2019 Human Rights Report

We’ve just launched our 2019 Human Rights Report, outlining our commitment, our approach and the activities we have undertaken to further embed human rights across our business. As one of the world’s largest natural resource companies, we recognise our potential impact on human rights through both our operations and our relationships with joint ventures, contractors and suppliers. 

 

Committed to upholding human rights

 

We strive to uphold the dignity, fundamental freedoms and human rights of our people, communities and others potentially affected by our activities. We are committed to building and maintaining constructive, long-standing relationships with our stakeholders, including our host communities. Being open, transparent and operating in accordance with our values is an essential part of fulfilling our purpose to responsibly source the commodities that advance everyday life. Throughout the Group, regardless of role or location, all of our people are expected to adhere to these commitments, which are reinforced in our Code of Conduct and Group Human Rights Policy.

 

Taking a risk-based approach

 

With our diverse operations in 35 countries, the nature and scale of the challenges we face require ongoing assessment and collaborative efforts across our business. Our latest report provides an overview of our most salient human rights risks and how we manage them, including:

 

 

These risks have been determined in line with the UN Guiding Principles Reporting Framework and are regularly evaluated through engagement with internal and external stakeholders. For each risk, we detailed associated challenges and how we responded to those challenges. 

 

Our progress in 2019

 

In 2019, we focused on four programmes of work to improve our human rights processes. Progress highlights for each programme include:

 

1. Supply chain due diligence: We published our Supplier Standards in March 2019 and worked with commodity department teams across the business to embed them into our contracts and update processes to reflect enhanced due diligence expectations.

2. Training: We delivered two, three-day, training sessions for almost 70 general, security, community, and corporate affairs managers from Africa and South America on security and human rights. 

3. Grievance mechanisms review: We have started to update our guidance on complaints and grievances to reflect new guidance from the International Council on Mining and Metals’ Handling and Resolving Local-Level Concerns and Grievances.

4. Incident reporting and investigation: We rolled out a new process for reporting social and human rights incidents, allowing us to effectively monitor and investigate any incidents across the Group.

 

Our ambition for 2020

 

We take our responsibility to respect human rights seriously and we continue to manage a programme of work to uphold and promote respect for human rights within the Group and throughout our value chain. One focus area in 2020 is the development of a dedicated Human Rights Risk Framework to assess the level of human rights risk, and define actions to understand and manage risk exposure, at each of our assets. In order to develop further, we will continue to engage transparently and constructively with a range of stakeholders to understand how we can continue to improve our approach to human rights.