Theonila Roka Matbob Photo: Human Rights Law Centre
Bougainville MP, Theonila Roka Matbob, has won a human rights award for taking on mining multi-national Rio Tinto.
She spent years raising concerns about the ongoing environmental damage caused by the long closed down Panguna Mine.
Earlier this year she won a concession from the former majority owner of the mine, Rio Tinto, that it would fund an independent human rights and environmental impact assessment of the damage caused.
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She was one of 156 Bougainville residents, represented by Australia's Human Rights Law Centre, who last year filed a human rights complaint against the company.
"We have been living with the disastrous impacts of Panguna for many years and the situation is getting worse," she said.
"Our communities live surrounded by the vast mounds of waste leftover from the mine, which continue to poison our rivers with copper," Roka Matbob said.
She is to be given the Gwynne Skinner Human Rights Award in a virtual ceremony later this month.