A decade after the adoption of the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs), a new report from the Responsible Mining Foundation (RMF) has found that the mining sector has performed very poorly on human rights issues.
Miners at work, Potosi, Bolivia. Credit: Christophe Meneboeuf
Miners at work in Potosi, Bolivia. Credit: Christophe Meneboeuf
The RMF's Responsible Mining Index (RMI) 2020 found that the large mining companies that it assessed scored an average of 19% in terms of human rights.
The concept and legal definition of human rights covers a wide range of issues, and mining activities by their nature can impinge on many of them. Despite the low average score, the RMI found some encouraging results, with some individual companies scoring highly - at 75% or more - on management strategies and action plans, which pertains to how they assess and address risks related to issues such as water rights, Indigenous Peoples’ rights, land rights, resettlement, workers’ rights, security forces, or child labour.
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However, the RMF described a "concerning lack of consistency" across all 59 human rights-related metrics that it uses are averaged out.
One of the mining sector's worst-performing areas was that of 'access to remedy' - one of the UNGP's central three pillars - which recognises “the need for rights and obligations to be matched to appropriate and effective remedies when breached."
The report described the results on grievance mechanisms to be "not encouraging".
In total, 180 mine sites across 49 producing countries were assessed against the most basic indicators. It was found that only about one-third of the mine sites had disclosed any information about operational-level grievance mechanisms for communities and for workers.
Commenting on the results, Phil Bloomer, Executive Director of the Business and Human Rights Resource Centre, said: "This report highlights better performance of a small cluster of leading companies, and exposes the negligence of the large majority. This not only leaves workers and communities more vulnerable to abuse but also heightens the risks to the companies and investors, especially when governments’ appetite for regulation to prevent abuse is growing."
The RMF pointed to the way in which investors can influence the behaviour of mining companies and help to bring them in line with the UNGPs. With Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) scores becoming an increasingly relevant metric used to weigh up investment opportunities, RMF argues that it is in mining companies' interests to demonstrate a strong record on human rights as it represents a more robust business environment and lower risk.
According to the Investor Alliance on Human Rights, “investors are increasingly aware of and concerned about the significant operational, financial, legal, and reputational risks portfolio companies might face when they fail to manage human rights risks.”
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The report urged regulators, investors and banks to engage with companies by incentivising loan conditions that are based on ESG performance targets, arguing that it would "foster higher standards and performance on human rights across the mining sector."
In a press release, the RMF said: "with the growing interest for the more responsible and ethical supply of raw materials also coming from downstream consumers, there is good momentum to realise respect for human rights along the entire value chain.
"It is more than time for mining companies to fully embrace both the precepts of ‘respect’ and ‘remedy’ on all aspects of Human Rights."
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