We recognize that our operations can impact people and communities in ways that relate to human rights
BP supports the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which has been the foundation of international human rights law since it was adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations in 1948. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights consists of 30 different rights and freedoms, covering civil, political, economic and cultural issues. The responsibilities of international businesses in relation to these rights are the subject of much discussion and development within society, the UN, our industry and beyond.
What human rights means for BP
We have taken steps to incorporate respect for human rights into our management practices and governance. We also support external efforts to clarify the responsibilities of corporations to respect human rights.
BP categorizes the issues into three broad headings: employees, communities and security.
Our code of conduct describes our commitment to fair employment and equal employment opportunity and to conducting open and transparent dialogue with communities. Our operating management system includes practices for our major projects on rights-related topics, such as security arrangements for our sites and engagement with indigenous peoples. Where relevant, and based on our assessment of local risks, we include the management of human rights issues in the processes that govern our business activity.
Our support for clear guidelines for companies
BP supports multi-stakeholder efforts to establish clear, universally applicable guidelines on the responsibilities of companies in relation to human rights issues. We are signatories to a number of voluntary agreements with implications for specific aspects of human rights, including the UN Global Compact, which contains guidance on what it means to be complicit in human rights abuses, and the Voluntary Principles on Security and Human Rights, which define good practice for security operations in extractive industry companies. We have contributed to the work of IPIECA’s human rights task force, which works on human rights issues and good practice in the context of the oil and gas industry.
UN Protect, Respect and Remedy Framework
We have participated in discussions about the development of a new human rights framework led by Professor John Ruggie,the UN Secretary General’s special representative for business and human rights. The framework, which the UN Human Rights Council unanimously welcomed and the international community accepted, outlines specific responsibilities for businesses in relation to human rights. It is accompanied by guiding principles on due diligence, including the formal integration of human rights into businesses’ governance systems.
Professor Ruggie issued the “Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights” in March 2011, and they will be considered by the UN Human Rights Council in June.
The framework and the guiding principles on due diligence are likely to be influential, thus increasing scrutiny on and expectations of business. Companies will be encouraged to be more transparent and to report on human rights impacts and mitigation actions of projects and operations. National legislation based on this framework may be enacted in the future, both in OECD and in non-OECD countries.
Businesses have an opportunity to implement the framework in good faith, avoiding future challenge and disagreement. BP sees this as a unique chance to lay to rest a long-standing international debate about whether mandatory norms are required. We are hopeful that it may also help to clarify some of the more challenging human rights issues businesses face, such as how to ensure that human rights are respected in the supply chain and in joint ventures where the company does not have a controlling interest or operatorship, and what to do if national laws conflict with international perceptions of acceptable behaviour, such as the rights in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
During 2011 BP is carrying out some detailed analysis of its current practices regarding human rights and considering whether it needs to make any changes to them in light of the framework.
This work, managed by external consultants, looks at:
- BP’s understanding of our corporate responsibility to respect human rights
- A comparison of our current company-wide processes with Professor Ruggie’s guiding principles on due diligence. These include human rights policies, assessment of human rights risk and impacts, integration of human rights into processes, systems and contractual agreements, monitoring and reporting of human rights impacts, and rights-based grievance mechanisms
- Detailed analysis into how human rights due diligence processes are being applied in a sample of our business operations
- Suggestions for changes we could make to help enable us to fulfil the guiding principles
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