Sector Specific Guidance and Tools

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Sector Specific Guidance and Tools

ABSTRACT:  “With increased attention being given to the accountability of businesses for their human rights impacts, human rights impact assessment (HRIA) has gained traction as one tool available to assess and address the impacts of extractive industries projects on the human rights enjoyment of workers and communities. The United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs) have been a key driving factor for the growing focus on HRIA. However, as HRIA is relatively new in the extractive industries, for example compared to the more established practices of environmental or social impact assessment, current HRIA practice varies considerably and there are few examples of methodologies and assessments in the public domain. This hinders the development of a common understanding amongst extractive industries stakeholders as to what ‘good practice’ HRIA can and should entail. Relatedly, the extent to which such assessments in fact facilitate processes and outcomes that effectively address the adverse human rights impacts of extractive industries projects remains largely unknown. In this paper, we propose that the human rights-based approach might provide useful parameters to guide the development, implementation and evaluation of HRIA methodologies and practice going forward. In particular, the focus that the human rights-based approach places on (i) the application of international human rights standards, (ii) human rights principles to guide processes, and (iii) accountability and transparency, could provide useful parameters, with the view to establishing HRIA practice that meaningfully contributes to preventing and addressing the adverse human rights impacts of extractive industries projects.”

ABSTRACT: “This publication is a comprehensive guide focused on integrating human rights due diligence into corporate risk management processes. It introduces and explains what is meant by human rights due diligence and the central role it plays in delivering on the corporate responsibility to respect human rights. The guide aims to assist mining companies in reviewing their existing risk management processes, identifying how they can build on them to ensure they are adequately addressing human rights and whether their existing processes are consistent with the UN Guiding Principles. A range of the available tools on risk management and aspects of human rights due diligence are introduced within and the tools are supported by a number of industry-related case studies. The studies focus on practices such as the use of global employee surveys, conflict assessment and effective stakeholder engagement.”

ABSTRACT: “This guidance addresses the question of how companies can ensure respect for human rights in their operations without exacerbating or generating conflicts. Since International Alert published its ‘Conflict-sensitive business practice’ in 2005, the field of business and human rights has emerged as a highly influential area of theory and practice. However, while there has been substantial uptake of the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, particularly around company efforts to undertake more rigorous human rights due diligence, there is little available guidance on what this means for companies operating in conflict-affected settings. This is significant, because in conflict-affected settings the likelihood and severity of human rights violations is considerably higher, and the most vulnerable members of society are likely to disproportionately experience more negative impacts and be less resilient to external shocks. In these complex and volatile environments, thorough and robust human rights due diligence (HRDD) is all the more important, since companies cannot rely on standard approaches.”

ABSTRACT: “Conflict-sensitive business practice: Guidance for extractive industries consists of guidance on doing business in societies at risk of conflict for field managers working across a range of business activities, as well as headquarters staff in political risk, security, external relations and social performance departments. It provides information on understanding conflict risk through a series of practical documents, including: introduction to conflict-sensitive business practice (CSBP), including an overview of the regulatory; environment for doing business in conflict-risk states; screening tool for early identification of conflict risk; macro-level conflict risk and impact assessment tool; project-level conflict risk and impact assessment tool; special guidance on key flashpoint issues where conflict could arise at any point during a company’s operation.”

ABSTRACT: “The purpose of the Guide is to assist oil and gas companies in implementing a due diligence process for human rights. This can be an essential part of a company’s overall risk management strategy, especially in countries where human rights issues may be more prevalent…. The Guide is divided into four sections: Section 1: What is a human rights due diligence process; Section 2: Why is a human rights due diligence process important for the oil and gas sectors? Section 3: Developing and implementing a human rights due diligence process; Section 4: Resources to support oil and gas companies.”

ABSTRACT: “This Guide describes how human rights can be integrated into environmental, social and health impact assessments (ESHIAs), which the oil and gas industry routinely uses to evaluate projects and activities. It provides an introduction to human rights and their relevance to the activities of the oil and gas industry, and briefly describes why it is important for the oil and gas industry to consider the impact that its projects and activities have on human rights. It is the product of collaboration between impact assessment practitioners from IPIECA members and human rights practitioners from the Danish Institute for Human Rights (DIHR). Together, the organizations have attempted to bridge the gaps in terminology, processes and approaches between the ESHIA and human rights impact assessment communities.”

ABSTRACT: “This guide focuses on what due diligence, risk assessment and community engagement mean in a human rights context, examines why human rights matter in Communities and Social Performance (CSP) work, and illustrates how our processes and systems align with international standards and expectations, using real-life examples we have encountered in our business. The guide is written primarily for our CSP practitioners who interact daily with our host communities and want to ‘do the right thing’ in the face of the dilemmas they encounter. But we hope that it will be of use to all Rio Tinto employees, and of interest to our stakeholders who want to understand how we meet our ‘responsibility to respect human rights’.”

ABSTRACT: “In light of the ongoing debate on human rights in the extractive industries, the present study contributes to the related discussion on human rights in the mining sector. …it attempts to close a gap in the related discussion by providing an impartial analysis that adequately considers the technical and legal correlations. In order to avoid an excessively broad analysis, the present study focuses on the minerals, metals, and coal sector… The scope of the study must further be limited to the most important general human rights risk areas… While analyzing mining in all of its forms, ranging from industrial and large-scale to artisanal and small-scale, the study aims to identify general areas where the risk of adverse human rights impacts is most significant (“human rights Risk Areas”). Therefore, the “cases” described in each of these risk areas do not contain any statement of facts but are rather to be seen as past and present examples, which suggest the existence of a specific human rights risk area. In three separate chapters (3-5), the study looks at such human rights Risk Areas in Industrial and Large-Scale mining (LSM), Artisanal and Small-Scale Mining (ASM), and other exceptional situations. In each chapter, the respective mining sector is described in detail first, after which the risk areas are outlined and legally analyzed. Where appropriate, the analysis follows the different phases of the mine life cycle to make the paper as instructive as possible to readers with different backgrounds. The present paper is conceptualized as a desktop study…

ABSTRACT: “This guidance addresses the question of how companies can ensure respect for human rights in their operations without exacerbating or generating conflicts. Since International Alert published its ‘Conflict-sensitive business practice‘ in 2005, the field of business and human rights has emerged as a highly influential area of theory and practice. However, while there has been substantial uptake of the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, particularly around company efforts to undertake more rigorous human rights due diligence, there is little available guidance on what this means for companies operating in conflict-affected settings… The guidance will do the following: Help companies from the extractive sector understand any conflicts in their operating context and identify the implications these have for HRDD.; Provide tools, case studies and recommendations to help companies and other practitioners conducting HRDD in conflict-affected settings.; Contribute to ongoing debates on business, human rights and conflict sensitivity.”

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