Attorney Umpula Nkumba Emmanuel is the Executive Director of African Natural Resources Watch (AFREWATCH), Founder of the Congo River School and the CEO of MUN Consulting Law Firm. He is an expert on business, human rights and extractive sector governance in the DRC and Africa, being one of the strongest African voices on natural resources.

Moreover, Mr. Umpula is a board member of Rights and Accountability In Development (RAID), Resource Matters and African Coalition for Corporate Accountability (ACCA). Previously, he served as the executive director of Action Against Impunity for Human Rights, the deputy coordinator of the Platform of Civil Society Organizations Working in the Katanga Mining Sector (POM) and the coordinator of advocacy activities for the Jimmy Carter Foundation (The Carter Center).

He is one of the civil society experts in the DRC who participated and contributed effectively to the revision of the Congolese mining code and regulations, having also helped several local communities lodge complaints against multinational companies using the OECD guidelines, and against the Congolese state before the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights. Examples of such cases include the Kilwe massacres against the Australian-Canadian company Anvil Mining, the demolition of Kawama village against the mining company Malta Forrest International, and Heineken against its former workers, among other cases.

Mr. Umpula took part in the revision of the OECD Guidelines in 2011.

In the field of human rights and the environment, he is the author or co-author of several reports and articles available on the Internet.