Recipe for Dialogue

bharris — Fri, 25 May 2007 20:08:12 -0500

Recipe for Dialogue

by Jo Render

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In this notebook, Jo Render describes a corporate training initiative that helps the private sector to build more effective, constructive relationships with Indigenous peoples. The process was developed through a collaboration between the NGO Business for Social Responsibility and First Peoples Worldwide, an Indigenous advocacy organization. The trainings, which are focused on extractive companies (mining, oil, gas and logging) are founded on respect for Indigenous peoples’ rights, aspirations and effective participation in the development process.

In December 2001, the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights convened a workshop on "Indigenous Peoples, Private Sector Natural Resource, Energy and Mining Companies and Human Rights." The physical format of this workshop was indicative of the general atmosphere surrounding the issue: Indigenous representatives were lined up on one side of the room, companies were lined up along the other, and nongovernmental organizations sat in the middle. Governments chose not to attend. Toward the end of two days of very tense discussions, a representative from Rio Tinto (a U.K.- based mining company) asked a question of the Indigenous and NGO participants: rather than spend more time repeating everything that companies do wrong, can we (the communities and NGOs) provide more explicit direction to companies on how to do things right?

This challenge was accepted by First Peoples Worldwide and Business for Social Responsibility, two U.S.-based NGOs working internationally on corporate responsibility. Together we developed a training initiative designed as one step in increasing the capacity of companies to build more effective, constructive relationships with Indigenous peoples. The training, which is focused on extractive companies (mining, oil, gas and logging), is founded on a respect for Indigenous peoples’ rights, aspirations and effective participation in the decisions that affect them. Both Indigenous people and company personnel have been involved in the design and implementation of the curriculum. At the core of the training is the concept of free, prior and informed consent (see box, right).

While many governments refuse to acknowledge that Indigenous peoples have this right (the right to approve, or reject, a project in their territory), it has been recognized in international law, and national governments are slowly coming around. Laws are rarely specific enough, however, to tell a company what kinds of actions and decision-making processes will meet this expectation. They also neglect to provide an overview of everything at the community-operational level that can affect how communities and companies achieve consent. Our training currently takes the form of a two-and-ahalf-day workshop that provides broad, general guidance on the importance of developing good engagement practices with Indigenous peoples in order to achieve free, prior and informed consent. While we do not guarantee that effective engagement will result in consent, we emphasize that without it, consent cannot be achieved. Ideally, company participation in the training will include multiple voices representing the different company roles that affect, and are affected by, community relations, such as environmental management, land negotiations, government relations, executive offices, communications and investor relations.

The workshop content was tested in February 2003 and presented fully to a group of nine companies in March; a shorter version was tried in November. We were working to create interest in more in-depth training on community engagement techniques at the company site level, and, while we have received expressions of interest in this second step, specific programs have not yet been undertaken. Participants from the March workshop provided very positive feedback, but we do not yet know the level of our impact on the companies at the institutional level. As such, this paper is a description of a "tactic in progress."

*Note: You need Adobe Acrobat Reader to open the files marked with an asterisk (*). You can download a free version of this program from www.adobe.com.

Leveraging the Money

bharris — Fri, 25 May 2007 20:08:06 -0500

Leveraging the Money

by Ulrich Mueller

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In this notebook Ulrich Mueller describes a strategy of the FoodFirst Information and Action Network to influence large mining operations that were causing various human rights abuses, by putting pressure on banks and other financial institutions that invest in those mines. The notebook provides a thorough analysis of the kinds of research and pressure tactics that can provide an important new source of leverage for communities that are trying to counter the damage that can be caused by huge corporate projects on or near their land. This tactic can be extended to cover a broad range of issues in which there is a need to pressure corporations, as it takes into account their crucial dependence on the globalized financial community to invest in their operations, and the growing sensitivity of that financial community to sociopolitical pressure.

This notebook explains how the FoodFirst Information and Action Network influenced financial institutions to promote better protections for human rights or to prevent projects that would lead to human rights violations. FIAN Germany used this tactic mainly in a campaign against violations of the right-to-food caused by large surface gold mines. The campaign cooperates closely with affected communities and local organizations. Together with these partners, FIAN investigates the human rights problems of specific mines. We then use a number of instruments to bring the findings to the attention of investors and the public: fact-finding mission reports, calls for urgent action among members, involving human rights bodies at the national and international level, media work, speaker tours, conferences and lobbying. This combination provides new leverage to influence financial institutions and mining companies. And this in turn helps affected communities to claim their rights under difficult circumstances.

We started to support mining-affected communities in 1995. The first contacts we had were with communities in Peru and Turkey. In some of these cases, German investors were involved in financing the mines. This gave us an opportunity to link human rights violations in other countries to actors in Germany. And it also proved to be an effective tool to put pressure on the mining companies. From that starting point, FIAN began using investor pressure as a primary tactic in its gold mining campaign. The tactic of directing campaigns toward financial institutions is not limited to mining.

As financial institutions are, more and more, a powerful economic force worldwide, this tactic could be used in a variety of ways in other cases of corporate abuse: Industry-wide campaigns are pressing financial institutions like banks or pension funds to withdraw support from specific industrial sectors or to pressure companies in that sector to adopt new standards or practices. Campaigns might also focus on an individual company or a specifically harmful project (like large infrastructure projects, dams, mines, etc.). In these cases, investors might be urged to withdraw their support from a specific project or to pressure the company to change their behavior. Additionally, campaigns might focus on financial market practices themselves and demand new investment rules and practices like ethical investment.

This notebook focuses on project-level campaigning, using the example of a gold-mining project in Ghana. It will start with background information on the human rights impacts of surface gold mining. The elements of the tactic will be explained and illustrated through the example. The second part will discuss what questions are important when using the tactic and how the tactic could be transferred.

*Note: You need Adobe Acrobat Reader to open the files marked with an asterisk (*). You can download a free version of this program from www.adobe.com.

Tactical Notebooks, Mining

Recipe for Dialogue