Natural Resources

Tsamota natural resources offers consulting, monitoring and assurance services to assist clients in managing the risks associated with the employment of private and government security forces. Our assurance service vets the performance of private and public security service operators working in support of our client mining and oil & gas firms. We evaluate our client’s security procedures and performance against international codes such as the Voluntary Principles on Security and Human Rights. We offer training in human rights awareness and best practice policing and security methods.

Tsamota is comprised of experts drawn from the ranks of intergovernmental human-rights agencies, police services, armed forces and national intelligence organisations. The Tsamota team offers clients a deep knowledge of the security issues that natural resources companies face as well as the legal context in which clients and their associated private-and public-security forces operate.

Tsamota staff members include lawyers specialised in International Humanitarian Law, advisors on bilateral agreements involving Private Security Companies (PSCs), the International Criminal Court’s former lead investigator in the Democratic Republic of Congo and the erstwhile head of the European Union’s Police Training task force in Iraq.

Public Security Consulting

Natural resources companies operating in unstable states frequently rely upon, work closely with and at times directly fund government security forces. Such relationships are a critical component of wider efforts to ensure the safety of employees and assets. At the same time, these associations expose companies to potentially significant reputational and legal risks; a company can be held accountable in law as well as in the forum of public opinion for the conduct of security forces acting in support of company operations even where these forces are not acting under the direct command of the firm.

Tsamota offers public-security relationship management and training to government forces on behalf of natural resources clients with an eye to ensuring optimum physical-security, enhancing disciplinary controls within security forces and safeguarding the human rights of those who are affected by security operations undertaken in the name of natural resources firms.

Private Security Consulting

Natural resources companies typically find it necessary to employ PSCs in addition (or as an alternative) to government forces. Such arrangements likewise expose natural resources firms to security-related reputational and legal risks.

To mitigate these risks, Tsamota offers assurance services to help clients monitor PSC performance and aid in the effort to ensure that private-security contractors conform at all times to security best practices as well as the provisions of domestic and international law