify similarities, differences, and lessons learned from the decade of 3T experience in responsible sourcing, for the emerging cobalt initiatives. The experience of regulating responsible sourcing in the 3T sector has taught us the importance of engaging producing countries

Review paper – The EU Conflict Minerals Regulation: Implementation at the EU Member State level
- IPIS | June 9, 2021
A Coalition of European NGOs working on responsible mineral sourcing, including IPIS, published a review paper discussing the state of implementation of the European Conflict Minerals Regulation across European Union Member States. The report highlights the shortcomings of the Regulation and the general lack of transparency that hinders effective and efficient monitoring of companies.

Contributions to ‘The Arms Trade Treaty. Weapons and International Law (2021)’
- Brian Wood, Peter Danssaert | June 1, 2021
IPIS is happy to present Peter Danssaert and Brian Wood’s contributions to ‘The Arms Trade Treaty. Weapons and International Law’ edited by Clare Da Silva and Brian Wood (2021). Peter Danssaert co-authored ‘Article 8: Import’ and ‘Article 9: Transit or Trans-Shipment’. Brian Wood co-edited the book and wrote ‘Article 10: Brokering’, and co-authored ‘Article 7: Export and Export Assessment’. Link t

Belgium’s fight against conflict diamonds: an assessment of the country’s diamond sector controls from a global perspective
- Hans Merket | May 31, 2021
In its new report, IPIS assesses Belgium’s fight against conflict diamonds. The report focusses on the Belgian city of Antwerp, which has played a central role in the global diamond trade for centuries. Yet as the world’s diamond hub, Antwerp not only attracted the best but also the worst of this diverse industry. In no uncertain terms, a series of UN and NGO reports linking Antwerp to bloody civi

IPIS Insights -The artisanal and small scale mining sector in eastern DRC six months after the Covid-19 outbreak
- Guillaume de Brier, Ken Matthysen | April 19, 2021
In April 2020, when the Coronavirus spread around the world, IPIS started monitoring the impact of the pandemic on the production and trade of the artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) sector in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). IPIS published a report in October 2020 that discussed the results of several rounds of consultations with ASM stakeholders at nearly 90 Tin, Tantalum, Tung

Voices from Tanzania – case studies on Business & Human Rights (Volume 3)
- AJISO, FEMAPO, Governance Links Tanzania, PILIDO, TCCIA | April 1, 2021
The Voices from Tanzania series supports local field-based studies into business and human rights topics in Tanzania. This third volume presents five cases studies that focus on the human rights impact of large-scale infrastructure projects. Download this publication in pdf Pakua muhtasari kwa kiswahili The studies assessed the human rights impact of 3 energy supply projects– the East African Crud

Evaluating Due Diligence Programs for Conflict Minerals
The 2010 Dodd-Frank Act requires that US-listed companies sourcing so-called “conflict minerals” from Africa’s Great Lakes region conduct due diligence. Since January 2021, the EU imposes its 3TG importers to conduct due diligence in line with the OECD Guidelines (for a comparison between the two regulations, see IPIS Insight: Regulating Responsible Sourcing of 3TG Minerals). D

National Baseline Assessment – Business and Human Rights in Belgium
- IPIS | March 17, 2021
IPIS contributed to the Belgian National Baseline Assessment (NBA). The report covers the findings and recommendations of the NBA. The NBA charts the progress made by Belgian authorities and companies since the launch of Belgium’s first National Action Plan on Business and Human Rights, in June 2017. The research was commissioned by the Belgian Federal Institute for Sustainable Developme

Report on the Third Multi-stakeholder Conference on Business and Human Rights in Tanzania
- BHRT - CHRAGG - IPIS | February 27, 2021
This report presents a summary of the outcomes of the Third Multi-stakeholder Conference on Business and Human Rights in Tanzania which was held in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania on the 17th of February 2021, at Holliday Inn Hotel. The conference was part of the project “Improving, monitoring, research and dialogue on business and human rights in Tanzania”, which aims at building local and

Promoting peaceful and seasonal migration in Northern Central African Republic
- Guillaume de Brier, Peer Schouten | February 9, 2021
“You can negotiate with an armed group, not with the drought” The borderlands of the Central African Republic (CAR) are home to one of the largest seasonal livestock migrations (transhumance) in the world. Decades of unrest and crisis, however, have brutally disrupted most aspects of herding—the routes taken, the people involved, governance mechanisms, as well as relations to local populations. To

Voix du Congo: Analysis of incidents in 3TG supply chains in Walungu and Kabare, South-Kivu, DRC
- Benjamin BISIMWA, CRESA, Innocent IRENGE | February 2, 2021
Since November 2018, International Peace Information Service (IPIS) has been implementing the “Kufatilia” project which aims at strengthening transparency in the monitoring of incidents related to artisanal mining.