Human rights
A number of the countries in which we operate - Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Papua New Guinea, Peru, the Philippines and South Africa - are considered moderate or high risk for breaches of human rights.
The most important human rights challenges facing us include:
- Labour: The rights of our employees and contractors to fair remuneration, equal pay for equal work, freedom of association, safe and healthy workplaces, non-discrimination and protection of their legal rights
- Security: The conduct of security organisations protecting our operations at certain specific locations where there is a threat to our people or assets, and the conduct of public security forces who operate within our operations’ areas of influence while executing their duties
- Communities: The impact our operations may have on communities, including land use and mineral asset disputes, micro-inflation, displacement of communities, influx of migrant workers, impacts to culturally sensitive resources, access to resources and economic benefits
Human rights risk assessments
All our sites are required to carry out human rights risk assessments. Operations in high-risk locations must:
- establish performance standards for all contractors (including third-party security personnel)
- conduct training to promote compliance
- monitor performance against the standards
- review risks annually
Voluntary Principles on Security and Human Rights
We are committed to implementing the Voluntary Principles on Security and Human Rights (VPs) across all our operations. The VPs highlight the role companies can play in promoting respect for human rights and assisting governments with security sector reforms and strengthening the rule of law.
Human rights training
The Philippines is a high-risk country for security. Our local operating company (SMI) has worked with the local community, public and private security forces to improve security in the region by:
- implementing training for employees and private security personnel
- raising awareness of the VPs among government agencies, non-governmental organisations and other mining companies
The Philippines authorities have also established volunteer reserves in the region to further enhance security. These reserves are closely controlled by the Philippines army, and SMI are not involved in recruiting, managing or training them.
Child and forced labour
Child labour is a problem in a number of the regions in which we operate, in particular Brazil, Tanzania and the Dominican Republic. Our Statement of Business Principles upholds the elimination of all forms of forced or compulsory labour and prohibits any form of child labour.
None of our managed operations have been found to have significant risks for incidents of forced, tied or compulsory labour. No cases of under-age or forced labour among our employees or contractors have come to our attention during 2010.
