Why human rights matter - Rio Tinto

Why human
rights matter
Introduction
January 2013
The world is paying more attention to our human
rights performance. Investors, governments, nongovernment
organisations, the media and industry
associations are scrutinising the policies and
processes we have in place to respect human rights,
and are watching closely how we deal with adverse
impacts if things go wrong. We are also moving into
more challenging regions where there is a greater
risk of human rights exposures through business
relationships. We want to ensure that all field
workers respect, can recognise and if necessary
help remedy any human rights impacts.
We know that our decisions and actions, whether
inadvertent or deliberate, can result in adverse
human impacts. We also recognise that respecting
human rights is a continual process which we will
always strive to improve. We are determined to
be proactive. While it is tempting to believe that
simple human decency can be our compass, the
complexity of our interaction with local communities,
and the human rights issues which arise as a result,
requires a systematic approach and expert guidance.
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’.
Bruce Harvey
Global practice leader, Communities and Social Performance
Vicky Bowman
Global practice leader, External Affairs
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