Q&A With Augustine Niber

Augustine Niber, Director of Litigation at the Centre for Public Interest Law in Accra, Ghana, is shown with ELAW Communications Director Maggie Keenan, while being interviewed on KWVA 88.1 FM

Augustine Niber is Director of Litigation at the Centre for Public Interest Law in Accra, Ghana. During a summer internship at ELAW he gathered legal and scientific resources from around the world to help protect disadvantaged communities from cyanide spills and oil pollution. In September, Augustine will complete a masters of law degree at Indiana University’s Program in International Human Rights.

What is the focus of your work?

I help communities impacted by polluting mining operations
seek compensation. By litigating, I am trying to improve government policy.

What inspired you to pursue this work?

My inspiration to become a lawyer came about because my father, an assistant director of education, was arrested and detained without charges and dismissed from his job. That was in 1986. We couldn’t afford a lawyer to defend him. This inspired me to become a lawyer and to make my services available to people who cannot afford lawyers. And it inspired me to try to ensure that fundamental rights are not violated by mining companies and other groups.

What have been your greatest successes?

Some of our biggest successes have been getting mining companies to better compensate people for taking their property, getting those same companies to recognize the rights of the communities that their operations affect, and getting the state environmental protection agency to get companies to comply with laws and pay more attention to the communities. We brought an action against the state environmental agency to force them to put pressure on companies, and we also recently brought an action against a government oil refinery for contaminating a lagoon. Both cases are pending.

What is your hope for the people of Ghana?

I hope to make government more responsible for protecting the rights of people in communities in mining areas or where natural resources are exploited.